Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-04
IEtENTIEG AN ALPHABET.
Tho Hard Task Successfully Performed by O
Half. Breed Cherokee Indiana very
Remarkable Feat Under the Circum-

Haf.Breed Cherokee Indiana tery
Remarkable Feat Under the Circum-
stasces.
From the Louisville Courier-Journal.l
One Of the most remarkable achievements OF
the uncultiyated human mind was the inven.
tion of a syllable alphabet for the use of his
people by Sequoah. alias George Guess. half
breed Cherokee Indian. Sequoah was born In
Georgia, probably about the year ITO though
some authorities fix his birth seven years
earlier. He neve knew his father. grew up a
perfect savage and distinguished himself in
war and the chase, until swelling knee rem
dered him in capable of active pursuits and
confined him to his cabin. He knew no
language except Cherokee, and, of course, was
wholly illiterate.
Sequoah'3 attention seems to have been first
attracted to literary matters by q circumstance
which occurred while he was warrior. His
tribe captured letter from the whites, and
made repeated efforts to decipher it, but. of
course, were not successful. Some discussion
ar ose about the talking leaf" as the Indians
styled any specimen of writing. and the dues-
ton arose whether it was an invention OF man
or the gift of God. All the Indians. except
SSequoah, maintained in the latter position, while
able to convince them that he was right. They
believed that the talking leaf was gift from
the Great Spirit to the white man alone, and
rent in their tribe.
An Interesting Legend.
According to this legend the Great Spirit
created We-Ha-Ye, the Indian, and gave him .
book; afterward he made Yo-We-Na-Go, the
white man, and presented him with bow and
arrow. The elder brother was not prompt in
sdevoting himself to the book, but seems rather
to have treated it as books are treated by dull
schoolboys Of all races; and so negligently did
hrnfhar fnnnd
means of stealing it from him. The Indian was
then compelled to content himself with the
bow and arrow, and to gain his living by the
the Indian had forever forfeited the use CT
letters.
This reasoning did not convince Sequoah.
and stoutly maintained that he himself could
write, and tried to prove it by scrawling char
acters upon rock, His claims were treated
with derision. Nothing daunted, he set to
the Cherokee language. At the beginning he
made the mistake Of attempting to invent a
character for each word; and It is no small
and recorded over 1000 characters. 1t grad
ually became evident to him that this system
would not work, owing to the great number OF
characters required. and upon much reflection
he hit upon the idea Of dividing words into
syilables, and inventing character for each
syllable.
In the prosecution of this work Sequoah
accurate ear. To remedy this he engaged his
daughter In the work, and from her derived
very valuable assistance. He availed himself
of many ingenious methods tn make complete
his collection Of the sounds of the language.
He went to hear speeches by members of his
tribe, and whenever sound occurred for
which he had no character he at once supplied
the deficiency.
Two Very Dihicult Tasks.
An English spelling book having accidentally
fallen into his hands, he used the English let
ters, as far as they would go, to denote Chero-
kee syllables. The other characters he invented
himself, about the year 1921, or as others say,
1895. he had his system complete. His char
acters numbered So Having completed his
alphabet his next task was to get It adopted
by his tribe. This was a work of much diff
Guilty. He sent his daughter out Of hearing,
then called the girl back and had her read it to
still. Then he persuaded the tribe to select
some OF the brightest Of their boys to learn
When the time for examination arrived the
pupils passed the ordeal in triumph, and the
Cherokees were at last convinced that the
talking leaf'' is not the exclusive property of
the white man Seuuoah then became the
principal of the Indian schools, and was held in
great honor until his death, which occurred in
Mexico in AugusC, l843 This alphabet was
cast into font of type and is still in use.
When we consider that the art of writing has
usually been attributed to the gods, as being
something beyond the reach of finite in
telligence, we cannot but admit that the life
work of Sequoah was q most extraordinary
one.
1t is true he had the first suggestion from his
knowledge that the talking leaf' existed
among the whites. but his methods were his
cwn, and he wrought out the great problem
without other assistance than that obtained
from hfs daughter. While his invention had
long been anticipated, his work must ever
stand as a monument Of the capability of the
human intellect wnen united with unbending
resolution and tireless perseverance.