Honoring Their Heritage p. 11

By: Debra Gersh Hernandez

Native American Journalists Association celebrates the
first Native American newspaper, founded in 1828 sp.

SOME WOUNDS RUN very deep. Healing can take a long time. For a group of Native American journalists, some slow healing began recently in New Echota.
Some members of the Native American Journalists Association were leery of attending the Unity '94 conference of minority journalists in Atlanta because of the state's recent and past treatment of Native Americans.
Those NAJA members who refused to participate had "very legitimate beefs against the demeaning use of Native Americans regarding sports team names [i.e., the Atlanta Braves]. In their own good conscience, they couldn't do that. They had to make a stand," explained NAJA executive director Gordon Regguinti.
Georgia's mistreatment of Native Americans goes back further, however, notably to the infamous Trail of Tears, which went on for years, culminating in 1838 and 1939, when the Cherokee people were forcibly moved west by the Georgia militia.
Among the casualties was the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper, which had been shut down by soldiers who threw its presses down a well in 1834.
The Phoenix, which began in 1828, was published in the Cherokee Nation capital of New Echota, which now is part of Calhoun, Ga. The weekly Phoenix, published in both the English and Cherokee languages, was made possible by the creation of a Cherokee syllabary by Sequoyah in 1821, a creation unique at that time.
The paper's first editor, Elias Boudinot, was ousted in 1832. He was considered a traitor for his participation in the treaty that led to the removal and later was assassinated.
Elijah Hicks succeeded him as editor for the next two years, until the printing office, which also printed books translated into Cherokee, was destroyed.
The New Echota site fell into private use for many years, but in the 1950s a group of Calhoun residents began restoration of the site as a historical landmark. Now, many of the buildings, including the print shop, have been recreated.
Some lead type from the Phoenix was recovered during archeological excavations of the well into which its presses were thrown.
Some 200 Native American journalists and colleagues who attended the Unity conference were joined by nearly 100 others to honor the Phoenix during a ceremony at New Echota.
Among those attending were Wilma Mankiller, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, making her first trip to New Echota; Richard Welch, editor of the Cherokee One Feather and a council member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, which had refused to move west in the 1830s; and several Georgia state officials.
The NAJA gave a plaque to the Cherokee Nation that was placed at the site of the Phoenix's print shop. The plaque reads: "The Cherokee Phoenix (1828-34). To honor the first Native American newspaper and to celebrate the founding of Native American journalism at this place in 1828. Erected by the Native American Journalists Association, 1994."
"In essence, that's what really propelled us wholeheartedly to adopt the Atlanta site," Regguinti said. It was "historically significant, both in the contemporary sense and in coming home. It broadened the experience [of the conference]. In essence, it captured what Unity was all about: coming together but also maintaining our identity."
For NAJA members and guests, the ceremony "helped to kind of bring everything together for them," he said. "Some people I know . . . veteran journalists, had a very, very deep link spiritually with the work of the Phoenix, in admiring what they had accomplished. Leading up to the conference, that's what made them want to be there."
Regguinti also lauded non-Native people who worked to restore the site.
Whether they acted from "a sense of duty, a sense of guilt, who knows?" he said. "They brought good hearts to the project and made something beautiful out of it."
That non-Native Americans could do this "really felt good," and there was a lot of healing going on, he said, adding that in her comments, Mankiller indicated she had a hard time coming back to Georgia because of its history, but the ceremony helped her begin to heal.