Ilíiaitchik: Indigenous Correspondents Program

Open Dates: 
Thursday, March 09, 2023

This new storytelling program is entirely led by Indigenous mentors, and offers one-on-one feedback from Indigenous writers, journalists, and media producers to our student correspondents. As co-founders, we wanted to build a space where Indigenous students feel comfortable and confident telling stories about their communities and the issues that are important to them.

These stories will help to bring broader awareness about our communities and concerns, center our traditional knowledge, amplify our modern existence, show our cultural resilience, and focus on solutions that uphold our values and responsibilities.

The 2022-2023 Planet Forward Indigenous Correspondents represent 10 tribes and seven universities from across the U.S., including both undergraduate and graduate students. The 10-month program culminates in all Indigenous Correspondents receiving a travel grant to attend 2023’s Planet Forward Summit in Washington, D.C., where they will engage in workshops led by global environmental leaders and meet with their cohort. Correspondents also will have their work published right here on PlanetForward.org, and presented to sustainability experts, professionals, and thought leaders through Planet Forward and University of Arizona events and partners.

How do you move the Planet Forward? Tweet us @planet_forward or contribute to the conversation with your own story.

Hub Content

Crow cowboys: A story of responsibility, respect and resilience
A man holds a picture of his family up to the camera while standing in a horse enclosure with horses framing him on each side.

Stephen Yellowtail is a generational Crow cowboy who has held onto the Yellowtail ranching legacy on the Crow Reservation. (JoRee LaFrance)

JoRee LaFrance
Indigenous Correspondents Program | University of Arizona
This photoessay captures the working lives of the Yellowtail family as they embody the ranching and cowboy livelihood, while weaving together values passed down by the generations.
Indigenous energy and equations
Bond points to a graphic on a computer screen at this work desk.

Bax Bond at his workstation. (Shondiin Mayo)

Shondiin Mayo
Indigenous Correspondents Program | University of Alaska Fairbanks
As climate change impacts the price of energy in Alaska, Indigenous researcher Bax Bond abides by his heritage while using modern-day equations to help the rural communities that he once grew up in.
Essay | Traditional ecological knowledge and modern tools
A white and grey fox is perched on a pile of snow with snow-covered trees in the background.

The Cascade red fox. (Courtesy of J. Kuehlman)

Alisa Smith Woodruff
Indigenous Correspondents Program | Evergreen State College
In this story, I reflect on relearning who I am, what I value, and how incorporating traditional ecological knowledge into my studies has helped a fox population begin its rebound. 
How Indigenous knowledge guides climate justice
The women stand near a pueblo bread oven on a sunny day. Mountains are seen far in the distance.

Three Indigenous women load corn into a traditional pueblo bread oven during a corn roasting demonstration. (Darrien Benally)

Darrien Benally
Indigenous Correspondents Program | Northern Arizona University
Two Indigenous environmental professionals share how their work supports climate justice and is informed by their heritage.
Indigenous plant sovereignty and Cherokee culture
A wide expanse of mountains behind a line of trees and a grassy meadow.

Cherokee, North Carolina is part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and is home to the Great Smoky Mountains. This place is also known as the ancestral homelands of the ᎠᏂᎩᏚᏩᎩ, or Cherokee people. (Raylen Bark)

Raylen Bark
Indigenous Correspondents Program | Dartmouth College
This photo essay explores the ways that knowledge of Indigenous plant gathering, harvesting, maintenance, and sovereignty have been passed down by the generations and practiced by my family. 
Weaving Diné teachings and science
A black and white image of a coyote caught on a trail camera at night.

In Navajo stories, the coyote is a trickster and a teacher that disobeys normal rules and conventional behaviors. (Nadira Mitchell)

Nadira Mitchell
Indigenous Correspondents Program | University of Arizona
In this podcast, Nadira Mitchell, a Diné student studying natural resources and wildlife conservation, weaves an oral story about snails in the Sonoran desert, Diné culture, traditional ecological knowledge, and science.
Ilíiaitchik Correspondents learn the art of the interview
A camera on a tripod captures an interview happening in the distance on a sunny day between two people.

(Esteban Benites/Unsplash License)

Alexander Cotnoir
George Washington University
How do you conduct a respectful and compelling interview? Valerie Vande Panne and Frank Sesno discuss with members of the Ilíiaitchik Correspondents Program.