How JEDI Communicator of the Year Levi Rickert advocates for Native Americans

By Shandra Martinez, WMPRSA

Levi Rickert grew up in Grand Rapids as part of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. In 2011, the businessman-turned-journalist created Native News Online, a publication that covers Native American issues across the United States and Canada. With a background in public administration, he previously ran several businesses and founded the North American Indian Center in Grand Rapids.

In addition to his journalism work, Levi is an in-demand speaker who educates people about Native American issues. In 2022, the West Michigan Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America awarded Levi the 2022 Social Justice, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (JEDI) of the Year award for instilling justice, equity, diversity and inclusion into his work.

He was a recent guest of WMPRSA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee to help us better understand the role communication plays in his advocacy role. Here are the highlights of that conversation.

How did you become an advocate/voice for Native Americans? 

I had been invited to a Lansing State Journal editorial board meeting, and some of my fellow Native Americans blasted the editorial board for saying the newspaper only covers the negative parts of being Native American like the high rates of alcoholism and poverty. I drove back from Lansing thinking, why don’t we have our own media? I did some research on the internet and discovered the Native American Journalists Association. I'll be honest, I didn't even know it existed. Something came up about a year-long study that was done of like the 14 leading newspapers and publications in America, which basically said Native Americans only get covered when they want to talk about high rates of alcoholism, high rates of poverty, and some of the things that my colleagues had just blasted the Lansing State Journal for. 

What is Native News Online and why did you start it?

I started Native News Online. The first week we had 16 people come to our website. My joke is that it's not even my family or friends, because I have a very large Native American family and a big circle of friends. We kicked it off Feb. 15, 2011. Last year, we had over 5 million page views.  Just before COVID, in January 2020, I joined forces with Brian Edwards, the publisher of MiBiz. We had good numbers of readers but I couldn't get advertising support. The best year I ever had was $40,000. We started Tribal Business News and Joe Boomgaard is the managing editor. I have to say it has been one of the best business decisions I've made. We have grown sales in different revenue streams.

What are the goals of Native News Online in the area of communication and what’s the message the organization is trying to get out?

In one week, we have reporters covering the United Nations, White House and the Supreme Court on stories about Native Americans or Indigenous people. We see ourselves as the U.S.A. Today of Indian Country. For Native News Online, I write editorials. We just produced a book that I authored with many of my editorial columns. They have been pretty well received. People in the White House and Congress read them. We know that because we get a lot of emails. Vice President Kamala Harris’ office reached out to me for an exclusive announcement before she spoke at the National Indian Health Board for a virtual conference. We've come a long way in 11 years.

What are some of the challenges Native News Online and its Native American readers encounter in trying to get their message out?

Given my background, I’m viewed as the American Indian leader that organizations call for speaking engagements. I’ve identified one or two people who can step up locally as I travel to cover events at the national level. I'm still on the Grand Valley State University's Native American Advisory Council to help with improving recruitment and retention of Native American students at the university. Our mission is to improve the lives of American Indians and Alaska Natives. One of the challenges for the media and public relations is that American Indian data is limited. There’s been a term coined to describe that called data genocide. The National Congress of American Indians, which we work with very closely, is trying to work with university researchers to do a better job of gathering data accurately. Part of the problem, quite frankly, is misidentification. If you walk into a health facility, you might be half Native American and half white, they will count you as a white person.  We had a story last year about a misidentified Native American woman who went missing. They kept telling her family that they had found the body of a white woman. When the DNA testing finally came through, it confirmed it was her.  Because of identification through skin color, oftentimes and even down to the American Southwest, you have a lot of Native Americans, especially when they're Apache and surnames that are Spanish, they are labeled as Hispanics, when in effect they are Native Americans. For the National Congress of American Indians, this is really a significant problem.

How can WMPRSA, made up of communications professionals across West Michigan, support the Native American community?

We hear from our readers who tell us we are the best resource for Native Americans. In terms of some of the terminology about Native Americans used by the media and public relations, a good resource is the style guide by the Native American Journalism Association. It really goes over how we want to be referred to. One example of terms we don’t like is the use of “gone off the res.” I've talked to tribal officials who engage public relation firms and they say “it takes us two or three months just to train them how to even write about us.”  

Our Tribal Business News, a business publication focused solely on covering the $130 billion tribal economy, is hosting the first-ever economic summit for tribes and tribal citizens in the Great Lakes region.

The Great Lakes Tribal Economic Summit will be held on Thursday, Oct. 6, at Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business in downtown Grand Rapids. The summit aims to bring together tribal leaders, Native business executives and Indigenous entrepreneurs from Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, as well as representatives from state and federal agencies that work with tribes on economic development projects and initiatives. 

We have entrepreneurs who are Native American but may not know how to access or really work with the Small Business Administration. I’m committed to opening doors for Native Americans for opportunities they may not have thought of.

To learn more about Levi Rickert work at Native News Online, visit nativenewsonline.net.