The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1905-09-12
sEOUOYAH.
BY DR.. Eulmet Starr, The Cherokee
Historian.

"Sequoyahs S father was a half breed
Cherokee, His paternal grandfather
was German trader from Georgia
His mother was full blood Cherokee
OF the paint clan She was sister
of Co-to-hee, or Corntassel, of Toque,
a signer of the United States-Chero
kee treaty of November %, 1855.
sEQUOYAH FIRST A BLACKSMITH.
"Sequoyah was born about l760.
His first wife was Sallie of the Bird
clan. His second wife was U-to-yu.
Physically he vas below medium size,
slight and sinewy His skin was Of
lighter cast than ordinary, and his
eyes were dark gray He was slight
ly lame from an attack ofwhiteswell-
ing, from which he suffered in child
hood In dress he clung to the Gus
tom Of his people. He wore the tur-
ban, hunting shirt, leggins and moe
casins. He never acquired any knowl-
edge Of the English language. He al
ways adhered to the religious beliefs
OF the ancient CherokeesS and his only
regret for his syllabary was that it
was employed in the inculcating Of
the Christian religion among his peo-
pie. In early manhood he became
first blacksmith, thena siyersmith,
but In both his usefulness was marred
by his love Of liquor
A WRITTEN PAGE A TALKING LEAF. "
"The prevalent idea among the
Cberokees was that the written page
actually talked to the white man; for
this reason they called it the talking
leaf Sequoyah, noticing the strange
cabalistic marks, conceived the idea
that each one represented a word, but
upon getting book and counting the
different marks thereon he soon saw
that their number was inadequate to
the expression of language. In 1909
his meditation eliminated in the idea
that probably each mark meant a
sound.
10 test this he scratched with his
knife on stone G, calling it wa; and
=, which he called ku. This demon
strated to him the probable feasibili-
tY Of his idea: as by these two marks,
and the sounds he applied, he repre-
sented the word wa-ku, which is the
Cherokee name Of COW. At the same
time he scratched out three other
agures to which he gave1the sequent
sounds Of tsa, qRi, Ii, this being the
Cheroke for horse. In this way he
satisfied himself Of the correctness Of
his idea.
WORKING on HIS ALPHABET.
''Thenceforward he continued to
multiply, eradicate and change many /
of the characters he adopted from the
English book, ,Ialthough he misjudged
their use in the original As he be-
came more absorbed In his work, he
grew correspondingly more obstemin-
Gus in his use Of liquor. Heannounced
to his friends that be was going to
make the leaf talk to the Indian as
well as to the white man. This was
to them incredible, as they had no
standard to judge BY, and exposed
him to some ridicule, but not enough /
no keep him from being one Of the
signers Of the treaty Of September, Il.
1916 Only men Of considerable merit
were accorded this honor, as they were
regularly elected for this purpose.
His manuscripts we're pieces Of bark
At one time mis- wife, becoming dis
gusted at his apparently useless dron-
cry, consigned the entire work Of
several years to the flames On his
return he found his work destroyed.
He again set to work and in a short
time produced a small bundle Of bark
which he assured his wife
was identical with the couple IF arm-
leads which she had destroyef This