Historic printing press returns home…

June 24, 2010 by · 1 Comment 

The following appeared in the May/June issue of “The History Channel Magazine“. Given its focus I thought it worth sharing with our collectors:

“The ‘Cherokee Advocate‘ became the first newspaper published in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) on Sept. 26, 1844. Published weekly, in both Cherokee and English, it provided Cherokees with information about their people and the United States. When it first started publication it was the country’s only tribal-owned newspaper; it would later be joined by the “Choctaw Intelligencer” in 1850 and the “Chickasaw Intelligencer” in 1854.

The last issue of the Advocate was published in 1906 after the federal government dissolved the Cherokee Nation. The printing office, press, and other equipment were sold to a Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, publisher in 1911, and the Cherokee syllabary typeset was sent to the Smithsonian Institution for preservation.

After nearly 100 years, the Cherokee Advocate printing press returned to its original home at the Cherokee National Supreme Court Museum in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in early 2010. The printing press will be one of the museum’s centerpieces. For more information, visit cherokeetourismok.com.”