Monday,  July 15, 2013 • Vol. 15--No. 002 • 21 of 32

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• Others think the digital-only strategy makes sense for tribal nations working to improve access to the Internet.
• The Seneca Nation in New York, for example, has two reservations with basic dial-up Internet, but the tribal government is working to upgrade to broadband, said Samantha Nephew, a 23-year-old marketing specialist for a Seneca Nation-owned corporation. She said she's a regular reader of the magazine.
• "I think when that happens, the Seneca Nation members will have more incentive to check out (Indian Country Today) digitally," she said.
• Rhonda LeValdo, the president of the Native American Journalist Association, said Indian Country Today's switch to digital-only could be seen as a positive step for Native communities because it may free up resources for more reporting and accelerate the push for greater access to broadband. And, she added, traditional tribal newspapers may see people who prefer print turning to them for their news.
• Tim Giago, the magazine's founder and former owner, is counting on it. Giago, a Native American journalist who lives in South Dakota, founded the Lakota Times in 1981 and later changed its name to Indian Country Today. He sold it to the Oneida Nation before starting another Native American newspaper, the Native Sun News, which doesn't publish stories on its website.
• Giago said that for people to understand how Native Americans consume news, they only need to look at the Navajo Times, the newspaper that covers the Navajo Nation.
• "It (The Navajo Times) is now the largest Indian newspaper in America and it also continues to grow because most of its readers prefer to hold a real newspaper in their hands and many on the Navajo Nation do not have access to the Internet," he said.

Sioux Falls residents tell story by painting mural

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Residents in one of the oldest neighborhoods in South Dakota's largest city are spending the weekend telling their story with paintbrushes.
• Volunteers on Saturday began painting a mural on a wall in Meldrum Park, located in the Whittier Middle School neighborhood of northeastern Sioux Falls. Most of the work was expected to be completed on Sunday.
• Lead artist Dave Lowenstein said more than two-dozen people worked on the concept for mural, including young people, artists and non-artists from around the world.

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