The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1899-09-01
INDIAN WOMAN AND GIRL

home little girl babe, and there shone
4 new light in the queer Indians eyes
upon her advent. The little one was
named Oo-he-chae, which means has
arrived, or been given As the child
grew the father became more and more
devoted and would spend hours with
her in the woods, returning to the wig
wan only when the face of the Great
Spirit, as they called the sun, had gone
down behind the mountains, now called
the Blue Ridge; perhaps the most beau
tiful picturesque mountain range in
the southern states. Se-qua-yah was
not idle while spending his days in the
woods. While listening to the prattle
of his child, the notes Of the feathered
songsters and the barking of the squir-
rels as they scurried from limb to limb
and tree to tree, the mind of the In
dian was solving a problem which none
of his people had ever been able to
solve, and which was TO lift them from
ignorance to intelligence and Chris
tianity.
Years rolled by, and still Se-qua-yah
was in the woods cutting queer-looking
characters on pieces OF bark stripped
from poplar trees. As each character
was fashioned he would sit down and
teach Oo-he-chae, who had grown TO
be an Indian maiden Of perhaps II
years, how TO pronounce IL. She was
an apt pupil and took great pleasure n
the work her father was prosecuting.
When 81 characters had been cut on
=; 10 l.
qua-yah declared his work finished and
told Oo-he-chae that they would talk
with mouth open It was not long
before the two could put words and
sentences together by cutting the char
acters on large pieces of bark, and then
Se-qua-yah told the braves what he
could do. This they doubted, and
when Se-qua-yah would sit on large
rock many miles away from Oo-he-chae
a doubling Indian would carry mes
sages cut on piece of bark, which she
would read, and, having been taught to
make the characters, she would send
one in reply. For many moons hun
dreds of Indians gathered TO see this
wonderful work, and the father and
daughter were at first regarded as evil
spirits who had been sent TO break up
the peace and happiness Of the red
men. This idea or belief, however,
finally died out, and other Indians were
taught to read and write When it
became common Se-qua-yah conceived
the idea Of publishing a newspaper,
which he eventually did, calling it the
Oo-lah-hee Sah-nah-hee, meaning in
English the Cherokee PhoeniX-reviy-
ing or taking a new start. Like 4 ma
Jority of newspaper enterprises this
one proved a failure and publication
was suspended, probably from a lack
of advertising patronage. However,
after the Cherokees were tramped over
the dirt road to their present nation
the paper was revived under the name
of the Cherokee Advocate, seven
column, four-page paper, which was at
first printed all Cherokee, but which
now comes out half English
Mr.. Whitaker says the paper has &
splendid circulation, and is often called
Se-qua-yah's paper These facts can
not be disputed" says Mr.. Whitaker,
land there are hundreds of Cherokees
living to-day who remember old man
Se-qua-yah, whose English name was
Guess This was his given name, for
an Indian full-blood has no surname.
When Se-qua-yah settled in the pres
ent Cherokee nation he built him d log
hut in a district which is called Sc
aua-yah in his honor This same rnde
log cabin stands to-day eight mules
from Mulroe, and the Indians poin. il
out as place of historical interest,
and at one time the home of perhaps
The greatest man of their nation The
inventor of the Cherokee alphabet re-
ceived a liberal annual pension until he
died, which occurred v lille he was on
L visit to Mexico, and the widow re-
ceived the pension until her death"
SMITH D. FRY.