In recent times this 20-year-old monthly, which was born as a newsletter for the Minneapolis American Indian Center, has gone beyond covering Native American issues to focus increasingly on regional news crucial to the community, offering well-sourced stories about trends in education, the practical effects of welfare reform, and institutional racism. Besides associate editor Sue Rich's yeoman work with news and features, readers also get Mordecai Specktor's Political Matters, a pithy collection of news bites that consistently reveals how power moves in the halls of government, both local and national. Guest opinion writers challenge politicians to back their words with action (favorite topics include the rhetoric concerning tribal treaty rights and public education). And Jim Northrup's Fond du Lac Follies is a unique window on the reservation, in which the author upends the tired conventions of the small-town column format with sometimes hilarious, always incisive results.