Indian Territory Print Culture

Kathryn Walkiewicz argues that when the US federal government attempted to wrest political control of Indian Territory away from its Native inhabitants at the end of the nineteenth-century, they were met with opposition from... [ view full abstract ]

Kathryn Walkiewicz argues that when the US federal government attempted to wrest political control of Indian Territory away from its Native inhabitants at the end of the nineteenth-century, they were met with opposition from Five Tribes citizens (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Msvkoke/Creek, and Seminole) who used the region’s print network to circulate critiques of the proposed policies. While Indian Territory’s thriving print culture included writings in Native languages, much of what publicly circulated was printed in English. English was not only incorporated into Native discourses but also became a lingua franca for speaking transindigenously across the Five Tribes in Indian Territory. Because the production, circulation, and reception of print occurred in a territory under Indigenous governance, it must be understood as distinct from English-language print culture produced in the US proper. The way authors and editors utilized language, especially through the use of local slang, Indigenous words, and other tribally and regionally-specific terminology, demonstrated a relationship to English that was as appropriative as it was assimilationist. This paper analyzes how the English language was used to articulate anticolonial critiques and organize across nations in an effort to challenge further US settler encroachment in nineteenth-century Indian Territory.