Setting The Record Straight
For many American Indians, the media coverage of the Red Lake tragedy is only the most recent example of how modern reservation life and tribal culture are mischaracterized.
By Garry Boulard
Dr. Jon Quistgaard is unhappy with the way the national media has
portrayed the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota, the nearby city of Bemidji and American Indian life in general.
“This is actually a very vibrant area and we have many things going for us in terms of educational offerings and being a community that interacts positively with Native Americans and vice versa,” says Quistgaard, president of Bemidji State University, “and for that reason I did not want people to go away with an impression that really wasn’t accurate.”
That such coverage is even a matter of discussion is the result of a tragedy: On March 21, Jeffrey Weise, a 16-year-old student at the reservation’s Red Lake High School, went on a shooting rampage inside the school, killing nine people before turning his gun on himself.
The national media descended on both Red Lake and Bemidji in the days and weeks after the slayings. In many cases, reporters who were unfamiliar with the area and its people described the reservation and its outlying areas in terms that many residents considered either offensive or exaggerated.
