NSU Tahlequah 2/21

Field trip!

On Feburary 22nd, I drove from Tulsa through the beautiful hills of Eastern Oklahoma to the NSU Tahlequah campus . 

Once on campus, I made my way over to the John Vaughan library. Compared to Broken Arrow's campus, this library is quite substantial. I met with Ashley Stoddard, Special Collections and Historical Specialist of the library. She gave me a tour of both the archives department and special collections. At Vaughan library, the "archives" section has artifacts and documents obtained by NSU, while special collections pertains mostly to Native America tribes and genealogy. The campus has deep native ties, as it originated in 1851 as Cherokee National Female Seminary before it later became a state school for the training of teachers.

Entrance to the Special Collections

Ashley gave me a brief tour of the archives and special collections before starting on my project.

This is the public room of the special collections where anyone can received assistance looking for records and other historical documents.

A display about the World War II Navajo code talkers

An old map of the Cherokee Nation

One corner of the restricted area where most of the documents are held. This is where I spent most of my day.

This is the "cage" where particularly valuable items are kept under extra lock and key.

Rare and historic tribal items are kept in the cage.

A drying chamber that all items must go in after they have been freeze dried. This process kills off mold. The books and other items are then gently cleaned with isopropyl alcohol before storage.

After the tour, it was time to get started on my project. In special collections, numerous tribal newspapers have been collected and stored over the years. Most of them were in the 1960s - 1990s range, but there were a few earlier dates as well. Ashley wanted me to go through the collection to see if any newspapers in their collection have already been digitized and made available online. Since these newspapers are not terribly old, they wanted to get a better idea of what they could recycle. They have plans to move special collections to a smaller area in the library, and so space is an issue.

Boxes of tribal newspapers

For the next several hours I made a list of the papers, their date range, and whether or not they were available online. I also took note if the Oklahoma historical society had copies on microfilm at their location in Oklahoma City. I have included the list below.

The Hunt begins! Using my internet sleuthing skills to find digitized versions of old newspapers.

 


I enjoyed my work very much. I suppose it was a combination of the quiet of the space, the fascinating history involved, and the the tangibility of the items I was working with that made the project so satisfying. I suspect that, in a perfect world, I would have an archive related job.

Name	Years in Collection	Years Available Online	Paywall?	Link
Cherokee Spirit	1952	NA
Navajo Times	1960-2010	All	No	https://navajotimes.newspaperarchive.com
Akwesane Notes	1975-92,96-97	1969-1987 Some are missing	No	https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=akewsasnenotes
American Indian Baptist Voice/ Smoke Signals	1981-90	NA
Lakota Times/ Indian Country Today	1990-2009	2008-2019	No	https://www.lakotacountrytimes.com/archives/
Wassaja	1973-83	NA
Kiowa Indian News	1980-87	NA
Bisknik	1981,1988-2018	2001-2020	No	https://www.choctawnation.com/biskinik-newspaper-archive
Camp Crier	1983-89	NA		On microfilm at John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick Research Center:  https://www.okhistory.org/research/newspholdings.php?id=44
Char-Koosta	75-83	NA
CBEP News	1981-84	NA
Cherokee Phoenix/Advocate	1982-2003	NA		On microfilm at John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick Research Center:  https://www.okhistory.org/research/newspholdings.php?id=44
Cherokee Observer	1993-2003, one issue 2007	NA		On microfilm at John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick Research Center:  https://www.okhistory.org/research/newspholdings.php?id=44
Cherokee Nation News	1968-69	NA		On microfilm at: https://www.okhistory.org/research/newspholdings.php?id=44
Cherokee Nation Newsletter	1967-68	NA		On microfilm from March 1968 onward. https://www.okhistory.org/research/newspholdings.php?id=44
Native American Times/Oklahoma Indian Times	1995-2012	2009-2014	No	https://archive.org/search.php?query=Native+American+Times&page=2 On microfilm from 2001-2012 at John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick Research Center:  https://www.okhistory.org/research/newspholdings.php?id=44
Historia	1913-21	NA
Indian Baptist Awakener	1969-80	NA
Indian Leader	1986-88	NA
Cherokee One Feather	1971-2011	May 2011-		https://www.theonefeather.com/category/back-issues
Chickasaw Times	1975-2009	2004-		http://www.chickasawtimes.net/Archived-E-Editions.aspx
Choctaw Times	1974-75	NA
Cookson Hills Christian Schools	1958-1992	NA
This Week Indian Country Today	2011-2013	Website archives page error
Indian Trader	1980-2011	NA
Gah-Yah Tont	2006-2011	2002-present	No	http://www.ganyahde.com/repository.html
Delaware Indian News	1987-2004	NA
Kui Tatk	1984-87	NA
Medicine Bundle	1976-83	1976 onward	Yes	https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/11046035
Oio News/ Oio Journal	1977-85	NA
Oklahoma Heritage	1974-79	NA
Seminole Campfire	1976	NA		On microfilm at John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick Research Center:  https://www.okhistory.org/research/newspholdings.php?id=44
The Tahlequah American	1983-85	NA
Tahlequah Green Country Neighbors	1989-93	NA
Tahlequah Daily Times Journal	1994-2000	NA		94-95 on microfilm at John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick Research Center:  https://www.okhistory.org/research/newspholdings.php?id=44
Twin Territories	1990-2001	NA		On microfilm at John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick Research Center:  https://www.okhistory.org/research/newspholdings.php?id=44
Tulsa Indian News	1974-76	NA		On microfilm from 74-79 at John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick Research Center:  https://www.okhistory.org/research/newspholdings.php?id=44
Tushka Homman	1935-36	NA
United Keetowah Band UKB News	1991-95, 2009-2013	NA