Questions With Joe Starita
When starting this project, we came up with four individual questions that we wanted to know straight from the mouth of the man him self. Here are the answers!
What do you consider your biggest accomplishment across your lifetime, and why?
Professionally, my biggest accomplishment is spending a total of seven years researching and writing two major non-fiction books on Native Americans: "The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge – a Lakota Odyssey" and "I Am A Man – Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice." Those two books rely on real people to personalize the experience of what it has been like to be a Native American, how they have been able to survive genocide, homelessness, disease, alcoholism, unemployment and the sustained attempts to annihilate their cultural. And yet they are still here. These two books explain how they adapted, how they survived – and what a tragic loss it would have been for America if the original possessors of the soil had been exterminated. These books have won numerous awards, sold tens of thousands of copies and – most importantly – have been used in countless classrooms to educate Americans on a vital aspect of this nation's history.
Are you still actively participating in your Native Daughters project, and what extra information you can give us on that?
Yes – we have 10 hand-picked students in our Native Daughters 2 class that just ended the first semester – the intense research semester – on Monday. The three-semester project focuses exclusively on the vital contributions that the Native women of Oklahoma have made – past, present and future – in enriching and sustaining Native culture. So next semester, the students will begin to shape and mould all of the material they've gathered in the last 16 weeks into a 150-page, full-color magazine, a 60-minute documentary and a robust web site.
What was your favorite part of working at the Miami Herald?
The incredible talent that I was surrounded by every day I walked into the newsroom and the incredible variety of stories that I did throughout my 14-year career with The Herald. Pound for pound, I would argue that The Herald newsroom in the 1970s and '80s was the most talented newsroom in the country. During my 14 years there, the paper won 13 Pulitzer Prizes for every conceivable category: international reporting, national reporting, local reporting, feature writing, editorials, photography and commentary. So to be surrounded by that many great stories and that many great reporters who challenged you to do better than you thought you could was something I looked forward to each and every day.
What was the biggest thing pulling you to write about Native American history?
I love good stories. I collect good stories. I had a thing for Native people, their history and their stories for as long as I can remember. So because I loved Native history and because I love to collect good stories and write about them – writing about Native Americans was a perfect marriage. It combined two of my great passions. And there are so many great Native stories, so many ones that haven't been written, so many ones that are right here in Nebraska, that I often feel like a kid let loose in a candy story.
What do you consider your biggest accomplishment across your lifetime, and why?
Professionally, my biggest accomplishment is spending a total of seven years researching and writing two major non-fiction books on Native Americans: "The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge – a Lakota Odyssey" and "I Am A Man – Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice." Those two books rely on real people to personalize the experience of what it has been like to be a Native American, how they have been able to survive genocide, homelessness, disease, alcoholism, unemployment and the sustained attempts to annihilate their cultural. And yet they are still here. These two books explain how they adapted, how they survived – and what a tragic loss it would have been for America if the original possessors of the soil had been exterminated. These books have won numerous awards, sold tens of thousands of copies and – most importantly – have been used in countless classrooms to educate Americans on a vital aspect of this nation's history.
Are you still actively participating in your Native Daughters project, and what extra information you can give us on that?
Yes – we have 10 hand-picked students in our Native Daughters 2 class that just ended the first semester – the intense research semester – on Monday. The three-semester project focuses exclusively on the vital contributions that the Native women of Oklahoma have made – past, present and future – in enriching and sustaining Native culture. So next semester, the students will begin to shape and mould all of the material they've gathered in the last 16 weeks into a 150-page, full-color magazine, a 60-minute documentary and a robust web site.
What was your favorite part of working at the Miami Herald?
The incredible talent that I was surrounded by every day I walked into the newsroom and the incredible variety of stories that I did throughout my 14-year career with The Herald. Pound for pound, I would argue that The Herald newsroom in the 1970s and '80s was the most talented newsroom in the country. During my 14 years there, the paper won 13 Pulitzer Prizes for every conceivable category: international reporting, national reporting, local reporting, feature writing, editorials, photography and commentary. So to be surrounded by that many great stories and that many great reporters who challenged you to do better than you thought you could was something I looked forward to each and every day.
What was the biggest thing pulling you to write about Native American history?
I love good stories. I collect good stories. I had a thing for Native people, their history and their stories for as long as I can remember. So because I loved Native history and because I love to collect good stories and write about them – writing about Native Americans was a perfect marriage. It combined two of my great passions. And there are so many great Native stories, so many ones that haven't been written, so many ones that are right here in Nebraska, that I often feel like a kid let loose in a candy story.