How do you get the story? 'You listen.'
In preparing to speak with people who’d been traumatized by sexual, emotional and physical abuse in Native American boarding schools created by the United States government, Washington Post reporter Dana Hedgpeth started by learning about the trauma itself.
One source – National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
“One thing to do is – just like any good journalist, we’re all humans, right? – find a way to connect,” Hedgpeth said in the latest episode of The WriteLane podcast.
Hedgpeth and colleagues spent 18 months reporting on the separation of Native American children from their families and the abuse that followed for a series that won the Dori J. Maynard Justice Award in the 2026 Poynter Journalism Prizes.
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