Locating the Resiliency & Survivance in the Cherokee Phoenix

Abstract

This thesis is a content analysis of the first phase of Cherokee Phoenix, the first American Indian newspaper started during a time of turmoil--the era of Removal. The Cherokee Phoenix began publication in New Echota, Cherokee Nation on February 21, 1828 with Elias Boudinot as the first editor. Its last publication in this location was on May 31, 1834. The paper was re-enlivened later as the Cherokee Advocate and again as the Cherokee Phoenix. This paper was meant to be printed weekly (on Thursdays), but this did not always happen. A content analysis looking for themes of `assimilation,' endurance, `survivance,' resiliency, struggle, adaptation, and `peoplehood' was undertaken. The goal was to `re-write' the history that already exists about the Cherokee Phoenix and Cherokee people, by proposing and providing evidential support for a more complex and messy explanation as to why the Cherokee Phoenix started and continued to be published.