By Hunter Hotulke

“It’s important to tell our story from our perspective because the perspectives that are out there are many times incorrect or have been perceived improperly, so its important to tell the real history and the people it actually affected,”

–Jennifer Loren, Osiyo TV

Many tribes have stories that are passed from generation to generation. Native media today are finding outlets to report on their tribes and ensuring factually and culturally correct content. The Cherokee people have recently discovered some firsthand source material–and it’s centuries old. Conferences like this help to get the word out about Native issues

Jennifer Loren, Executive Producer and Host of Osiyo TV, and her team came to the Native American Journalist Association/National Association of Hispanic Journalists Conference in Miami to tell the story of the Cherokee people and the Moravian missionaries. These missionaries came from Salem, N.C. and lived and worked with the Cherokee people. The missionaries had many documents written in German that shed light onto the lives of the Cherokees.

Loren and her documentary team are piecing together parts of Cherokee history previously thought undocumented.

“Our goal is to produce, not only factually correct, but culturally sensitive content,” said Loren. ” We want to tell the Cherokee stories from the Cherokee perspective and ensure that every Cherokee citizen can view it.”