Troy Littledeer receives 2025 Tim Giago Free Press Award
By Staff Reports
Troy Littledeer, former media director of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, received the 2025 Tim Giago Free Press Award at the Indigenous Journalists Association’s annual conference Friday night.
The award was presented during the Indigenous Media Awards Banquet at Isleta Resort and Casino, the closing event of IJA’s three-day conference. Nearly 400 journalists, students and allies from across Indian Country attended.
Littledeer addressed the audience after accepting the award.
“This recognition isn’t just about my work,” he said. “It belongs to every Indigenous journalist who has stood up when it was easier to sit down, asked the hard questions when silence was safer, and told our people’s stories with courage and care.”
“Every word we write, every photo we take and every broadcast we produce is part of a shared fight: ensuring our people are seen, heard and understood on our own terms. And that fight is inseparable from sovereignty.”
“I do this work for those who came before me, and for those who will come after.”
The Tim Giago Free Press Award is named for Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota journalist and publisher who founded Indian Country Today. Giago established the Native American Journalists Association in 1983 and spent his career building an independent Native press. He died in 2021. The award honors journalists who embody his commitment to press freedom, editorial integrity and sovereignty.
Littledeer is the founder of Candy Mink Springs Media LLC and publishes Giduwa Cherokee News from Stilwell in Adair County, Oklahoma. He is a member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma.