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Tribal Water Media Fellowship participant and Fort Lewis College student, Ajia Avina (Chicana) from Tulsa, Okla., speaks during one of the classroom sessions at KSUT Public Radio on Friday, May 16.
KSUT Public Radio Digital Content Editor, Crystal Ashike gives a presentation on tribal media and the role it plays in Native communities, Friday, May 16.
Fielding questions on the topic of journalism, Audrey Leonetti (Yup'ik) from Anchorage, Alaska and Ella Jane Hall from Golden, Colo., are part of this year’s cohort hosted by KSUT.
Photo Credit: Jeremy Wade Shockley | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Jeremy Wade Shockley | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Jeremy Wade Shockley | The Southern Ute Drum
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Tribal Water Media Fellowship returns to Four Corners

Friday - May 30, 2025 by Colton Ashley

The Tribal Water Media Fellowship was introduced in 2023 as a partnership between Fort Lewis College’s Four Corners Water Center, KSUT Public Radio, and Rocky Mountain Public Media to diversify the stories, voices, and ways that media communicate to the public about water issues. Namely, special emphasis is placed on water topics as they relate to Indigenous communities around the world, but especially in North America. One of the aims of the program was designed to specifically train students to amplify and communicate with historically marginalized communities and would help students from diverse academic backgrounds learn to utilize media in telling nuanced stories in collaboration with Indigenous communities rather than exploiting those communities for profit and gain. 

The fellowship is amid its third cohort of 12 fellows for the spring 2025 season.  The fellows are from Fort Lewis College and are largely comprised of non-media/journalism students belonging to Indigenous communities from across the United States. Over 75% of the cohort identifies as Indigenous or is a member of a federally recognized tribe, and fellows come from the Four Corners region, Oklahoma and as far as Fairbanks Alaska, near the Artic Circle.  

The fellowship is broken into two parts; the first part is a two-week long educational and training intensive at Fort Lewis College. During this intensive, the fellows get hands on learning experiences for water topics and media production training, where the cohort got to raft on the Colorado River with water expert MacArthur Stant, attorney for the Navajo Nation, and media expert Kino Benally. The intensive wrapped up on Wednesday, May 21 and now the second part of the fellowship has begun, when fellows go to create their own independent media project. These projects are headed by the fellows, but greatly supported by the fellowship leads and organizations like KSUT, RMPM, and the Four Corners Water Center.  

A public showcasing of the fellows’ projects will be free and open to the public on Nov. 14 at the Student Union Ballroom at Fort Lewis College. Non-alcoholic beverages, light refreshments, and opportunities to meet fellows, experts, and local leaders are all available that day as well. 

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