Indian Citizen Building
a.k.a. Atoka Citizen-Democrat Newspaper Office
115 N. Ohio Ave., Atoka, OKThe Atoka Indian Citizen, founded in 1889, was the most influential newspaper in the Atoka area and was the first to espouse a Choctaw point of view. It is significant because of the information it provided to the Choctaw population and because of the longevity of that service, as well as for its retention of original equipment.
The Indian Citizen was founded by the politically influential Choctaw, James S. Standley and his son-in-law, Butler S. Smiser. Their express purpose was to represent Choctaw interests which they believed were consistently misrepresented by other papers. The Indian Citizen was first published on March 2, 1889 as an eight-page weekly. The paper printed local and United States news in both English and Choctaw. Editorial policy was strongly pro-Choctaw, and laws concerning Choctaws were published. Circulation reached over 1,000 by 1891 and over 3,000 by 1900. Contemporaries praised the Indian Citizen for the quality of its equipment and product.
In 1905, after the death of Standley, the paper was merged with the Atoka Democrat and the Atoka Citizen-Democrat was formed. Housed in the original offices, the newspaper continued to support Indian interests. B. R. Cook took over as owner and editor in 1912 and held those positions until very recently. The Atoka Citizen-Domocrat survives to date and publication continues in the same building with much of the original equipment.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.