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While radio personality Will Rogers's pioneering role in radio is obvious (he worked in the medium during its earliest years), its connections to Cherokee and other tribal technologies have been neglected. This failure to recognize Rogers's part in this particular strain of Cherokee history is a symptom of a larger cultural illness in the United States that assumes Native peoples exist outside the confines of industrial progress. This article analyzes Rogers's contributions to this increasingly important medium and the ways his technological artistry was shaped by his connection to Cherokee history. First, the author considers the content of the radio shows and the sound of his voice as they relate to Rogers's conceptions of himself as a Cherokee celebrity navigating a starkly racialized American medium. What makes his radio shows distinct from other artistic tools Rogers employed (journalism, film, and stage performance) is their sheer spontaneity. Though his work in other media seemed off-the-cuff, it was in fact edited by moral codes curtailing performers' content. This "radio-free Rogers" covertly questioned assumptions regarding Native peoples' relationship to technology and traditionally accepted tales of American history. Perhaps because these shows were recorded live and aired uncensored, Rogers met occasional serious criticism--especially from the African American community--for his shows' content. The second part of this article examines these moments of rupture, for they not only complicate Rogers's romanticized persona but also reveal complex historical connections to his familial past. By considering the convergent effects of Cherokee and American slave systems as seen through Rogers's on-air performances, the author hopes to further elucidate some of the reasons the Cherokee-slavery issue has received such intense public scrutiny over the past few years. Finally, this article proposes that Rogers's role in early radio furthers scholars' understandings of radio use in Indian Country at large. Tribal benefits and interpretations of Western technologies are reflected in both modern tribal radio usage and Rogers's commentary on technology on the air. (Contains 4 figures and 90 notes.

This brief examination of the early-twentieth-century United States expands academic interpretations of ethnic performance in the popular realm. The case of Will Rogers- Cherokee entertainer, writer, and political pundit--is particularly useful in understanding the representational conflicts, then and now, between cowboys and American Indians in the popular realm. Rogers himself was unexpected; he was both a cowboy and an Indian, a conflation that baffled and titillated his urban fan base. Throughout his early career, from approximately 1903 to 1919, Rogers and his audience grappled with these seemingly conflicting roles of cowboy and Indian, characters steeped in a seeming ethnic conflict yet embodied simultaneously by Rogers. The celebrity's strong ties to Cherokee ranching culture influenced the way he presented himself, yet such performances confounded his fans. In the end, Rogers's self-representation as a cowboy limited the public's recognition of him as an Indian.