Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1884-12-25
The Cherokee Alphabet.

Some weeks ago We were asked
to give the origin Of the Cherokee
alphabet. To many this viii be Of
no interest as they are already
farmiliar with the subject and can
probably point to many insccu-
racics in the following account by
Rev. J. Fleming, in the Christian
Hour:
Among these (spesking Of s
portion Of the Cher0kces who re-
fused 10 believe the teachings Of
the missionaries) was \ shrevd,
nliddle-aged Indian Of full blood.
whose name was SuqnOiyu. In
prOnouncingthis name give the u
It's short sound He and two OF
his companions were sitting on .
log IN the vicinity of his dwelling
when the missionaries became the
subject of their conversation One
of them remarked that he could not
understand that wonderful thing,
how the missionaries could express
their thoughts by marks on paper.
l think that is easy enough, said
Suquoiyu, and taking up a small
rod, be made mark In the sand
and said ''baH, that means = deer, T"
and 20 on until he had . number
Of marks. But he soon found that
his plan would net accomplish his
purpose. and vet he was determin-
ed 20 reduce his language 10 writ
ing If Il was possible. With this
vieg he began 10 study s0unds-
He found Ave simple sounds. He
could End no more He then began
10 apply affixes To- them and found
seventeen variations, and could
End 10 more. He could find no
safxes that is, there are no conso-
nanf ter1ninations 70 n single syl-
tsbie in the Cherokee language,
and when YOU have multi
piled FIVE into seventeen YOU have
every sound in this singular Ian
guage. except an occasional termi-
nal like the hiss IF q snake To find
characters 10 represent these
sounds, ne took the capitals of the
Roman ziphaoe :, turning some of
them upside own, and altering
Others IN diffe 7ent ways with the
additisa of the Arabic figures, until
he had his eig nty-six characters in
full He now showed his alphabet
20 his peoble, but they were incred-
ulous and would have nothing 10
do with it. He turned his back
upon them, ;ma went out 70 q lit
tie fragment of the nation living
wsst Of Arkansas, and gathering
UP a class of young men taught
thea his system. A young lad OF
rsa of ordinary intellect can learn
Il IN five or six DAYS so as 10 read
Il fiuently- When his class was
well drill d and he was about to re-
tr-n TO 7 Is home in Georgia, he
charged the young men TO write TO
him, an / il was but q short time
before he received letters from
them " ritten in his own syllable
system The inereGulity of his
people was now conquered, and
thew / elieved that he had succeed
ed II 'nis enterprise. But that was
not Z le best Of It. The mission
aries had difficulty in writing this
strange mellidnOns language in the
Roman alphabet. When they saw
Suy uOiyu's system they saw AT
once its excellence, its su perinr
I'd; sptation to their purpose, and
ad opting II just as It was. and send
IN their manuscripts to Boston,
in a few months the nation was
Supplied with portions of script
usres, tracts and hymns. When
these came into Suquoiyu's hands
the memorable speech he made
was . If I had thought that the
I missionaries would avail them
selves Of my labor, l would neyel
have undertaken L"
I