photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

The Haskell Indian Nations University's newspaper, The Indian Leader, received a $8,500 grant from the local advocacy group the Haskell Family/Friends Network Wednesday evening. From left: Thad Holcombe, a retired pastor who leads the Friends of Haskell network; Trina Tsinnie, the secretary for the paper; Angelica Henson, the paper's interim vice president and Allison Levering, the paper's former president.

Student journalists at Haskell Indian Nations University are thankful for the Lawrence community’s support after the campus newspaper was presented with a $8,500 grant Wednesday evening.

The grant will go to support The Indian Leader, Haskell’s student-run newspaper. The funds to support the grant was raised by the Haskell Family/Friends Network, an advocacy group created by local community members which started in February 2025 after the announcement of firings from the federal government rocked the campus.

Thad Holcombe, a retired pastor who leads the Friends of Haskell Indian Nations University, said in an email the group originally raised the funds to help sponsor Haskell students to visit Washington D.C. to help lobby for support of the school, but the students eventually decided not to go because of the presence of National Guard troops in D.C. during the planned visit.

Holcombe said the group received a grant request from Allison Levering, who served as president of The Indian Leader from 2024 to 2026. That request led to the students receiving the funding Wednesday evening during a brief meeting at Haskell’s campus.

Tara Roanhorse, the editor-in-chief for The Indian Leader, said the funds — and the community support they represent — are monumental for The Indian Leader, the oldest continuously published Native American student newspaper in the country.

“It honestly changes everything,” Roanhorse said.

The paper has faced many challenges in recent years that were outside of its control. Levering said the paper’s newsroom in Tecumseh Hall was closed because of a mold problem, and the staff only has been able to meet in temporary spaces.

Levering also said that the paper’s advisor was one of the people who lost their job during the federally mandated budget cuts in February 2025, which severely disrupted the ability for students to work on the paper.

“We were at a standstill,” Levering said.

The additional funds will help The Indian Leader maintain its course. Roanhorse told the Journal-World the funds will allow the paper to buy new equipment so journalists have “the best equipment they need to succeed.”

Along with plans to purchase newer cameras, Roanhorse said one key need is in buying more press credentials for its students. When a Haskell-led student protest happened along Massachusetts Street in February, she wanted to make sure the journalists had press passes so they would be safe; however, the paper had none and did not have the funds to buy them. Angelica Henson, the interim vice president of The Indian Leader, said they also plan to use the funds to buy subscriptions to online programs like the Adobe suite to help expand the multimedia options for the paper.

Roanhorse also said that the funds will be able to support more Native journalists with stipends and other financial support. She said the time commitment of being a student journalist can make it difficult for a student also have another job. Roanhorse said having available funding can make sure interested journalists “can pay their bills.”

photo by: Contributed

Tara Roanhorse, the editor-in-chief for The Indian Leader, Haskell Indian Nation University’s student newspaper.

Because Haskell doesn’t have a journalism program, Roanhorse said that The Indian Leader is “the only way” for students interested in journalism to get practical experience while at Haskell. She feels giving students that experience is important because Indigenous people are “pretty underrepresented” in the media industry. Roanhorse said she was able to bring in Melissa Greene-Blye, an assistant professor at the University of Kansas’ School of Journalism, to lead a workshop for student journalists, and she hopes additional funding will lead to more training opportunities for students.

“(This can) bring in opportunities (for students) to learn and grow while at Haskell,” Roanhorse said.

Roanhorse said the skills she learned at The Indian Leader helped her land an internship with NASA. She said she tells other students all the time that the skill learned at the newspaper can help them land jobs in almost any profession.

“Being able to work as a team and the other skills (students) are learning are so important to have access to,” Roanhorse said.

The recent grant is is very meaningful to the student journalists for reasons that go beyond the financial impact, Roanhorse saod. The fact the grant money came from the wider community outside of Haskell delivered an important message to Haskell students.

Roanhorse said being at Haskell can “sometimes feel like being on an island.” The fact that 56 individual donors chipped in for the grant shows that the greater community is “paying attention to us” and wants to support their work.

“That goes a really long way,” Roanhorse said. “I don’t know if there are words that can describe what (the community support) means to us and the university.”