The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06
INDIANS FOR HALL OF FAME Statue of Sequoyah the American
 Cadmus of the Cherokee Indians

from the Cleveland Leader.
 new face. unlike any of the other H. lustrious sons of America, is to adorn the hall of fame at Washington, D. C. Okla homa, called the Hand of the Indians setting sun by the historians, Is to make the contribution. The statute will be one of Sequoyah, the American Cadrnus Of the Cherokee Indians, the man, un- tutored, who gave to the Cherokee their alphabet
 concurrent resolution authorizing the expenditure of $5000 for the erection of the statue in the hall of fame was passed by the Oklahoma legislature at the recent session and became effective June Is. Senators Gore. Owen and the five con- gressmen of Oklahoma were designated
 in the resolution as the members of the committee to have charge of the work.
 This is Oklahoma's first contribution to the hall of the American 'immortals." but the man whom Oklahoma now seeks to honor lies in an unmarked grave in New MeXico-and there is some doubt but that it Is located in the foothills of the Wichita mountains of western Oklahoma. He left Oklahoma for New Mexico in 1S4S for the benefit of his health, and no trace has been had of him since then otfer than rumor, but the memory of his work in uplifting his fellow-tribesmen is cherished memory among the Cerokees.
 Romance lends a touch of mystery as to his parentage. He was born in the old CerolSee nation in Georgia about the year 1767 and removed to the Indian ter- rtory in 1S37 with other members of his tribe. which was one of the five civil ized tribes His mother was a full-bood Cherokee and his father German trad er named George Gist. Guist or Guest. who is declared to have been a son of tha famous guide of George Washington, bearing the name of Gist. This fact however, has never been authenticated. although 1t is accepted as the truth among the Cherokees
 Sequoyah was a dreamer. He foresaw that the only future for the red man lay in his adoption of the white mans way and so urged education among his fellow-men. Iliterate himself. so far as that term is commonly accepted, he stud led the birds, trees, rocks. and hills and SC ught to make picture representations of these in a form of sign language He then sought to solve the problem of aking a series of characters which might be made a phonetic system of writ ing, and gradually evolved his alphabet of S5 characters which is used by the Cherokees today in printing all publica- tiors in that tongue of the Indians He first taught the alphabet to his daughter anf then others. That was about the year 1872.
 The inventor of the alphabet rapidly rose tofleadership among his people and
 
 to- the Indian Territory, where they set tied among the picturesque hills, now called the Cherokee hills in honor of the tribe To the work of Sequoyah is large- ly due the shock of the intelligence or the average American on coming among the civilized tribes to learn that the h. dians of the Five Tribes had achieved . civilization worthy of the white mans efforts at that time before any attempt al settling Oklahoma had ever been dreamed of by any of the southwestern empire promoters.
 Sequoyah's home. large log house, still stands secluded in the hills on Skin- bayou creek, near Fort Gibson Sequoyah Ecwed the logs and built the stone chim- nev Nejghbors assisted him in the rais- ing" If is still in fair state of preserva- tion. having stood the weather for more than half century.
 The state of Oklahoma, however. is hon orinp the memory of the Indian Cadmus, not so much because of his having given ar alphabet to a people without a writ ten language, but because of the fact that 1t was largely through the so- called Sequoyah movement in 1905 that jcint statehood was obtained for Okla-> hcma and the Indian Territory two years later. An organization looking toward the obtaining of statehood for Indian Territory was effected in 1905. Charles N. Haskell of Muskogee, who became the first governor of the state. was one of the leaders of the movement A conven- ton known as the Sequoyah convention was held and the question of whether or not the people of the Indian Territory wanted statehood was put to vote of the people and was adopted.
 It was voted that the state be named "Sequoyah" and that Fort Gibson be des- igpated as the capital, but the entire work of the convention was declared void bv vr,fn fbot T,.1t Territory and the Territory of Oklahoma should be one state. The Seuuoyah movement hurried joint statehood, and 1t is to honor the memory of the chief whose name was given to the movement that Oklahoma now plans to place the 5000 statua in the hall of fame.