The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-12-08
PASSING OF CHEROKEE PAPER
ONLY ONE IN INDIAN TONGUE

UUlI UWC lW lWUlhW lUWUUL
Unless, out of date and covered with
mould and rust the plant, type and fix.
lures of the old Cherokee Advocate,
the only newspaper the world has ever
known published in an Indian tongue
and the "angel" of Christianity and
civilization among the Red Men of the
Indian Territory will be sold as Junk"
at Tahlequah today; sold because
there is no longer any place in which
the relics may be stored.
With the plant and fixtures today
there is to be sold the stone building
in which for years the Advocate
spread its tidings of advancement to
its people All will be sold at auction,
knocked down under the hammer to
the highest bidder.
Mighty in Its influence.
With the passing today of all that
remains of the old Advocate there
passes an institution that perhaps did
as much as any single thing towards
the uplifting of the Cherokees. 1t has
boasted of some of the brightest In
dian scholars known to history as its
editors. It has preserved peace and
it might have declared war.
No newspaper ever printed with
success, perhaps, had policy that
was built upon as high plane as was
born in Christianity and more or less
in Christianity it died. Back in the
days before ethe white man made his
Isacred vow to the Red Men which now
lies broken and shattered beyond all
redemption and all hope there was
begun in Neueuchotah, Georgia, the
publication of the Cherokee Phoenix.
It was printed in the Cherokee alpha
lbet, an Indian alphabet, the product
lof the master mind of Sequoyah. It's
Iprimary purpose was to disseminate
1.-THE teachings of the bible among the
lCherokees Elias Boudinot was its
first editor
Into New Land.
And then under the administration
lof Andrew Jackson, the Cherokees
Iwere driven from their native lands,
up into the barren God-forsaken"
Indian Territory, a Wild west, land
that was to be theirs "as long as grass
grows and waters flow The immi-
grafton into the Indian country be-
Igan in 1892 and continued for about
. three years.
With them the Red Men brought the
memory of the old Cherokee Phoenix.
The paper was revived in the new land
in about 1852 and died again at the
loutbreak of the Civil war. 1t was not
lagain re-established until several years
after the struggle between the states
when the national council of the Cher
okee Nation passed a bill making it
a tribal publication and paying its ex-
lpenses from the tribal funds. The
! national council called it the Chero-
kee Advocate. 1t was printed half
in English and half in Cherokee and
, Icontinued its policy sit had In the
Ipast Any person who would read the
iCherokee language was entitled to 1t
free. William p. Ross, a graduate of
Princeton University and an Indian
: scholar was the first editor of the
paper under the new name of the Ad-
vocate. Later William Ross became
chief o fthe Cherokee Nation.
In April, 1905 the tribal council lost
all its Jurisdiction over its lands and
its people when an act of congress
made the Indians citizens of the Unit.
led States.
The End Finally Came.
The Advocate found itself without
means of support For time it
struggled nobly and bravely on and
then died leaving only memory Of
the things it had done.
The type as far as is known is the
only font of type Of an Indian Ian
guage that ever existed At little over
La year ago part of it was brought
to MuskOgee and Is now stored some
where in this city, few people knew
exactly where The type was made
Especially for the Advocate,
Three generations of one family act
ed as its editors. w. P. Boudinot
was son of Elias Boudinot, the first