{"id":81119,"date":"2021-10-22T11:45:44","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T15:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=81119"},"modified":"2021-10-22T11:56:19","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T15:56:19","slug":"learning-about-native-american-newspapers-the-cherokee-advocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/learning-about-native-american-newspapers-the-cherokee-advocate.html","title":{"rendered":"Learning about Native American Newspapers: The \u2018Cherokee Advocate\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega writes about an important newspaper in Native American \u2013 and U.S. \u2013 history: the \u201cCherokee Advocate.\u201d Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that newspapers help family historians learn more about the people within a community. Obviously when we search newspaper collections, we hope for a personal mention of an ancestor \u2013 but even in the absence of that personal mention, a newspaper can shed light on our ancestor\u2019s time and place. Newspapers for a community can provide us with much needed historical context that in turn helps us do better genealogical research.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: Sequoyah with a tablet depicting his writing system for the Cherokee language, 19th-century print of a painting. Painter: Henry Inman; copy after a painting by Charles Bird King which was lost in a fire in the Smithsonian in 1865. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do you have Native American roots? The first Native American newspaper was the Cherokee Phoenix<\/em>, first published on 21 February 1828. Written in both Cherokee and English, that first issue included the Cherokee constitution, as well as general interest and opinion articles. (1) To produce the Cherokee-language articles, the newspaper used the syllabary developed by Sequoyah in 1821.<\/p>\n

Other Native American newspapers followed and included personal information as well as articles of interest to various tribal communities.<\/p>\n

GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> include Native American newspapers. Titles include:<\/p>\n