Tucson Citizen

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Tucson Citizen
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet

Owner	Gannett
Editor	Michael Chihak
Founded	1870
Headquarters	4850 S. Park Ave. Tucson, AZ 85714 United States

Website: www.tucsoncitizen.com

The Tucson Citizen is a daily newspaper in Tucson, Arizona. It was founded by Richard C. McCormick with John Wasson as publisher and editor on October 15, 1870 as the Arizona Citizen. The current publisher and editor is Michael Chihak.

As of October 2005, the daily circulation was approximately 30,937. The Citizen publishes six days per week (except Sunday, when only the Arizona Daily Star is published as part of the two papers' joint operating agreement).

The Tucson Citizen is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Arizona.

[edit] History

Founder Richard C. McCormick had originally been the owner of the Arizonan. However when the editor of the Arizonan refused to support the Richard C. McCormick's re-election as congressional delegate for the territory of Arizona, McCormick took the press and started the Arizona Citizen with Wasson. During the mid-1880s, the newspaper was known as the Tucson Weekly Citizen. William A. Small, his wife, and William H. Johnson invested in the newspaper in the late 1930s. Johnson sold his share to Small in 1964, and Small turned control over to his son, William A. Small Jr. in 1966 when he retired.

In 1977, the Citizen was sold to Gannett Company, Inc., the current owner.

[edit] Role in Chiricahua relocation

John Wasson had thundered that Thomas Johnathan Jeffords was an "incarnate demon" and accused him being a drunkard, being in collusion with whiskey peddlers and ammunition dealers, and receiving gold and livestock stolen by the Chiricahuas in Mexicos.

Thomas Johnathan Jeffords was a friend of the Chiricahua chief Cochise. Cochise had struck up a deal with General O.O. Howard in which his tribe would get territory on Apache Pass. Howard agreed to a reservation in Chokonen Chiricahua territory, one that ran from the Dragoon Mountains on the west to the Peloncillo Mountains on the east. It included the Chiricahua Mountains and ran south to the Mexican border. Howard offered promised rations of food and clothing to be distributed by Jeffords.

After General George Crook had launched his campaign against the Yavapais and Western Apaches, he demanded that the Chiricahuas submit to a daily rollcall, or else "he would commence hostilities against them without delay." After Cochise had died, Thomas Johnathan Jeffords lived on for two more years, but did not have the influence over the Apaches that Cochise had. Many Americans, including Crook, did not trust him either.

Jeffords denied the accusations from the Tucson Weekly Citizen editor, but on May 3 the government ordered John Clum to suspend Jeffords and, if "practicable," transfer the Chiricahuas to San Carlos, the southern part of the White Mountain Apache Reservation. Only 42 men and 280 women and children went to San Carlos at first, while others tried to spread throughout southern Arizona and into Mexico. Later San Carlos was in one of the lowest and hottest portions of the reservation, Native American tribes were cramped together with little regard for cultural and linguistics differences, and many died from disease.