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

Native News Online

U.S. Indigenous advocacy

Owned byIndian Country Media, LLC — founded and controlled by Levi Rickert, a tribal citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, with additional Native and non-Native investors
FundingReader donations, tribal and philanthropic grants (including a $100,000 grant from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians), and membership in the URL Media BIPOC media network; no corporate or billionaire backing
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Native News Online was founded on February 14, 2011 by journalist Levi Rickert, a tribal citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, and is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was created to fill a gap in mainstream media coverage of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities, and has grown into one of the most widely read Native American digital news publications in the United States, reaching millions of readers annually. The outlet is owned by Indian Country Media, LLC, in which Rickert is the controlling shareholder alongside other Native and non-Native investors. It is funded primarily through reader donations and philanthropic grants, including tribal grants for specific coverage areas such as health equity; it has no major corporate sponsor or billionaire owner. In 2022, Native News Online joined URL Media, a network of BIPOC-owned media organizations that has received funding from foundations including the Archewell Foundation. At the start of 2025, the outlet formally adopted the tagline 'Warrior Journalism: Defending Tribal Sovereignty,' making its advocacy mission explicit. Coverage of the Trump administration's second term (beginning January 2025) has been consistently critical, with reporting and opinion pieces framing federal budget cuts, grant freezes, and policy changes as harmful to tribal nations, treaty obligations, and Native community services.

Sources

  1. Native News Online — Wikipedia
  2. Native News Online joins year-old URL Media network — Tribal Business News
  3. About Us — Native News Online
  4. Native News Online uses grant money to expand local tribal coverage — Local Media Association
  5. Study Finds Trump's Spending Bill Breaks Treaty Obligations — Native News Online
  6. CALL TO ACTION: Tribal Nations Unite to Save Our Tribal Sovereignty (Opinion) — Native News Online
  7. Trump's Freeze on Virtually All Federal Funding Hits Indian Country Particularly Hard (Opinion) — Native News Online
  8. Native News Online Joins URL Media Network of BIPOC Media Outlets — Native News Online

Profile compiled 2026-07-30; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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