Rhonda LeValdo won runner-up in YouTube's Project: Report competition for the above video, called "A Fight for the Land." Click here to visit LeValdo's YouTube channel.

Although about three million American Indians live in the United States, they are underrepresented in national media, according to Rhonda LeValdo. The Acoma, N.M., graduate student spoke about the issue on C-SPAN 2’s “Close Up at the Newseum” on Friday.

LeValdo’s work aims at changing the involvement and perception of American Indians in the media. The segment also featured a news video that she had produced for the PBS Online NewsHour. LeValdo teaches video production as an adjunct faculty member at Haskell Indian Nations University, in addition to studying journalism at the University of Kansas. She said teaching was a great way to encourage more natives to get involved in the mainstream media.

As an Acoma Pueblo, LeValdo said she thought it was important for her and other American Indians to be involved in the media in order to counteract longstanding stereotypes. She said she worried that people associated American Indians with sports mascots.

“I don’t think people realize children see these mascots and then grow up to believe them to be true,” she said. “We’re lawyers, doctors and journalists.”

Barbara Barnett, assistant professor of journalism, said underrepresentation was an issue for many minorities, especially American Indians.

“Native Americans are pretty much invisible in the media,” Barnett said.

Barnett said stereotypes were one of the largest barriers American Indians faced in the media. She said stereotypes were often effective in advertising because they were easy to remember.

“It kind of puts people in pockets,” Barnett said, “and you don’t really get to know them very well.”

LeValdo produced three videos for PBS, including the above production, which details American Indians' excitement over the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Jeff Harjo, executive director of the Native American Journalists Association, said the only way to change perceptions of American Indians within society was to have more American Indians such as LeValdo working within the media.

“We’re having stories about us natives written by non-natives who don’t understand what it is to be an Indian,” Harjo said.

Harjo said LeValdo’s work was making American Indian journalists more valuable to members of the mainstream media.

“I wish we had about 100 more Rhondas,” Harjo said. “The world would be a much better place.”

In January, LeValdo worked as a National Minority Consortia fellow in Washington, D.C., where she produced three videos for the PBS Online NewsHour.

While in D.C. she was also recognized as a runner-up in YouTube Project: Report, a contest for aspiring journalists. LeValdo reported on the effect of the proposed South Lawrence Trafficway on the Haskell-Baker Wetlands and produced a profile of her grandmother, who lives on the Laguna reservation in New Mexico.

Dick Nelson, lecturer and KUJH-TV News general manager, said LeValdo’s media skills were advanced, with video production in particular.

“I don’t think she cares about her own personal gain,” Nelson said. “She just cares about helping others.”

LeValdo also serves as vice president of the Native American Journalist Association and hosts the weekly radio show “Native Spirit” on Kansas City’s 90.1 KKFI. Despite her success, LeValdo said she had no interest in being a famous journalist.

“For me, I don’t see anything I do as pushing my own career to the forefront, I see it as pushing our people to the forefront,” LeValdo said. “I have no interest in being a superstar.”

LeValdo said she hoped to teach video production at Haskell or another tribal school upon receiving her master’s in May.

— ­— Edited by Sonya English