The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-25
PIONEER DAYS
BY MARY COR DON DuFFeE.

The deep spirit of religious fervor, pure and undefled. the humility of their lives, prevailing the early converts among the Indians, appears in striking con trast to the popular estimate which pie lures them as stern, cruel, unrelenting, finding their favorite pastime in war fare. The entire record, among all the nations goes to prove this assertion; to their sincerity was added a capacity for education. and the favored few who passed several years in northern col leges and universities easily won high honors, and it sounds strangely to hear of man translating Greek and Latin who but a few years previous was a mere savage in the depths of the wilder ness.
 Se-quoy-ah, in the invention of his famous alphabet. had q faithful friend in John Arch (whose Indian name was At-see) and in a biography of Se-quoy- ah, by George D. Foster, Philadelphia, 1885, the following statement concern ing this native Cherokee is made on page 120:
 John Arch spent quite a time near Willstown, close to the western limits of the state of Georgia; here he met Se- quoy-ah and became interested in his invention., the Cherokee alphabet. He readily saw it's value and determined to put it into practical use. Before this he had assisted one of the missionaries in translating an elementary school book for the Cherokees, which was afterward pub lished He continued his good work as preacher. teacher and interpreter until late in the season of 1924, when he was taken i'll of dropsy. Unable to travel, he at once set about translating the third chapter of St. John into the Cherokee language He then wrote it in the sylla. bic character of Irquoyah. It was re- ceived with wonderful avidity and was copied many hundred times and read by the multitudes whom he had visited in his tour, thus preparing the way for it's quick reception among his people. This was the first portion of scripture trans lated into the alphabet of Sequoyah, though 1t was rapidly followed by other portions"
 One of the most noted scholars aRlong the Cherokees, was David Brown. m In dian Treaties,' page 479-4S2, and in "Preservation and Civilization of the In- dians," pages 17-19, appear extracts from David Browns letter, dated Willstown,- Cherokee Nation, September 2, 1925: ''The slow progress am making in translating the New Testament, up to this period, the four gospels" tells the story of th1 great work he had undertaken. his only assistant being his father-in-law, Mai. George Lowery. In the His Story of American Missions page 14s. is the fol lowing: "On September 27, 1895, the trans lation of the New Testament from the original Greek into the Cherokee lan- guage by native Cherokee Indian, David Brown, in an alphabet invented by another Cherokee Indian named George Guess fSequoyah) was completed. As there were no types at this date, In exist ence for printing that new language, Browns version, entire or in parts, was circulated in manuscript It was read and copied in all parts of the nation"
 Another noted writer upon the subject of the language of his tribe is MT. De Witt Clinton Duncan, who was born in the Cherokee nation of native parentage, received an elementary education at the Cherokee Male Seminary. Indian Terri tory, graduated with high honors at Dartmouth college, New Hampshire, in 1861, taught school five years and then entered upon the practice of the law at Charles City, la, where he now resides.
 In the Missionary Herald for the year 1883 is the following: "Mr. Stephen Fore man. a Cherokee young man. who re- ceived his education at the mission school at Candy's Creek, and after attending to some preparatory studies with MT. Worcester at New Echota, spent one year at the Union Theological seminary, in Virginia, and one year at the great The ological college at Princeton, N. J.. in the study of theology, and was licensed to preach by the Union Presbytery Of Tennessee about the list of October, 1888. He breaches with animation and fuency