Bridging Two Peoples: Chief Peter E. Jones, 1843–1909

7. Canada’s First Aboriginal Publisher

103 Q Seven Canada’s First Aboriginal Publisher Q The urgent need to inform Aboriginals on the reserves of their right to vote and encourage them to register with election officers gave Dr. Jones the motivation he needed to launch his newspaper. He dedicated it to the interests of all the Aboriginals of North America, especially the Aboriginal peoples of Canada.1 Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, Aboriginal peoples had a communication system covering much of the continent. By establishing an Aboriginal newspaper, Dr. Jones was revitalizing his band’s tradition in which runners carried these messages.2 The Mississaugas living at the foot of the “Carrying Place,” now Toronto, were responsible for transmitting information about the fur trade on the Great Lakes. One of their wampum belts, featuring an eagle perched on a pine tree beside the Credit River, even represents the band’s “watching and swiftness in carrying messages.”3 Aboriginal media was a means to unite the various bands. The first Aboriginal newspaper in North America had been the Cherokee Phoenix , a weekly published by the Cherokee Nation’s council in 1828. Cleverly formatted, it featured adjacent columns in English and in Cherokee syllabic text.4 The editor hoped to unite the scattered tribes by providing news, editorials, official notices, short works of fiction, and articles encouraging the “arts of civilized life.”5 At the time, the Cherokees faced exile from their ancestral lands in Georgia and surrounding states to the wilderness west of the Mississippi in what would become Oklahoma. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 divided the Cherokee population. Although many were adamant against being uprooted, others favoured negotiation as the government demanded. The newspaper became increasingly supportive of the resistance movement and, reflecting this position, its name was changed to the Cherokee Phoenix and Indian Advocate. The newspaper was successful in eliciting widespread public support for the plight of the Cherokee Nation in many parts of the United States and abroad. 104 Chapter Seven Figure 11 The Indian Publishing Company as pictured in advertisements placed in their newspaper. (Source: Courtesy of the Toronto Reference Library) The speeches of US senators condemning the government’s “Indian removal policy”—including those by the fiery orator Daniel Webster— were printed verbatim. Local officials decided that the Cherokee Phoenix had to be silenced, and a Georgia guard unit destroyed the press in 1834. In 1838, after the thousands of Cherokees opposing removal signed a petition, the United States army entered Cherokee territory, took the protesters captive, and started the infamous “Trail of Tears,” the sixteenhundred -kilometre march to what is now Oklahoma, during which some four thousand men, women, and children perished.6 While Dr. Jones probably was not looking to foster violent resistance to government, he did want to provide a forum for communication among Aboriginal peoples that would encourage political participation. The Indian Act had segregated his people on isolated reserves, effectively blocking any communication that could inspire organized resistance, and as the first Aboriginal paper in the Dominion of Canada, Jones’s Canada’s First Aboriginal Publisher 105 work tried to overcome this disadvantage. Prime Minister Macdonald believed his tough policy was succeeding, as proven by the progress made by the Six Nations and the Mississaugas of the New Credit bands. He believed that they could soon safely be allowed more freedom under his government’s program of “tutelage,” while other Canadian Aboriginals, especially in the Northwest, would continue to be treated like children.7 Macdonald never made good on this promise, however. The Six Nations and Mississaugas of the New Credit remained firmly under the thumb of their Indian agent. If the prime minister or one of his many deputies had attended even one Grand Council of Ontario meeting, he may have realized that a great many bands had made significant progress and that their leaders were sophisticated adults, but Jones knew that the time had come to work toward educating his people and acquiring more political Box 1 Prospectus of The Indian, 30 December 1885 “A paper devoted to the interests of the Aborigines of North America, and especially to the Indians of Canada” 1 To be a bi-monthly paper until the subscription justifies a weekly issue. 2 To furnish news from the Indian reserves in Canada and the United States. 3 To publish a general epitome of news from all parts of the world. 4 A thorough...