Pressure of Truth
Exposing the spin on all sides of the news.
Outlet profile

Native News Online

U.S. Native American/Indian Country-focused news outlet; no formal party alignment, with a tribal-advocacy perspective

Owned byIndian Country Media, LLC, a privately owned company co-founded in 2020 by Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi, controlling shareholder) and Michigan publisher Brian Edwards. Other Native and non-Native investors, including company managers, also hold stakes.
FundingMainly advertising and sponsorships, plus reader donations. Before 2020 it relied almost entirely on advertising. It received a Facebook Journalism Project COVID-19 Local News Relief Fund grant in 2020 and has used other grant and philanthropic support since. This list is based on search results and the outlet's own descriptions, and I did not confirm every current revenue source.
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Levi Rickert, a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, founded Native News Online in 2011. For roughly its first nine years he ran it largely alone, working evenings and weekends alongside a full-time job. It relied on advertising revenue during that period. In 2019 Rickert began talks with publisher Brian Edwards, and on January 1, 2020, they formed Indian Country Media, LLC to expand the outlet. The company also spun off its business coverage as a separate publication, Tribal Business News. In 2020 a Facebook Journalism Project relief grant helped pay for a managing editor and freelance reporters. Coverage centers on tribal governments, treaty and sovereignty issues, health, education, land and Native culture, and it also publishes opinion pieces. Its news reporting is generally fact-based and often draws on tribal sources and official documents. Its perspective is advocacy-leaning on Native issues and not tied to a party. In Trump's second term, its reporting on proposed cuts to Bureau of Indian Affairs programs, tribal colleges and Indian Health Service funding has been largely critical, and it also reports bipartisan congressional pushback.

Sources

  1. Native News Online (Wikipedia)
  2. Native News Online uses grant money to expand local tribal coverage (Local Media Association)
  3. An Unlikely Publisher Celebrates 10 Years of Covering News in Indian Country
  4. Native News Online at 15: Humble Beginnings, Unwavering Mission
  5. Trump 2026 Budget Guts Billions from Indian Country Programs (Native News Online)
  6. Trump Administration Proposes Deep Cuts to Tribal College Funding (Native News Online)
  7. Tribal Business News: About

Profile compiled 2026-10-29; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

← Back to track record