Oregon Digital Newspaper Program Menu

Spilyay Tymoo, the current newspaper of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, is now available from 1986-2005 on the Historic Oregon Newspapers website, thanks to a partnership with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, with funding from University of Oregon Libraries donors. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, located in Central Oregon, is a federally recognized Indian Tribe made up of Warm Springs, Wasco, and Paiute Tribes.

The Spilyay Tymoo has been in publication since 1976, and continues on a bi-weekly schedule today. While the University of Oregon Libraries has the earliest issues of the paper available in Special Collections, only the issues published between 1986 and 2005 have been microfilmed, and were thus the first to be scanned and made available online. This 19 year span of local, regional, and national Native American news can be keyword searched, via the Historic Oregon Newspapers’ Search page, and the paper’s Calendar View makes it easy to browse issues by date.

The most recent issues of the Spilyay Tymoo can be viewed on the Warm Springs News website, and more information can be found on the Spilyay Tymoo Facebook page.

Content from the Spilyay Tymoo, and all newspaper content on Historic Oregon Newspapers that was published after 1922 is available online through a Creative Commons, Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0 license. Many thanks to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, for partnering with the Oregon Digital Newspaper Program to make the Spilyay Tymoo available to the public online!

Thanks to collaborations with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and funding from University of Oregon (UO) Libraries donors, three new important titles are now available for searching and browsing on Historic Oregon Newspapers online:

• Smoke Signals (1978-2013) – newspaper of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

•  Weekly Chemawa American (1901-1910) and The Chemawa American (1914-1915) – student newspaper from the Chemawa Indian Boarding School just north of Salem (collectively referred to as Chemawa American)

This content is now available online in addition to the Klamath Tribune, which was published from 1956-1961 and documents the termination of the Klamath Tribes. (See our blog post from last spring for more information on the Klamath Tribune.)

Smoke Signals, the current newspaper of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, is now available for searching and browsing online with issues dating from 1978-2013. Smoke Signals started off as a monthly tribal newsletter in the 1970s as the Tribes were organizing to restore their tribal status, which had been terminated by the federal government in 1954. The U.S. Congress passed the Grand Ronde Restoration Act in 1983, restoring federally recognized status to the Tribes.

In 1995, the paper started appearing twice a month, and in 2005, Smoke Signals became part of the Tribes’ Public Affairs Department. During its lifetime and through numerous staff changes, Smoke Signals has won many journalism awards from the Native American Journalists Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association.

The majority of issues from Smoke Signals were scanned from microfilm negatives at the University of Oregon (UO) Libraries, but the Tribe scanned and provided several early issues that were missing from the UO Libraries’ microfilm collection.

The Weekly Chemawa American, available online from 1901-1910, featured news articles, literature, and photographs by students who were attending a journalism class taught by staff of the Chemawa Indian Boarding School. The paper covered school news, student achievements, and events, and reported on interesting articles and topics found in various newspapers, such as the Oregonian, in addition to student editorials. By late 1914, the publication shifted to a monthly schedule, dropping “weekly” from the title to become The Chemawa American, now available online from 1914-1915.

Chemawa Indian Boarding School is the oldest continually operating Indian Boarding School in the United States, established in 1880 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Forest Grove, Oregon, and then moved to Salem in 1885. The school has hosted students from throughout the western United States, including special groups of Alaskan natives, Navajo Indians, and in the earliest years, primarily students from Oregon’s tribal reservations. The school is still in operation today under management by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

All issues of the weekly and monthly Chemawa American were carefully scanned from the original paper documents, borrowed from the Cultural Exhibits and Archives program of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, where they are housed as part of the Charles Holmes collection. Charles Holmes was a teacher and the student newspaper advisor at the Chemawa Indian School from the 1950s – 1970s, and the collection includes thousands of photographs, correspondence, media, and other documents. Students at Willamette University have been working to catalogue and archive the many photographs from the Chemawa Indian School that are part of the Charles Holmes collection, led by archaeology professor Rebecca Dobkins in collaboration with the Tribes (read more about this project at http://www.grandronde.org/news/articles/dobkins-tells-chemawa-indian-school-stories-at-salem-library/).

Special thanks to the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, as well as Jennifer O’Neal, University Historian and Archivist at the University of Oregon Libraries, and David Lewis (CTGR Tribal Historian), for facilitating this significant digitization project!

Just in time for the holidays! Thanks to a partnership with the Morrow County Museum and the current Heppner Gazette-Times newspaper in Heppner, Oregon, historic issues of The Gazette-Times (1912-1925) and the Heppner Gazette-Times (1925-1951) are now available for keyword searching and browsing on Historic Oregon Newspapers online!

The Morrow County Museum has partnered with the Oregon Digital Newspaper Program (ODNP) to digitize a wealth of historic newspaper content from Heppner, and these new additions provide a comprehensive view of the area’s history from a local newspaper perspective. (Please see our blog titled “Morrow County Now Represented in Historic Oregon Newspapers Online!” for an introduction to the history of Heppner.)

The following Heppner titles are currently available for viewing online, free and open to the public:

• Heppner Weekly Gazette, 1883-1890
• The Weekly Heppner Gazette, 1890-1892
• Heppner Gazette, 1892-1912
• Heppner Times, 1903-1904
• The Gazette-Times, 1912-1925
• Heppner Herald, 1914-1924
• Heppner Gazette-Times, 1925-1951

The majority of content on the Historic Oregon Newspapers website was published before 1922, due to the public domain copyright law that allows free and open use of anything published on or before Dec. 31, 1922. The new additions from The Gazette-Times and the Heppner Gazette-Times, as well as the post-1922 content from the Heppner Herald, is made possible with copyright agreements from the publishers for a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial license. This means that any content that you find on the site that was published after 1922 can be used for non-commercial purposes, as long as proper attribution is given to the publisher and the Historic Oregon Newspapers website. For more information on copyright and newspapers, see our blog titled “Copyright and Historic Newspapers.”

‘Tis the season for exploring Oregon’s history through newspapers! Discover these and other Oregon newspaper titles at Historic Oregon Newspapers online, using the Title page to browse, the Search page to do advanced keyword searches across the collection, and the History page to learn more about newspaper history (more essays coming soon!). Happy Holidays!

Historic newspaper content from the Hood River News (1909-1913), the Maupin Times (1914-1930), and previously missing content from The Dalles Weekly Chronicle is now available for searching and browsing online at Historic Oregon Newspapers, thanks to a partnership with the Hood River County Library District, with funding from Google’s The Dalles Data Center and the Hood River Cultural Trust.

Located on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge among the Cascade Mountains, the community of Hood River was incorporated in 1895 as part of Wasco County, but became the county seat of the newly established Hood River County in 1908. At the confluence of the waters descending from Mount Hood meeting the Columbia River, the town is known for shipping, agriculture, brewing, and outdoor recreation.

The Maupin Times, published from 1914-1930 in Maupin, Oregon, on the Deschutes River in Wasco County, describes the rural happenings of the agricultural community east of Mount Hood, 40 miles from the Columbia River. Historic Oregon Newspapers online offers issues of the paper’s full run from 1914-1930.

The Hood River News began publishing in 1909, and continues to this day. In the 1939, the newspaper won the National Editorial Association trophy for best editorial page. Newly digitized issues of historic content from the News cover 1909-1913. Vivid full-page advertisement spreads accentuate the bold graphic style at the heart of this paper, not to mention the local coverage of the Hood River community!

Also unique to Historic Oregon Newspapers online is previously missing issues of The Dalles Weekly Chronicle.  The Dalles is county seat of Wasco County, home to a major hydro-electric dam and locks and connection to central Oregon. It represented the end of the river for those settling the Oregon Trail, where they might head toward Portland on the Barlow Road.  In 1890, the town was a rail and boat hub, and the Weekly Chronicle was founded on issues of flooding and water access for the area.  Although portions of this title have been available on the site for a few years, we have now filled in gaps in the content for 1893, July-Dec. of 1894, 1899, and 1900, so all content from Dec. 1890-1900 is now available.

Enjoy all the new papers made available through the historic preservation efforts of these remarkable partnerships, and find more history at Historic Oregon Newspapers!

Thanks to the funding and partnership of the Beaverton Library Foundation and the Beaverton Historical Society, the Beaverton Owl and Beaverton Times are now available on Historic Oregon Newspapers online.

Quick history of Beaverton

Beaverton is a community to the west of Portland, Oregon. Its name comes from beaver dams that could be found in the formerly marshy country; in fact, the area had been named Chakeipi, place of the beaver, before settlers arrived. The town was incorporated in 1893 with a population around 400. Today, Beaverton has around 93,542 people.

Historic Papers in Beaverton

The Beaverton Owl and the Beaverton Times began as the Beaverton Reporter in 1909, before being bought by Earl E. Fisher and changed to the Owl.

We have issues of The Beaverton Owl from July 20 1912 to May 16, 1914.  You can easily access these issues in the Historic Newspapers Calendar View. Additionally, you can easily search the title for terms.

Like the Report before it, the Owl was succeeded by The Beaverton Times in 1914 after being purchased by Hicks & Davis.

Historic Oregon Newspapers online now has weekly coverage of The Beaverton Times from August 19, 1915 – June 9, 1922.  Browse the issue calendar, or search the paper.

Find even more interesting stories from Beaverton and all around the state at Historic Oregon Newspapers online.

Thanks to a partnership with the Aurora Colony Historical Society and Museum of Aurora, Oregon, issues from May-December 1908 of the town’s historic newspaper, The Aurora Borealis, are now available for keyword searching and browsing at Historic Oregon Newspapers online!

Founded as a Christian communal colony in the 1850s, Aurora was populated by several hundred members of the Bethel Colony in Missouri, mostly German and Swiss immigrants, led by founder Wilhelm Keil across the Oregon Trail. Despite hardships in the new frontier, Aurora colonists thrived until Keil’s death in 1877 and the subsequent dissolution of the colony, which is now incorporated as the City of Aurora.

Content from The Aurora Borealis can be browsed by issue date via the website’s calendar view, and keyword searches of the title can be performed on the Search page by selecting “The Aurora Borealis” on the “Select Newspaper(s)” list. The paper covered news at all levels, including world, national, state, and of course local:

Explore the many articles, advertisements, and other interesting tidbits that The Aurora Borealis has to offer, and discover Oregon’s history at Historic Oregon Newspapers online.

Several historic newspaper titles from Hillsboro, county seat of Washington County, Oregon, are now available for keyword searching and browsing online at Historic Oregon Newspapers, thanks to a partnership with the Hillsboro Public Library! The following titles can be found listed in alphabetical order on the Historic Oregon Newspapers Titles page, and they can be selected for title-specific keyword searching on the Search page:

• Washington Independent, Oct. 30, 1874-Jan. 25, 1877

• Washington County Independent, Jan. 17, 1881

• The Independent (Hillsboro), Sept. 20. 1882-Jan. 2, 1890

• Hillsboro Independent, Aug. 4, 1893-June 12, 1908

• The Argus (Hillsboro), July 26, 1894-Aug. 8, 1895

• The Hillsboro Argus, Aug. 15, 1895-Dec. 28, 1922

Here are just a few clippings from these titles that we found to be interesting, but there are countless more headlines, articles, advertisements, images, and other curiosities just waiting to be discovered in these Hillsboro newspapers!

The Oregon Digital Newspaper Program (ODNP) is pleased to announce the addition of the Klamath Tribune to the Historic Oregon Newspapers online keyword-searchable database! Published in Chiloquin, Oregon from 1956-1961 by the Klamath Information and Education Program (a facet of the Oregon State Department of Education), this is the first newspaper solely covering Tribal issues that we have digitized and added to the website, in partnership with the Klamath Tribes and a generous University of Oregon Libraries donor.

The Klamath Tribune was published in the wake of the U.S. Congress’ 1954 decision to terminate federal recognition of the Klamath Tribes, which include the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Band of Paiute Indians. The decision was controversial, given that an official report from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) stated that the Klamath Tribes did not meet the criteria for termination, and there was major opposition from Tribal members. The Klamath Termination Act, otherwise known as Public Law 587, was framed in the context of helping the Tribes, but the effects of termination were overwhelmingly negative. (More information can be found online at The Klamath Tribes’ website.)

The Klamath Information and Education Program was created to help Tribal members assimilate into Anglo-American culture. Volume 1, Issue 1 of the Klamath Tribune appeared in November of 1956 as a means of communication with Tribal members in preparation for termination and to inform them of educational opportunities available to them under Section 26 of the termination law, which stated that:

The Klamath Tribune included:

Tribal news, with a focus on education-related news items and individual achievements:

“Q&A” sections about the Termination law (otherwise known as “Public Law 587”):

Recommendations for agriculture, ranching, and home-keeping practices:

Information on water rights, and other political, economic, and environmental issues:

Although Tribal perspectives were included, the paper was primarily dedicated to persuading Tribal members to actively learn and participate in the dominant Anglo-American culture and way of doing things:

The last issue of the Tribune was published in July of 1961. By 1986, the Klamath Tribes were successful in restoring their federally recognized tribal status through the Klamath Restoration Act. The addition of the Klamath Tribune to the Historic Oregon Newspapers database is a crucial step towards representing the full range of Oregon’s history and cultural heritage in our online newspaper collection. Go check it out, explore, and see for yourself! You never know what you might find in the newspaper pages of the past.

Sources:

Robbins, William G. “Subtopic : People, Politics, and the Environment Since 1945: Termination.” The Oregon History Project. Oregon Historical Society. Web. Accessed April 30, 2014. <http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/narratives/subtopic.cfm?subtopic_ID=171>

The Klamath Tribes. “History.” The Klamath Tribes. Web. Accessed April 30, 2014. <http://www.klamathtribes.org/history.html>

The Klamath Tribes. “Termination.” The Klamath Tribes. Web. Accessed April 30, 2014. <http://www.klamathtribes.org/background/termination.html>

New content from Columbia County’s first newspaper, St. Helens’ Oregon Mist, later titled the St. Helens Mist, has just been added to the Historic Oregon Newspapers website!

Working backwards through time in our digitization efforts, the Oregon Mist is now available for keyword searching and browsing from July 15, 1910-Feb. 14, 1913, and the St. Helens Mist is now available from Jan. 2, 1913-April 22, 1921. This newly added content was digitized in partnership with the St. Helens Public Library, with a grant from the Columbia County Cultural Coalition.

Earlier issues of the Oregon Mist, from Aug. 7, 1891-July 7, 1910, are scheduled to be digitized over the next two years as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program. Stay tuned for more announcements and highlights to come!

As the November 2012 Presidential election draws near, American voters are faced with many issues to deliberate and decisions to be made. Precisely 100 years ago, only American men were allowed to cast their votes for the next president. While women across the country would have to wait until 1921 to be considered eligible voters in national elections, women in Oregon were granted equal suffrage in state elections in November 1912, making this year’s election the Oregon women’s suffrage centennial.

The campaign for women’s suffrage in Oregon began as early as 1870, and the issue was raised on the Oregon ballot six times (1884, 1900, 1906, 1908, 1910, and 1912), more than any other state (Jensen). The most prominent leader of the Oregon suffrage movement  was Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915), best known for her suffragist newspaper, The New Northwest, published in Portland, Oregon from 1871-1887.

Duniway was born in Illinois and came to Oregon via the Oregon Trail with her family in 1852. After the long journey, she and her husband settled on a farm in Albany where she opened a millinery shop. As a female business owner, Duniway was frustrated that she was required to pay taxes, yet she was not allowed to vote. Additionally, she heard stories of abuse and disenfranchisement from many other women, and she decided to start campaigning for equal suffrage. Duniway moved her family to Portland in 1871, where she began to publish The New Northwest, advocating for women’s rights, human and workers’ rights, and equal suffrage.

Duniway’s brother, Harvey Scott, was also in the newspaper industry, although he did no favors for his sister. Scott was the editor of the Portland Oregonian from 1866 to 1872, and he generally opposed Duniway’s stance on political, economic, and social issues. The siblings would argue back and forth through their respective newspapers, thus influencing their subscribers either for or against equal suffrage. If it had not been for Scott’s far-reaching editorials in the Oregonian, the issue of women’s suffrage in Oregon might have passed long before 1912.

After years of persistent lobbying and rallying support for equal suffrage across the state and all over the Pacific Northwest, Duniway finally saw her dream become reality. On November 5, 1912, the men of Oregon voted 52% in favor of granting Oregon women the right to vote. At the age of 78, Duniway authored and signed Oregon’s Equal Suffrage Proclamation on November 30, 1912, and she has since been known as “Oregon’s Mother of Equal Suffrage.”

As we cast our votes this year, let us remember that Duniway  and countless women in Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and across the United States campaigned tirelessly to achieve the equal voting rights that we enjoy today.

Works cited:

Jensen, Kimberly. “Woman Suffrage in Oregon.” The Oregon Encyclopedia. Oregon History and Culture. Portland State University. 2008-2012.