The first issue of the Cherokee Phoenix was published on
February 21, 1828. In 1829 the name of the Cherokee Phoenix was
changed to the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate to reflect
the expanding scope of the publication. The impending removal of
the Cherokees from Georgia was a closely watched issue
nationally. As the focus of the newspaper shifted to the removal
crisis, the paper's editor began to find himself at odds with
the General Council and the anti-removal principal Chief John
Ross. In the years following the Indian Removal Act (1830),
Boudinot had increasingly supported the voluntary removal of the
Cherokees to a territory west of the Mississippi River. The
paper was never intended to be a vehicle of free speech but an
instrument of the official leadership of the Cherokee Nation,
which vehemently opposed Cherokee removal on any terms. In
August 1832 Boudinot was forced to resign, and Elijah Hicks, an
anti-removal Cherokee, became the editor of the Phoenix. The
Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advoc