Native Americas, the flagship publication of Akwe:kon Press at Cornell University's American Indian Program, has won first place for general excellence plus eight other national journalism awards bestowed by the Native American Journalist Association. This is the second year in a row that Native Americas has won the top award.

"We are particularly happy to be honored by our peers in Native [American] journalism," said José Barreiro, editor-in-chief of Akwe:kon Press. He received the awards in June at the association's convention in Buffalo, N.Y. "Our focus and connection is to community realities. We respect and report on native cultures as an important, major source of knowledge," he said.

Native Americas won first place for general excellence in the magazine category for its "timely, concise and critical coverage of events and trends impacting indigenous communities throughout the Americas."

The journal also won honorable mention for best magazine layout and design. Barreiro credited the work of Leslie Logan, managing editor, for the high quality of the magazine. He also praised the design work of Brendan White.

In individual awards, Liz Hill earned a first place in the best news writing category for her article published in the fall 2000 issue ofNative Americas , "The Green and the Red: A Third Party Magnet in the Political Landscape." The article was an analysis of the Nader/LaDuke third-party campaign during the 2000 presidential election.

Valerie Taliman won two honorable mention awards in news writing for her article "Native Nations and the Politics of 2000: Platforms for Indian Country," and in the best feature writing category for "Winona: Why She Runs?" Both were published in the fall 2000 issue. In the best historical perspective category, writers forNative Americas won three honorable mentions. Native American lawyers Susan Williams and Raquel Montoya-Lewis won for their in-depth survey of native rights on water issues, "Federal Indian Water Rights: Fundamentals and New Developments in Federal Indian Water Law." American studies professor at State University of New York at Buffalo and author John Mohawk won for his article on the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake in "Tradition and Education: An Iroquois Interpretation of Handsome Lake."

Chapman University assistant professor Paul Apodaca won for his recounting of efforts to preserve and revitalize the native languages of California in "California Tongues: Language Revival as Basis for Cultural Renaissance."

Native Americas frequent contributor and author Bill Weinberg rounded out the list of this year's winners with a first place in the best non-native print feature category. Weinberg's winning article, "Water Wars: Navajo Nation Reasserts Rights to the Colorado River," reported on the effort of indigenous peoples to win a just share of water rights in the Southwest.