Navajo Times staff wins 17 awards at NAJA convention

W e are happy to report once again that the Navajo Times staff won several awards at the annual Native American Journalists Association convention held last week in St. Paul, Minn.

Staffers from "the newspaper of the Navajo people" won a total of 17 awards - seven first places, five second places, three third places and first places in two specialty categories.

To begin with, the Navajo Times won first place in general excellence in the daily/weekly category, which reflects overall excellence.

Reporter Marley Shebala won the Richard LaCourse award for investigative reporting for her series on the discretionary fund controversy. This is the second year in a row Shebala has won this award.

In other individual awards, photographer Leigh T. Jimmie won first place for "Nature's bounty," showing a rich yield of crops.

Freelance photographer Donovan Quintero won first place for best sports photo for "Sky pilot," showing the back end of a bronc rider as he is thrown by a horse in a rodeo.

Sportswriter Sunnie Redhouse won first place for best sports story for "Alone on the course."

Former reporter Chee Brossy won first place for best feature story for "Looking for my family," about the effort by Henry Yabah to find his Navajo family (in subsequent stories by Jan-Mikael Patterson, we documented how he found them and was reunited).

Brossy also won first place for best news story for "FBI too harsh in artifacts sting?"

Also winning first place in the associate category for beat coverage about Native Americans is Tséyi' Bureau reporter Cindy Yurth. Also winning in the associate category for his story "The riot of '89" was freelance reporter Bill Donovan.

Winning second place for best news photo was Jimmie for "Ramp riders." Leigh also won third place for best sports photo for "First jump," one of many rodeo shots our photographers have taken.

The Times also won second place for best layout, thanks to the efforts of Bobby Martin and Ophelia Nez.

Winning second place for best environmental story was Marley Shebala for "Asbestos fine reduced?"

Longtime photographer Paul Natonabah also won second place for best sports photo. And this writer followed up with a second place for best editorial for "Arrogance and fear."

Finally, reporter Jason Begay won third place for best feature story for "Teaching thick fingers to weave" and third place for best news story for "Study dissects how, where tribe went wrong with OnSat."

These 17 awards reflect the best in Native American journalism and follow many others we have won in state and regional competitions.

They also reflect our effort to serve the Navajo people to the best of our ability.

While we can congratulate our staff for their work and the awards, the true credit and handshake should go to the Navajo people, for whom this newspaper exists.

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