Two Osage women received unanimous confirmation votes from the Sixth Osage Nation Congress during the 2019 Hun-Kah Session to serve three-year terms on the Osage News Editorial Board.
Teresa Trumbly Lamsam is a board appointee by Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and Tara McLain Manthey is an appointee from the Congress made by affirmative vote. Lamsam and Manthey are both board members who served prior terms, which date back to the first Editorial Board formed when the Nation’s Independent Press Act was developed and passed by the First ON Congress.
Manthey, a former daily newspaper reporter, served on the first Editorial Board from 2007 to 2010 and currently lives in Denver where she works in the public policy sector at Colorado Children’s Campaign as its vice president of advocacy and communications. She previously served as communications director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in Little Rock, according to her resume.
The Editorial Board is comprised of three individuals with two board appointments each made by the Legislative and Executive branches and those two members are subject to Congressional confirmation. The two confirmed board members appoint the third board member.
While serving on the first Editorial Board, Manthey worked with Lamsam and former board member Denny McAuliffe on developing the framework for the independent press for Osage News, which was previously in newsletter format under the Executive Branch, Manthey told the Congressional Government Operations Committee during an April 18 meeting. Manthey spoke with the committee via telephone as her board appointment was initially considered.
Manthey also told the committee she has board experience with chairperson service on the 12-member KIDS COUNT Steering Committee, which is charged with advancing the field of child advocates nationally. Manthey is also the chairperson for Downtown Denver Expeditionary School, which is a charter school for students in K-5th grade.
As a journalist, Manthey worked as an education reporter at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. In Oregon, Manthey worked at the Statesman Journal in Salem where she worked as a reporter covering the education, city hall and legislative beats. Manthey holds two bachelor degrees in journalism (with distinction) and music from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Lamsam is a former Osage Nation News editor and newspaper reporter who went on to earn a Ph.D. in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Lamsam previously served as an associate professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and was a visiting associate professor at the University of Kansas.
Lamsam also met with the government operations committee on April 16 by telephone noting she too has seen the evolution of the Osage News moving into its newspaper format. According to the Nation’s Independent Press Act, Editorial board duties include: to establish and enforce an editorial policy that will be fair and responsible in reporting news of Osage concern; to ensure the operational structure is sound and the board duties and obligations are fulfilled; to review advertising rates and policies; and to develop fair and reasonable policies on campaign advertising to be published 60 days prior to filing period.
Lamsam said there are plans to revisit the editorial policies and procedures to propose and consider any updates starting in May after the new board members are confirmed with the board meeting for a workshop retreat to focus on updating those items.
The Government Operations Committee also considered outgoing Editorial Board member Lu King, whose term expired at the close of the session and former Bigheart Times Publisher Louise Red Corn, but the Congress did not consider those appointees for confirmation by the Hun-Kah Session’s adjournment on April 23.
The Congress voted 11-0 to confirm Lamsam at the April 18 session and Manthey on April 23. Lamsam and Manthey join third Editorial Board member and chairwoman Jerri Jean Branstetter, who is in the second year of her current three-year term.
By
Benny Polacca
Original Publish Date: 2019-05-01 00:00:00
