About the Role

We’re looking for an ambitious reporter to cover one of the most important — and underreported — communities in California: the state’s more than 100 federally recognized Native American tribes.

This beat sits at the intersection of sovereignty, politics, land, environment, and economic power. From water rights and wildfire management to housing development, gaming revenue, and state policy, tribes play a critical and growing role in shaping California’s future.

You’ll produce accountability-driven journalism that explains how tribal governments operate, how they influence decision making, and how policy decisions impact Native communities.

The ideal candidate has experience covering tribal communities, is skilled at building relationships and trust with diverse Native communities and is passionate about helping explain how policies impact the lives of California’s Native communities. This position requires creativity, adaptability and a strong ability to report, connect and engage with audiences on all platforms.

You will be a CalMatters employee who will collaborate with our partners at ICT (Indian Country Today) on work that will run in both of our publications.

Location: Sacramento, preferred, other locations in California may be considered.

What You’ll Cover

  • The role of tribes in state politics, including lobbying and elections
  • Housing development on and off tribal lands
  • Environmental stewardship, land use, water rights, and climate resilience
  • Economic power, including gaming, energy, and development projects
  • The relationship between tribes, state agencies, and local governments
  • The lived experiences of Native communities, with a focus on equity and access

What You‘ll Do

  • Break original stories that reveal how power and policy affect tribal communities
  • Translate complex legal and policy frameworks (sovereignty, compacts, land status) into clear, compelling journalism
  • Collaborate with data, visuals, and engagement teams to deepen impact
  • Travel regularly across California, including to rural and remote areas
  • Produce a mix of daily and enterprise stories

Compensation And Benefits

The salary range for this position is $74,000 to $81,000 per year. This full-time position is represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild and is based in California with a preference for a candidate in the Sacramento area.

We offer a complete benefits package with medical, dental and vision insurance — we cover 95% of the cost for employees and dependents — from a range of HMO and PPO providers. We also offer paid family leave and will match contributions of up to 4% of your salary to our 401(k) program and provide life insurance at no cost.

The salary range above is our best estimate, in good faith, of what we expect to pay for this position. Our final salary figure will consider the candidate’s experience and skills, as well as our commitment to pay our staff equitably.

How To Apply

CalMatters is committed to becoming an antiracist organization. We are an expanding and collaborative newsroom, successfully forging a new model for sustainable, intelligent, nonprofit journalism. We do our best to center justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in all that we do—of which hiring is just one part. We encourage you to ask us about what concrete steps we are taking in service of these ideals. We strongly encourage applicants who are people of color, LGBTQ, and people with disabilities, regardless of national origin, alienage, and/or former incarceration status.

A college degree is not required. If you’re interested please submit your resume, a cover letter explaining your interest in this beat, and 3–5 clips.


About CalMatters | The Markup

CalMatters, now in its eleventh year, is an award-winning nonprofit, nonpartisan news venture dedicated to explaining the policy and politics of America’s biggest state and the world’s fifth largest economy. In 2024, we merged with The Markup, a nonprofit national news publication that challenges technology to serve the public good.

We produce vivid, original multimedia journalism, data-driven news analyses and watchdog accountability reporting on calmatters.org and themarkup.org, and we distribute our work at no cost to more than 250 media partners. Our success metric isn’t clicks — it’s impact. Products at CalMatters/The Markup serve millions of people. For example:

      About ICT (Indian Country Today)

      ICT is a Native-led, ambitious and innovative news organization grounded in Indigenous values of respect, integrity, humility, courage and truth-telling.

      For 45 years, ICT has filled critical gaps in media coverage while mentoring the next generation of Indigenous media professionals.

      From its origins as a weekly print publication, ICT has evolved into a modern, multimedia engine reaching more than 1 million people each month — with content distributed across digital, social, audio and broadcast platforms.

      ICT’s journalism is unique in its combination of reach, expertise in tribal sovereignty and trusted relationships with Native communities. Its legacy is Indigenous narrative change.