Charly Edsitty and Colton Shone Become First Known All-Native American Co-Anchor Team on U.S. Commercial TV

Charly Edsitty and Colton Shone began co-anchoring Good Morning Arizona on Arizona’s Family in Phoenix on Oct. 19. The station, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and news outlets have described them as the first known all-Native American co-anchor team on a commercial television newscast in the United States. The Arizona Republic called them Arizona’s first all-Navajo morning anchor team.

Nygren said watching the two introduce themselves in Diné bizaad during their debut was powerful. “Hearing our language and seeing two of our own at the anchor desk sends a meaningful message to our young people: Your identity is a strength. Your voice matters. Your dreams are worth pursuing,” he said in a statement.

His statement introduced both anchors by their clans. Edsitty is Hashk’ąą Hadzohó, born for Tábąąhá. Her maternal grandfather is Kinłichíi’nii and her paternal grandfather is Kiyaa’áanii. Her mother’s family is from T’iis Názbąs, Arizona, and her father’s family is from Newcomb, New Mexico. Shone is Tó’aheedlíinii, born for Tódích’íi’nii. His maternal grandfather is Kiyaa’áanii and his paternal grandfather is Tábąąhá, and his family connections include Lukachukai and Piñon, Arizona.

The new desk brings Edsitty home. A Glendale native, she began her career in Phoenix as a planning producer and worked her way up to on-air reporting, including as a bureau reporter in Flagstaff, before moving to KTRK, ABC’s station in Houston. There she hosted ABC Audio’s award-winning podcast Reclaimed: The Lifeblood of Navajo Nation.

“Good Morning Arizona was always on my television screen growing up in the Valley,” Edsitty said in the station’s announcement of her return.

Shone joined Arizona’s Family in August 2022, after nearly seven years co-anchoring a morning show in Albuquerque and earlier work anchoring and reporting in Tucson. The station says his coverage of the Navajo Nation’s fight against COVID-19 earned three Emmy Awards and grew into the documentary The People vs. The Pandemic. He has also reported on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis and on language revitalization.

Shone has marked the moment on Facebook. Announcing Edsitty’s arrival, he celebrated “two Diné anchors on the desk anchoring the same show” and wrote, “We’ve done our ancestors proud!” When they took the desk together, he greeted viewers: “Ya’ah’teeh abiní! Good morning Arizona!!”

“In a market the size of Phoenix this absolutely matters!” he wrote in another post. His message to Native and Indigenous youth, and “really everyone”: “Go after your dreams! You only get one life!”

Before their first broadcast together, Edsitty told the Navajo Times she hoped to work with Shone to expand reporting on rural and tribal communities. Shone described the questions behind each newscast: “Which stories need to be heard? Which communities need to be covered?” Edsitty also said she wants other journalists to build their own relationships with Native communities, rather than relying on the two anchors to find those stories.

They follow earlier Native broadcasters in Phoenix, including Diné journalist Andy Harvey, who worked at KPNX 12 News, and San Carlos Apache journalist Mary Kim Titla, a former Phoenix television reporter.

“Keep telling stories. Keep opening doors,” Nygren wrote. “The Navajo Nation is cheering you on!”

Edsitty and Shone co-anchor Good Morning Arizona weekdays from 4:30 to 6 a.m. on Arizona’s Family.