Investigative stories & projects

Misplaced Trust: The United States was founded with stolen Indigenous land. Public institutions are still profiting from it today.
Grist, 2024–2025

The Human Cost of Conservation: Geographically defined “protected areas” are one of the new global fronts against climate change. But many of those areas are already occupied by Indigenous peoples, whose rights are increasingly being violated in the name of conservation.
Grist, 2022–2024

A Group Claiming To Be Cherokee Faces Questions About Authenticity: The Mount Tabor Indian Community and a statue they helped erect are examples of serious failures by officials to vet claims to Indigenous nation status, federally recognized tribal leaders say.
Texas Observer/NBC, 2021

Texas Draws Criticism With Plan to Lure Tourists to Sites Where Indigenous People Were Banished: Nations once exterminated or displaced are now being asked to help bring in tourism dollars.
Texas Observer/The Guardian, 2021

The Anti-Indigenous Handbook: Across the globe, anti-Indigenous organizations and sympathizers work to undermine the collective rights of Indigenous peoples.
Texas Observer, 2020

Land-Grab Universities: Expropriated Indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system.
High Country News, 2020

Denver cop with tattoo resembling militia group logo killed tribal citizen in 2015: Officer Michael Traudt says he is not a member of the Three Percenters.
High Country News, 2018

National Congress of American Indians roiled by claims of harassment and misconduct: Indian Country’s most prominent advocacy group will meet this month amid massive staff departures and calls for investigations.
High Country News, 2018

Shooting of Native man shines light on police killings: Death of Paul Castaway reflects that American Indians are most likely racial group to be killed by law enforcement
Al Jazeera America, 2015

What happened on the Wind River Reservation? How the feds helped a uranium company take Native land in the 1950s — leaving behind contaminated water and unanswered questions.
Wyoming Public Radio, 2012

Feature Writing

In Sweden, a proposed iron mine threatens a World Heritage Site — and the people that made it: How some UNESCO World Heritage Sites can threaten Indigenous lives.
Grist, 2023

In Defense of Darkness: Artificial light is polluting the night sky. What do we stand to lose?
Grist, 2022

Native Americans are recasting views of Indigenous life: By countering the racist fixations that have plagued stories of Native American culture, they hope to reverse the “invisibility” that many feel.
National Geographic, 2018

How “Rez Accents” Strengthen Native Identity: Research shows that ethnic identity is shaped not only by the loss—and revitalization—of mother tongues but also by the remixing of English.
Yes! 2017

Tribes Redraw Land Boundaries—With GPS and a Small Fleet of Drones: From the Standing Rock Sioux to the Wounaan in Panama, indigenous communities are staking claims to traditional territories even when they no longer possess ownership rights.
Yes! 2016

The United States of Bus Travel: The people you meet in this country are a trip.
Al Jazeera America, 2015

The Code for Farewell: Saying goodbye to the last Seminole Code Talker.
Al Jazeera America, 2014

No Veteran Left Alone: The Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma honors its warriors with a ceremony more than 300 years old.
Al Jazeera America, 2014

Criticism & Practice

Billie Eilish, stolen land, and the climate cost of America’s dispossession: Returning Indigenous land won’t destroy civilization, it could save it.
Grist, 2026

A monument to violence built on stolen land: The art world sees a megasculpture masterpiece; others see a tribute to American colonialism.
Grist, 2022

An independent assessment of National Geographic’s ‘Indigenous Futures’ special issue: National Geographic’s “Indigenous Futures” issue cannot erase its history of more than a century of arguably voyeuristic and racist storytelling.
National Geographic, 2024

Covering Climate as an Indigenous Affairs Beat: On harnessing the expertise of Indigenous journalists to report on the environment.
Nieman Reports, 2023

When conservation provides a cover for anti-Indigenous sentiments: A nation of laws cannot exist on stolen land.
High Country News, 2019

Threats to Indigenous press freedom as a tribe rolls back protections: With a recent attack on press freedom, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation has made clear that independent journalism has no home in the fourth largest tribe in the US.
Columbia Journalism Review, 2018

Telling Indigenous Stories: Neglecting to cover Indigenous stories not only represents a missed opportunity, but a significant failure for an industry hoping to find relevance in the 21st century.
Nieman Reports, 2017

Tribal radio stations may go dark under Donald Trump: President Trump’s proposal for privatizing the CPB could have significant, negative effects on tribal media.
Al Jazeera English, 2017

How media did and did not report on Standing Rock: Native American issues are only media sexy when natives with painted faces and horses are around.
Al Jazeera English, 2016