Windspeaker big winner at press meeting

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The third annual convention of the Native American Press Association (NAPA) held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, saw "Windspeaker" walk away with eight first place excellence in journalism categories out of 13 offered in the competitions, April 8-11.

Windspeaker's brightest moment shone when it captured first place for Overall Excellence, as a weekly newspaper. This prestigious award was won by the newspaper twice, doing it once before in 1985, and now for 1987.

In 1986, Windspeaker failed to meet the deadline for entries to the NAPA competitions.

The NAPA awards, held annually in different locations in the United States each year, began in 1985. This year, the New Mexico Press Association orchestrated the judging of the newspaper competition.

Under the direction of Rob Piggott, the manager of the New Mexico Press Association, the judging was broken down into various categories and distributed to various members of the association. Some of those included the Journalism Department at the University of New Mexico, the Taos New, the New Mexico Press Women's Association, the Albuquerque Tribune and the Albuquerque Publishing Company.

The photography judging was done at the University of New Mexico and the professor, a former reporter at the Albuquerque Journal, enjoyed the photos that were entered so much that he used some of them in his classroom.

Throughout the four day affair workshops were held that ranged from column and editorial writing, newspapers and the law to combating illiteracy through print media and photo-journalism.

Windspeaker was represented by Executive Director Bert Crowfoot, Production Manager Kim McLain and the president of AMMSA, Fred Didzena.

Both Crowfoot and McLain held workshops on photojournalism and layout and design, respectively.

Windspeaker's eight accomplishments included, Best Typography and Design, Best Advertising Idea, Best Editorial (with Clint Buehler winning the award for his editorial on "Time to be Proud"), Best Feature Picture (Rocky Woodward), Best News Series (People on the Edge), Best Feature Story (Kim McLain), Best Special Issue and Overall Excellence.

Honorable mention was also given to second place finisher, Terry Lusty for Best Spot News Picture, Bert Crowfoot for second place finish for Best Sports Picture, Kim McLain for second in Best Feature Picture, Rocky Woodward for second place for Best Sports Reporting and Jane Ash Poitras for third place finish in Best Sport New Picture.

"We are very proud of all of you. You have done a super job. It makes me feel proud to be a part of this organization," said Fred Didzena

Didzena while showing his appreciation of staff and management on behalf of the AMMSA board of directors said that he has always been a firm believer in trying to do as much as one is capable of and "you people are the same."

"Again I can only say that I am proud of you all because of the excellence you try to achieve in your work. We won't stop here," commented Didzena.

Didzena also thanked everyone with a bit of humor for, "giving me the opportunity to run back and forth accepting all the awards."

Windspeaker's General Manager Bert Crowfoot stated: "I'd like to mention that Windspeaker has made quite an impression with the other newspapers in Albuquerque. We will have to push ourselves to improve upon that standard that we achieved last year. WE made a lot of friends down there and I promised them that we would be more than willing to work with them if they wish to.

"Another important factor that Windspeaker enjoys is that our newspaper is not politically controlled like most tribal newspapers in the states. The content has to be approved by the council before it goes to press.

"An example of this control is the fact that the largest weekly newspaper in Arizona, "the Navaho Times," was shut down when Chairman Peter MacDonald was re-elected.

Because of the type of board structure that Windspeaker has, it doesn't have to worry abou politics and can concentrate on the business of putting out the paper."

"We should be proud of our product. The salespeople here are doing a tremendous job. I must mention that our writers were up against excellent writers one of them being George Gorospe," said Kim McLain while adding that writing skills have now begun for staff and freelancers of Windspeaker, with planned workshops with Carlton University Professor of Journalism Bob Rupert.

"We have a lot of talented people here and it overwhelmed me to see us win in eight categories," McLain added.

It was also a proud moment for the Native Press from the Northwest Territories who took first place as a monthly in the Best Typography and Design, Best Special Issue and Overall Excellence competitions.

In a telephone conversation with Native Press, Lee Seleck in Yelowknife mentioned they were unable to sent a representative to the conference due to a lack of funds. "You should of picked them up for us Bert," said Seleck while showing his enjoyment for the Native Press' achievements at the NAPA awards.

The Native Press also won two honourable mentions for "Best Local Column" by Antoine Mountain and by George Blondin. Anne Sankey also had an honourable mention in the "Best Feature Story" category.