Publication History:

Place of Publication: Keams Canyon, Arizona

Frequency:  Monthly

Volume and Issue Data:  Vol. 1, No. 1, Jan. 1894-Vol. 2, No. 4, April 1895

Size and Format:  One-column, two-page typed and mimeographed newsletter; after July, 1894:  four pages, two columns

Editor/Publisher:  Editor, Curtis P. Coe (1894-1895); anonymous editor (April 1894); Publisher, Moqui (Hopi) Reservation Faith Mission (before July, 1894), Otho F. Curtis, Chicago (after July, 1894)

Title Changes and Continuation:  None

General Description and Notes:

According to Littlefield and Parins, the Moqui Mission Messenger was devoted to supporting editor Coe’s mission activities among the Hopi, Navajo and Arapahoe Indians at the Moqui Reservation (est. 1883).  The audience was friends and supporters of Coe’s mission work.  In the first issue, Coe asked readers to send grass roots, seeds and other plant stock to assist agricultural development.  The paper also contained accounts of the editor’s experiences with the Indians of the reservation and descriptions of native customs, habits and religion.  News of others involved with the mission, inspirational items, statistics on Arizona weather, census data on Indians and reservation financial information completed the general content of the issues.  The March and April, 1895 issues contained information about Alaska where Coe was to assume in May the position of superintendent of the Wood Island, Alaska, orphanage operated by the Women’s American Baptist Home Mission Society of Boston.  The editor announced that the Messenger would be discontinued after April, but that subscribers would receive the mission society’s publication, The Echo thereafter.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  Frederick Webb Hodge, ed., Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (Washington, D.C.:  Government Publishing Office, 1910), 2:233; David F. Littlefield, Jr. and James W. Parins,  American Indian and Alaska Native Newspapers and Periodicals, 1826-1924 (Westport, Conn.:  Greenwood Press, 1984), 247-248

Locations:  DSI-BAE; ULS