Muskogee's First Newspaper

Today, most residents of Muskogee think of the "Muskogee Phoenix" as being its first newspaper because it has lasted for so many years. When told that it was not, old-timers recall the "Muskogee Times-Democrat" as a likely candidate as the first newspaper. Neither one has the distinction.

The newspaper title that began Muskogee's publishing history was the "Indian Progress." Its slogan, "Onward and Upward," typified a growing town less than four years old.

Elias C. Boudinot owned the newspaper in partnership with at least one other. E. Poe Harris was the working editor. Both were Masons who promoted railroad construction and assimilation with whites who wanted to move into Indian Territory. Seventeen-year-old Caleb Starr also worked there.

The editor and owner bragged that the Indian Progress was owned, edited and published by Native Americans. All of this was true up to a point. Harris hastily filed for citizenship in the Cherokee Nation because of his marriage to a member of that tribe. At that time, such marriage conveyed citizenship to the non-Indian spouse.

Boudinot and Harris knew they faced opposition when they moved their hand-cranked press into a building they erected on Muskogee's Main Street. They planned to publish the newspaper in multiple tribal languages. They hoped the support of several tribes might offset the opposition of a single tribe.

However, the Creek Nation took offense with the newspaper's position on opening up Indian Territory to settlement. In typically western fashion, the arguments grew heated. The Creek's National Council finally passed a tribal law banning the newspaper.

The Creek Council ordinance was based on Boudinot and Harris not having obtained permission to locate a business in the Creek Nation where Muskogee was located. The council gave the newspaper ten days to depart or else the tribe would confiscate the press and building.

Six days later, on October 22, 1875, the first issue of the Indian Progress came off the press. The Creek Nation did not rush to remove the newspaper. This may possibly have been in response to Boudinot's complaints to the Indian Agent. Boudinot argued that "free press" was being trampled.

The Creek Nation's opposition finally won out. In December, the press moved to Vinita in the Cherokee Nation. It continued printing articles favorable to its agenda until the following March. Then, the newspaper owners finally gave up.

During its publication in Muskogee, the Indian Progress published a weekly, four-page publication. Two columns of print appeared in each of the languages of the Five Civilized Tribes. After writing columns in Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole, he wrote the last seven in English. A yearly subscription cost one dollar.

The Indian Progress newspaper did not survive for long because it was ahead of its time editorially. Alternatively, one may argue it angered the wrong readership.