Frontpage of the Cherokee Phoenix 1828 |
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| Founded | 1828 |
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| Language | Cherokee and English |
| Headquarters | Cherokee Nation Tribal Complex Tsa-La-Gi Annex Room 231 Tahlequah, Oklahoma |
| OCLC number | 53811290 |
The Cherokee Phoenix (ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ, Tsalagi Tsulehisanvhi) was the first newspaper published by Native Americans in the United States and the first published in a Native American language.[1][2] The first issue was published in English and Cherokee on February 21, 1828, in New Echota, capital of the Cherokee Nation (present-day Georgia). The paper continued until 1834. The Cherokee Phoenix was revived in the twentieth century, and today it publishes on the Web.
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In the mid-1820s the Cherokee tribe was being pressured from the government and particularly Georgia to remove to new lands west of the Mississippi River, or to end their tribal government and surrender control of their traditional territory to the United States (US) government. The General Council of the Cherokee Nation established a newspaper, in collaboration with Samuel Worcester, a missionary, who cast the type for the Cherokee syllabary. The Council selected Elias Boudinot as the first editor.[3]
Named Galagina Oowatie, in the Cherokee language, he was born in 1804 at Oothcaloga, Cherokee Nation, near present-day Chatsworth, Georgia.[3] He chose the name of Boudinot after meeting the statesman, while on his way to the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut, where he graduated. There he married Harriet Ruggles Gold, daughter of a prominent Congregational family. They returned to live at New Echota. Boudinot edited the newspaper for its first four and a half years.
Boudinot named the Cherokee Phoenix as a symbol of renewal, for the mythical bird that rose to new life from ashes of fire. The Nation founded the paper to gather support and to help keep members of the Cherokee Nation united and informed. The newspaper was printed in English and Cherokee, using the Cherokee syllabary developed in 1821 by Sequoyah. It served as the primary vehicle of communication among the many Cherokee townships that constituted the Cherokee Nation. The Nation occupied parts of what are now Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. As the issue of removal attracted national attention, a fund-raising and publicity tour for the newspaper brought new subscribers from almost all areas of the United States and Europe. Boudinot gradually published mostly in English, trying to reach that larger audience.[3]
In 1829, Boudinot renamed the Cherokee Phoenix as the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians’ Advocate, reflecting his intention to influence an audience beyond the Cherokee. He addressed issues which Indians across the nation faced related to assimilation and removal from their traditional homelands. The paper no longer related solely the Cherokee tribe. The paper also offered stories about debates over Indian removal and U.S. Supreme Court cases that affected Indian life.[4] Boudinot believed removal was inevitable and that the Cherokee should protect their rights by treaty. His views were opposed by the majority of the Cherokee, including Principal Chief John Ross. The Council forced Boudinot to resign in 1832.
Elijah Hicks, an anti-removal Cherokee, replaced Boudinot as editor. When the annuity was not paid to the Cherokee in 1834, the paper ceased publication. In 1835 the Georgia Guard took the printing press to prevent any further publication. The militia was organized by the state to police the Cherokee territory which it had claimed.[3]
The Cherokee Phoenix has published intermittently since its beginning in New Echota. It is now published by the Cherokee Nation as a monthly broadsheet in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The newspaper has modernized. It publishes on the Web and is available on the iPhone.[5]
A digitized, searchable version of the paper is available through the University of Georgia Libraries and the Digital Library of Georgia.[6] Transcriptions of the English-language portions of the 19th-c. newspaper can be found at Western Carolina University's Hunter Library's Web site.[7]
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