The New Written Language

As some of the Cherokees had moved to the new Arkansas
country, he visited them there, and endeavored to have the Cherokees
there understand his alphabet, and finally succeeded in
having one write a letter to a friend back in Georgia, which he
brought with him on his return home; and while his people
wondered greatly when it was read, still they were not convinced.
Sequoyah called a meeting of the most prominent men
among the Cherokees, and also explained his alphabet to Col.
Lowrey, the Indian agent, who lived only three miles from his
cabin, and to all of them he explained in detail the principles of
his alphabet; still they could not comprehend it.

Sequoyah had taught his alphabet to his little daughter,
Ahyokeh, then only six years old, and sending her away he wrote
down any word or sentiment his friends named, and when
called back, she readily read what had been written. While
Col. Lowrey at first thought that Sequoyah was deceiving
himself, he finally began to doubt whether he was the deluded
schemer which others thought him to be.

The syllabary was soon recognized by the Cherokees as an
invaluable invention, and such was its simplicity and adaptability
to the Cherokee language that money or schools and academies
were unnecessary, for it could be easily learned in the tepee,
or on the trail, and in a few months thousands of Cherokees
could read and write in their language with ease and facility,
thereby placing that nation far in advance of any other Indian
tribe. The Cherokees, in recognition of Sequoyah's invention,
presented him with a medal, and in 1828 he visited Washington
and attracted much attention. In the treaty of that year he was
given $500.00 by the United States Congress for the great benefit
he had conferred upon the Cherokee people in the invention of
his wonderful alphabet.

Excerpt  from the book: The Chickasaw Nation: A Short Sketch of a Noble People
 By James Henry Malone 1922



Back to Sequoyah biography