The Worthington advance., 1899-10-27
THE CHEROKEE ALPHABET.
How se-qua-yah Thought Out this
Only Indian Language That
~: II written.


+ III T.. ... /. Written.
w. T. Whitaker, president of the or
phan home at Pryor Creek, I. T., gives
some interesting. facts regarding the
discovery and discoverer of the Chero-
kee alphabet, which has enabled this
tribe of Indians to become by far the
wealthiest and most intelligent of all
the civilized tribes. OF 756 different
languages or dialects spoken by as
many nations of Indians from the time
when there was not a white man on the
American continent until the present,
only one nation-that of the Cherokees
has written or printed language. 1t
requires 26 letters or characters to
write or express the English language,
while that of the Cherokees runs to 81,
many of them being formed exactly like
ours.
Mr.. Whitaker, who is a Ct :rokee him
self, says that when his people occupied
a large part of North Carolina, Georgia
and Tennessee, there was in the tribe
one buck who was regarded as especial
ly dull and lazy. His name was Se-qua-
yah, and he took no pleasure in the
chase for game, seldom had his bow
and arrow, the war whoop had no fas-
cination for him, and he refused to take
part in the Dances which thrilled the
hearts of the braves. Se-qua-yah was
good-natured and kind, but always
wore the look of one burdened with
some deep and hidden sorrow, prefer
ring at all times to be alone in the
woods when not assisting his squaw
around the wigwam, something In
dams are not often found doing. The
peculiar actions of the Indian could not
be understood by his fellows, and final
ly he came to be regarded as mentally
off balance-as an Indian would say:
"Head heap 60 round"
By-and-by there came to Se-qua-yah's
wild home little girl babe, and there
shone a 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
wigwam 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
beautifully 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 squirrels as they scurried from limb
to limb and tree to tree, the mind of the
Indian was solving problem. which
none of his people had ever been able
to solve, and which was to lift them
from ignorance to intelligence and
Christianity.
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 finished he would sit down and
teach Oo-he-chae, who had grown to an
Indian maiden of perhaps IA years, how
to pronounce it. She was an apt pupil
and took great pleasure in the work her
father was prosecuting. When 81 char
acters had been cut on as many differ
ent pieces of bark Se-qua-yah declared
his work finished, and told Oo-he-chae
that they would talk with mouth
open." 1t was not long before the two
could put words and sentences together
by cutting the characters 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 a large rock many miles away
from Oo-he-chae, a doubling Indian
would carry messages cut on a piece of
bark, which she would read, and, hav-
ing been taught to make the characters,
she would send one in reply. For many
moons hundreds of Indians gathered
to see the wonderful work, and the IA
ther and daughter were at first regard
ed as evil spirits who had been sent to
break up the peace and happiness of
the red man.
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 or taking
new start. Like a majority of news
paper enterprises this one proved a
| failure and publication was suspended,
probably from lack of advertising
patronage and subscriptions non-pay-
ment. However, after the Cheroiees
were trampe3 over the 11::rt road to their
present nation the paper was revived un-
der the name of the Cherokee Advocate.
a 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 cannot be disputed ,:
said Mr.. Whitaker, "and there are hun
dreds of Cherokees living to-day who
remember old man Se-qua-yah, whose
English name was Guess. This was his
rrix f@~