Brave Heart Fellowship
Champions for Change
CA Native Youth Collective
Remembering Our Sisters
Building Communities of Hope
Creative Native
Democracy is IndigenousWritten by CNAY Communications Intern Tristan Espinoza (Osage)
From August 13-15, 2025, two Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) team members – Jamie Levitt and Tristan Espinoza (Osage) – attended the Indigenous Journalists Association’s 2025 Indigenous Media Conference at the Isleta Resort & Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Through the conference, the Indigenous Journalists Association (IJA) fostered “accurate and contextual reporting about Indigenous people and communities to overcome biases and stereotypes portrayed in popular and mainstream media.”
Thought-provoking panels covering important topics – including Missing & Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP), the scars of Indian Boarding Schools, Indigequeer reporting, narrating climate change and combatting deliberate disinformation – expanded our perspectives on how to better represent and uplift Native youth across platforms. In addition, conversations with national (i.e., MSNBC and AP News) and independent (i.e., Underscore Native News and ICT) media organizations illuminated best practices for discussing the most pressing issues facing Indian Country today.
Thank you to the IJA and Pueblo of Isleta for hosting such an impactful event. As a Native-led organization committed to amplifying youth voices, CNAY was honored to learn from award-winning journalists, editors and content creators who are reshaping how Indigenous stories are told. We look forward to bringing these lessons back to our work and continuing to ensure Native youth stories are told with power and truth.