The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-08
A GREAT INDIAN
MAN FOR WHOM THE INDIANS
 WOULD NAME THEIR STATE.
Gave Cherokee Alphnbct-The Invention the Result of Ills study of the
 White Mans ''Talking Lehf' ...[ --RidicuIed then HOn0red.
Muskogee, I. T.. Special.

Muskogee, l. T.. Special.
 In giving the name Sequoyah to the proposed State to be composed of the lands of the five civilized tribes in the
 Indian Territory the Constitutional Convention, of which a majority of the delegates are tribal citizens, has hon ored the memory of one of the most notable Indians that ever lived. Sequoyah. or George Guess. invented the alphabet by which the CherSkees | acquired written language. The al- phabet is still in use. newspaper. supported by the tribal government, and printed in both. Cherokee and Eng | fish, is published at Tahlequah, the Cherokee capital. .~- e~ The history of Sequoyah. long since | dead. is of unusual interest. His fath- l CT was half breed Cherokee. His pa ternal grandfather was German trader | from Georgia. His mother was full l blood Cherokee of the Paint clan. She was a sister of Co-to-hee. or Corntassel | of Toque. a signer of the United States Cherokee treaty of November 2S, 17S5. Sequoyah was born about 1760. His first wife was Sallie of the Bird clan. His second wife was U-to-yu. Physically, he was below medium size slight and sinewy. His skin was lighter than that of most Indians and his eyes were dark gray. In childhood | ne SuHSTeQ from Wnlte SWclllHs, HlCll resulted in lameness in one of his legs. In dress Sequoyah clung to the GUS toms of his people, wearing the turban, hunting shirt, leggings and moccasins. He never acquired any knowledge Of the English language. and always ad- hered to the religious beliefs of the an cient Cherokees. The only regret he felt over the innovation of his sylla- bary was the use made of it spreading Ia biie tioT, re1iUinn his people.
 In early manhood he was a black smith, ana afterward a silversmith, In
 both callings he often was incapaci-
 tated by his love of liquor.
 The prevalent idea among the Chero-
 kees was that the written page actu- ally talked to the white man, and for this reason they called It the talking leaf" Sequoyah by studying the let ters conceived the idea that each one represented a word, but upon getting a
 book and counting the different marks
 thereon he soon saw that their number
 was inadequate to express language.
 In 1909 his meditations eliminated
 in the idea that probably each mark
 meant a sound. To test this, he scratch-
 ed with his knife on stone the letter
 C. calling it wa" and F, which he
 called "ku."
 This demonstrated to him the feasi-
 bility of his idea, as by these two marks
 and the sounds that he applied, he rep
 resented the word "wa-ku." which is the Cherokee word for COW cow. At the same time he scratched out three other figures, to which he gave the se-
 quent sounds of "tse." 'qui'' and 'li," this being the Cherokee name for horse
 In this way he satisfied himself of the correctness of his idea.
 Thenceforward Sequoyah continued to multiply, eradicate and change many of the characters he adopted from the English books although he misjudged their use in the original. As he became more absorbed in his work he grew correspondingly more abstemious in his
 use of liquor.
 He announced to his friends that he
 was going to make the leaf talk to the
 Indian as well as to the white man.
 This was incredible to the Indians. and
 exposed him to ridicule, but the testing of the Cherokees was rot sufficient to
 keep him from being one of the signers
 of the treaty of September 14, 1876.
 Only men of merit had this honor, and
 they were regularly elected for this
 duty
 The manuscripts of Sequoyah were
 pieces of bark and at one time his wife,
 dtSgusted at his seeming absurdities.
 consigned the york of several years to
 the flame, Seduoyah set to work with
 greater industry than ever, and in short time produced a small bundle of bark manuscripts which he assured his