The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1909-08-19
THE INDIAN WHO
INVENTED AN ALPHABET

ors of alphabets are few and far be-
tween in this day and age Of the
world. The A B c of civilization is
centuries past For this reason great
! interest attaches to Sequoyah, the
Cherokee, who, having seen the
! whites communicate with one anoth-
er by writing, composed an alphabet
to represent the sounds of his own
! language.
The story of his invention Of the
alphabet and its final adoption by the
Cherokee government is one that all
the old-time Cherokees still remem-
Der and talk of with pride. At first
the Indians did not have much faith
in Sequoyah's alphabet. Up TO that
time his standing among his people
had not been of the highest, and they
did not consider him one Of their
wise men. They said he was a dream
er and that he was lazy. Some even
limited that he was crazy, and at best
he was considered harmless. From
boyhood he had been scratching his
hieroglyphics on rocks and chips and
trees, or made them with strands of
pebbles in the sand. The older heads
of the tribe paid little attention to
him, as they thought his pastime OF
making letters was merely something
to keep him busy and amuse his
clouded intellect. But as time passed
Sequoyah's alphabet began to assume
a definite form, and he finally an
nounced that he could teach It to 9TH
ers so that they could send messages.
When completed 1t consisted of eigh-
ty-five characters, which represented
syllables and sounds and WAS pho
netic in kind. In its conception It is
the very foundation of the method
by which children are taught to read
to-day, and he asked to be allowed to
teach 1t by establishing schools in the
tribe.
But the wise men of the tribe N+ere
incredulous, and said 1t would only
be fooling away time to teach Il to
the children.
At that time Sequoyah was married
and had a family. He taught his al
phabet to his own little girl, at that
time a child Of about eight, and also
TO several other children of the tribe
He was then living in Alabama, but
contemplated emigrating to the In
dian Territory. and he said his object
in teaching 1t to the children was that
it might be preserved in case he was
lost, as the Cherokeeo had no mate
rial upon which his alphabet could
be written and kept with certainty.
He first made the trip to the Cher
okee Nation alone in order to look up
a location. After his arrival he wrote
a letter TO his little daughter, and
sent II back by some Cherokees who
were returning to Alabama. When
the little girl read the letter, and told
of the things that had happened and
where her father was, the other mem
bers of the tribe were surprised and
the wise men were impressed. There
began to dawn upon them the useful
ness of all of Sequoyah's dreaming,
and shortly they began to teach it to
their children.
Not long after this Sequoyah emil
grated to the Cherokee Nation, where
his alphabet was soon adopted by the
Cherokee government, who estab-
lished 1t in system of public schools.
An official paper of the nation was
also established and printed in those
characters, and that paper lasted and
was printed in Cherokee up to the
final dissolution of the tribe, in 1906.
The Cherokee government voted Sc
quoyah an annuity in recognition OF
his work, and at his death it went to
his wife.
The primal object Of sequoyah in
the use Of his alphabet was 70 find a
means by which he might unity and
hold together the various bands and
tribes of his nation. From time to
time bodies of Cherokees would be-
come dissatisfied with acts of the
tribe, and go off to live by them
selves. There was no medium of in
tercourse among them by which they
might understand one another. Sc
quoyah saw in that the final disinte-
grafton of his nation, and all the pow /
ers of his great mind were bent to |
stop the clannish discomfort and weld !
all Of the parties and sub-tribes into
one uniform nation. II was his zeal !
to reclaim one of those lost clans that |
finally cost him his life.
About the year 1900 the United |
States Government contemplated |
measures for removing the Cherokees
west Of the Mississippi. Later they |