Gratitude in Crisis—A Spark for Sustainable Indigenous Media Resilience

By Loris Taylor, President & CEO, Native Public Media

On August 4, 2025, Native Public Media and the Public Media Company made an appeal to foundations in support of vulnerable public media stations following the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by Congress. On August 19, 2025, the Knight Foundation, Pivotal, MacArthur, Ford, Schmidt Family, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations stepped forward in a powerful display of solidarity, announcing an infusion of $36.5 million in emergency funding to safeguard public media stations, especially those serving rural, Indigenous, and underserved communities, from imminent closure after steep federal cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

To the philanthropic institutions that have answered this urgent call, thank you. This act of generosity is not just a lifeline. It is a declaration that the voices of communities too often left out of the national narrative are valued. Public radio and television are more than passive media. They are community anchors, educators, watchdogs, and connective tissue that binds us, especially in places where alternatives are scarce.

But as we exhale our collective sigh of relief, it's essential to ask: Will this remain a one-time gesture, or will it ignite the creation of enduring structures to preserve these outlets for generations to come?

What we need now is the Tribal Media Endowment Fund, a trust built not just to stem crisis, but to ensure permanent, community-rooted resilience. Imagine a fund where we invest contributions in perpetuity and use only the earnings to support Native-led media initiatives. Such a model mirrors the traditions of enduring stewardship found in tribal endowments like the Hopi Education Endowment Fund, established in 2000, which preserves its principal and allocates only the income for educational purposes.

A Tribal Media Endowment Fund would ensure:

• Longevity: unaffected by the cycles of political budget cuts or shifting donor priorities.

• Autonomy: placed under tribal governance, with oversight by Indigenous leadership to ensure cultural integrity and accountability.

• Innovation: supporting next-gen storytelling, digital expansion, youth media training, and local news coverage where mainstream media scarcely ventures.

Just as the Public Media Bridge Fund will provide urgent stabilization grants and advisory services to at-risk stations, a Tribal Media Endowment offers a complementary path of ongoing operating support, capacity building, and institutional independence for the sixty-one stations that make up the Native Broadcast Network serving Indian Country. NPM will continue to rally funders, tribal governments, and allies to seed such a fund now, before the next crisis strikes. Let today's outpouring of compassion be the spark. Together, we can build an enduring financial home for Tribal media. When Indigenous voices are amplified without fear, the entire nation becomes stronger.

In deep gratitude to the Knight, Pivotal, MacArthur, Ford, Schmidt Family, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations. 

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