Volume 10 , Issue 4

The First Newspapers of Oklahoma

The first newspaper printed, published in Oklahoma was the Cherokee Advocate, which was established and conducted under the auspices of the tribal government.

Its publication office was at Tahlequah, the first number appearing on the 26th of September, 1844. William P. Ross, a nephew of Chief John Ross and a graduate of Princeton University, was its first editor, and James D. Wofford was translator.

It was issued weekly and consisted of four pages of seven columns each. One page, sometimes more and sometimes less, was generally printed in the Cherokee (Sequoyah) text, the rest being in English. David Carter and James S. Vann were subsequent editors.

The publication of the Cherokee Advocate was discontinued several years before the outbreak of the Civil war because of the scarcity of funds. The publication of the Advocate was not resumed until in 1870. The columns of the Cherokee Advocate, during this first period of its existence, would have compared very favorably with the best weekly papers of the time in the states east of the Mississippi.

Executive proclamations, official notices, legislative council proceedings and enactments and news of the Cherokee Nation and neighboring Indian tribes were printed in both English and Cherokee. In Addition, there were timely editorials upon pertinent themes, a goodly selection from the news of the day (both domestic and foreign), with some space devoted to agriculture, industrial development, and education, and a miscellaneous assortment of short stories, poems and other literary products of the time.

Like the national seminaries, the Advocate exerted a profound influence upon the Cherokees as a people.

At least two efforts were made to establish a newspaper in the Choctaw Nation during this period, as the following news items bear witness:

Chatah Holisso... We have received the first number of the Choctaw Telegraph, printed in Doaksville, Choctaw Nation, edited by Daniel Folsom, a native, and published by D. G. Ball. It is neatly printed on a super-royal sheet and is well edited. We extend to them the right hand of fellowship. May it prosper. -- fort Smith Herald, November 8, 1848.

New Paper... The first number of the Choctaw Intelligencer came to hand this week, printed in English and Choctaw, Doaksville, Choctaw Nation, D. D. Alsobrook, publisher, J. P. Kingsbury and J. E. Dwight, editors. It is neatly printed and bids fair to excel its predecessor, the Choctaw Telegraph. Price $2 in advance. -- Fort Smith Herald, June 15, 1850. -- pg. 205, Vol. 1, A Standard History of Oklahoma, by Joseph B. Thoburn
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