Indian Chieftain (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.])
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,039 issues from 1882 to 1902, published in Vinita, Oklahoma, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Indian Chieftain, one of the largest and most influential newspapers in the Cherokee Nation, was established on September 22, 1882, at Vinita, in Craig County, Indian Territory. The 8-column, 4-page weekly was committed to the interests of all Five Civilized Tribes. Its motto read, “Devoted to the Interests of the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Creeks, and Other Indians of the Indian Territory.”
The Chieftain was financed by the Chieftain Publishing Company, owned by local Vinita merchant and trader, George W. Green. White men could not own property in Indian Territory at the time, so Green had to operate behind the scenes as owner and publisher. Green appointed popular Cherokee leader, Augustus “Gus” Ivey, as the Chieftain’s first editor. Although, Ivey’s name was on the masthead, J.W. Scroggs, a white man, did most of the editing work. Scroggs worked as the “local editor” until April 1884.
Subsequently, the Chieftain was edited by a series of prominent Cherokees. Robert Latham Owen, a descendent of Cherokee chief Occonnostolas, served as editor in 1883-84. The founding father of Oklahoma journalism, William Potter Ross, took Owen’s place as editor. Ross was the former publisher of the Cherokee Advocate and later became a United States Senator. Ross resigned in 1884 after Green sold the Chieftain to M.E. Milford, the former editor of the Daily Commonwealth of Topeka, Kansas. John Lynch Adair, a mixed-blood Cherokee poet and former editor of Ross’s…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Vinita, Oklahoma, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress