Content area
Abstract
This study uses an ethnohistoric approach to explore how Indians were portrayed in Michigan newspapers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with regards to coverage of the major treaties (1836 and 1842) and compacts (1993) that affected Indians in the Territory and State of Michigan. It seeks to answer the questions “How were Indians portrayed in Michigan newspaper coverage of treaties between whites and Indians in the Territory and State of Michigan?” and “What has changed in this coverage from the nineteenth century to today?”
Chapter two looks at attempts to answer this question in the context of newspaper coverage of Indians in general. Chapter three examines treaties from both white and Indian perspectives to provide the proper context for understanding treatymaking. Chapter four explores the specific treaty processes within Michigan to refine the treaty making context.
Chapter five looks at newspaper coverage of Native Americans in general in the United States in the nineteenth century, followed by a more detailed look at Michigan newspaper coverage of Indians in Chapter six. Chapter seven looks at specific Michigan newspaper coverage of the Treaty of 1836 with a brief follow-up look at the treaty of 1842 in Chapter eight. A summary of Michigan newspaper coverage of the nineteenth century treaties follows in Chapter nine. Chapter ten is a follow-up study looking at Michigan newspaper coverage of gaming compacts signed in 1993 by Gov. John Engler and seven of Michigan's Indian tribes. These compacts were the first agreements signed between state officials and Indian tribes since the end of the treatymaking period.
This study reaches the conclusion that while Native Americans received less than objective or balanced coverage in nineteenth century Michigan newspapers, the coverage they did receive was about as good as could be expected. Coverage from the present, taken as a whole, provided more thorough and balanced coverage of Indians, but taken city by city showed parallels to nineteenth century coverage suggesting that Indians still have not receive balanced coverage from Michigan newspapers with respect to treaties and compacts.
