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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4241-h.zip b/4241-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bfc8e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/4241-h.zip diff --git a/4241-h/4241-h.htm b/4241-h/4241-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4372305 --- /dev/null +++ b/4241-h/4241-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1123 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Se-Quo-Yah, +from Harper's New Monthly, V. 41, 1870 +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Se-Quo-Yah; from Harper's New Monthly, V. +41, 1870, by Unknown + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Se-Quo-Yah; from Harper's New Monthly, V. 41, 1870 + +Author: Unknown + +Posting Date: July 9, 2009 [EBook #4241] +Release Date: July, 2003 +First Posted: December 15, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SE-QUO-YAH *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +SE-QUO-YAH. +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +From Harper's New Monthly, V. 41, 1870 +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P> +In the year 1768 a German peddler, named George Gist, left the +settlement of Ebenezer, on the lower Savannah, and entered the Cherokee +Nation by the northern mountains of Georgia. He had two pack-horses +laden with the petty merchandise known to the Indian trade. At that +time Captain Stewart was the British Superintendent of the Indians in +that region. Besides his other duties, he claimed the right to regulate +and license such traffic. It was an old bone of contention. A few years +before, the Governor and Council of the colony of Georgia claimed the +sole power of such privilege and jurisdiction. Still earlier, the +colonial authorities of South Carolina assumed it. Traders from +Virginia, even, found it necessary to go round by Carolina and Georgia, +and to procure licenses. Augusta was the great centre of this commerce, +which in those days was more extensive than would be now believed. +Flatboats, barges, and pirogues floated the bales of pelts to +tide-water. Above Augusta, trains of pack-horses, sometimes numbering +one hundred, gathered in the furs, and carried goods to and from remote +regions. The trader immediately in connection with the Indian hunter +expected to make one thousand per cent. The wholesale dealer made +several hundred. The governors, councilors, and superintendents made +all they could. It could scarcely be called legitimate commerce. It was +a grab game. +</P> + +<P> +Our Dutch friend Gist was, correctly speaking, a contrabandist. He had +too little influence or money to procure a license, and too much +enterprise to refrain because he lacked it. He belonged to a class more +numerous than respectable, although it would be a good deal to say that +there was any virtue in yielding to these petty exactions. It was a +mere question of confiscation, or robbery, without redress, by the +Indians. He risked it. With traders, at that time, it was customary to +take an Indian wife. She was expected to furnish the eatables, as well +as cook them. By the law of many Indian tribes property and the control +of the family go with the mother. The husband never belongs to the same +family connection, rarely to the same community or town even, and often +not even to the tribe. He is a sort of barnacle, taken in on his wife's +account. To the adventurer, like a trader, this adoption gave a sort of +legal status or protection. Gist either understood this before he +started on his enterprise, or learned it very speedily after. Of the +Cherokee tongue he knew positively nothing. He had a smattering of very +broken English. Somehow or other he managed to induce a Cherokee girl +to become his wife. +</P> + +<P> +This woman belonged to a family long respectable in the Cherokee +Nation. It is customary for those ignorant of the Indian social polity +to speak of all prominent Indians as "chiefs." Her family had no +pretension to chieftaincy, but was prominent and influential; some of +her brothers were afterward members of the Council. She could not speak +English; but, in common with many Cherokees of even that early date, +had a small proportion of English blood in her veins. The Cherokee +woman, married or single, owns her property, consisting chiefly of +cattle, in her own right. A wealthy Cherokee or Creek, when a son or +daughter is born to him, marks so many young cattle in a new brand, and +these become, with their increase, the child's property. Whether her +cattle constituted any portion of the temptation, I can not say. At any +rate, the girl, who had much of the beauty of her race, became the wife +of the German peddler. +</P> + +<P> +Of George Gist's married life we have little recorded. It was of very +short duration. He converted his merchandise into furs, and did not +make more than one or two trips. With him it had merely been cheap +protection and board. We might denounce him as a low adventurer if we +did not remember that he was the father of one of the most remarkable +men who ever appeared on the continent. Long before that son was born +he gathered together his effects, went the way of all peddlers, and +never was heard of more. +</P> + +<P> +He left behind him in the Cherokee Nation a woman of no common energy, +who through a long life was true to him she still believed to be her +husband. The deserted mother called her babe "Se-quo-yah," in the +poetical language of her race. His fellow-clansmen as he grew up gave +him, as an English one, the name of his father, or something sounding +like it. No truer mother ever lived and cared for her child. She reared +him with the most watchful tenderness. With her own hands she cleared a +little field and cultivated it, and carried her babe while she drove up +her cows and milked them. +</P> + +<P> +His early boyhood was laid in the troublous times of the war of the +Revolution, yet its havoc cast no deeper shadows in the widow's cabin. +</P> + +<P> +As he grew older he showed a different temper from most Indian +children. He lived alone with his mother, and had no old man to teach +him the use of the bow, or indoctrinate him in the religion and morals +of an ancient but perishing people. He would wander alone in the +forest, and showed an early mechanical genius in carving with his knife +many objects from pieces of wood. He employed his boyish leisure in +building houses in the forest. As he grew older these mechanical +pursuits took a more useful shape. The average native American is +taught as a question of self-respect to despise female pursuits. To be +made a "woman" is the greatest degradation of a warrior. +</P> + +<P> +Se-quo-yah first exercised his genius in making an improved kind of +wooden milk-pans and skimmers for his mother. Then he built her a +milk-house, with all suitable conveniences, on one of those grand +springs that gurgle from the mountains of the old Cherokee Nation. As a +climax, he even helped her to milk her cows; and he cleared additions +to her fields, and worked on them with her. She contrived to get a +petty stock of goods, and traded with her countrymen. She taught +Se-quo-yah to be a good judge of furs. He would go on expeditions with +the hunters, and would select such skins as he wanted for his mother +before they returned. In his boyish days the buffalo still lingered in +the valleys of the Ohio and Tennessee. On the one side the French +sought them. On the other were the English and Spaniards. These he +visited with small pack-horse trains for his mother. +</P> + +<P> +For the first hundred years the European colonies were of traders +rather than agriculturists. Besides the fur trade, rearing horses and +cattle occupied their attention. The Indians east of the Mississippi, +and lying between the Appallachian Mountains and the Gulf, had been +agriculturists and fishermen. Buccaneers, pirates, and even the regular +navies or merchant ships of Europe, drove the natives from the haunted +coast. As they fell back, fur traders and merchants followed them with +professions of regard and extortionate prices. Articles of European +manufacture—knives, hatchets, needles, bright cloths, paints, guns, +powder—could only be bought with furs. The Indian mother sighed in her +hut for the beautiful things brought by the Europeans. The warrior of +the Southwest saw with terror the conquering Iroquois, armed with the +dreaded fire-arms of the stranger. When the bow was laid aside, or +handed to the boys of the tribe, the warriors became the abject slaves +of traders. Guns meant gunpowder and lead. These could only come from +the white man. His avarice guarded the steps alike to bear-meat and +beaver-skins. Thus the Indian became a wandering hunter, helpless and +dependent. These hunters traveled great distances, sometimes with a +pack on their backs weighing from thirty to fifty pounds. Until the +middle of the eighteenth century horses had not become very common +among them, and the old Indian used to laugh at the white man, so lazy +that he could not walk. A consuming fire was preying on the vitals of +an ancient simple people. Unscrupulous traders, who boasted that they +made a thousand per cent, held them in the most abject thrall. It has +been carefully computed that these hunters worked, on an average, for +ten cents a day. The power of their old village chiefs grow weaker. No +longer the old men taught the boys their traditions, morals, or +religion. They had ceased to be pagans, without becoming Christians. +</P> + +<P> +The wearied hunter had fire-water given him as an excitement to drown +the cares common to white and red. Slowly the polity, customs, +industries, morals, religion, and character of the red race were +consumed in this terrible furnace of avarice. The foundations of our +early aristocracies were laid. Byrd, in his "History of the Dividing +Line," tells us that a school of seventy-seven Indian children existed +in 1720, and that they could all read and write English; but adds, that +the jealousy of traders and land speculators, who feared it would +interfere with their business, caused it to be closed. Alas! this +people had encountered the iron nerve of Christianity, without reaping +the fruit of its intelligence or mercy. +</P> + +<P> +Silver, although occasionally found among the North American Indians, +was very rare previous to the European conquest. Afterward, among the +commodities offered, were the broad silver pieces of the Spaniards, and +the old French and English silver coins. With the most mobile spirit +the Indian at once took them. He used them as he used his shell-beads, +for money and ornament. Native artificers were common in all the +tribes. The silver was beaten into rings, and broad ornamented silver +bands for the head. Handsome breast-plates were made of it; necklaces, +bells for the ankles, and rings for the toes. +</P> + +<P> +It is not wonderful that Se-quo-yah's mechanical genius led him into +the highest branch of art known to his people, and that he became their +greatest silversmith. His articles of silverware excelled all similar +manufactures among his countrymen. +</P> + +<P> +He next conceived the idea of becoming a blacksmith. He visited the +shops of white men from time to time. He never asked to be taught the +trade. He had eyes in his head, and hands; and when he bought the +necessary material and went to work, it is characteristic that his +first performance was to make his bellows and his tools; and those who +afterward saw them told me they were very well made. +</P> + +<P> +Se-quo-yah was now in comparatively easy circumstances. Besides his +cattle, his store, and his farm, he was a blacksmith and a silversmith. +In spite of all that has been alleged about Indian stupidity and +barbarity, his countrymen were proud of him. He was in danger of +shipwrecking on that fatal sunken reef to American character, +popularity. Hospitality is the ornament, and has been the ruin, of the +aborigine. His home, his store, or his shop, became the resort of his +countrymen; there they smoked and talked, and learned to drink +together. Among the Cherokees those who have are expected to be liberal +to those who have not; and whatever weaknesses he might possess, +niggardliness or meanness was not among them. +</P> + +<P> +After he had grown to man's estate he learned to draw. His sketches, at +first rude, at last acquired considerable merit. He had been taught no +rules of perspective; but while his perspective differed from that of a +European, he did not ignore it, like the Chinese. He had now a very +comfortable hewed-log residence, well furnished with such articles as +were common with the better class of white settlers at that time, many +of them, however, made by himself. +</P> + +<P> +Before he reached his thirty-fifth year he became addicted to convivial +habits to an extent that injured his business, and began to cripple his +resources. Unlike most of his race, however, he did not become wildly +excited when under the influence of liquor. +</P> + +<P> +Se-quo-yah, who never saw his father, and never could utter a word of +the German tongue, still carried, deep in his nature, an odd compound +of Indian and German transcendentalism; essentially Indian in opinion +and prejudice, but German in instinct and thought. A little liquor only +mellowed him—it thawed away the last remnant of Indian reticence. He +talked with his associates upon all the knotty questions of law, art, +and religion. Indian Theism and Pantheism were measured against the +Gospel as taught by the land-seeking, fur-buying adventurers. A good +class of missionaries had, indeed, entered the Cherokee Nation; but the +shrewd Se-quo-yah, and the disciples this stoic taught among his +mountains, had just sense enough to weigh the good and the bad +together, and strike an impartial balance as the footing up for this +new proselyting race. +</P> + +<P> +It has been erroneously alleged that Se-quo-yah was a believer in, or +practiced, the old Indian religious rites. Christianity had, indeed, +done little more for him than to unsettle the pagan idea, but it had +done that. +</P> + +<P> +It was some years after Se-quo-yah had learned to present the bottle to +his friends before he degenerated into a toper. His natural industry +shielded him, and would have saved him altogether but for the vicious +hospitality by which he was surrounded. With the acuteness that came of +his foreign stock, he learned to buy his liquor by the keg. This +species of economy is as dangerous to the red as to the white race. The +auditors who flocked to see and hear him were not likely to diminish +while the philosopher furnished both the dogmas and the whisky. Long +and deep debauches were often the consequence. Still it was not in the +nature of George Gist to be a wild, shouting drunkard. His mild, +philosophic face was kindled to deeper thought and warmer enthusiasm as +they talked about the problem of their race. All the great social +questions were closely analyzed by men who were fast becoming +insensible to them. When he was too far gone to play the mild, sedate +philosopher, he began that monotonous singing whose music carried him +back to the days when the shadow of the white man never darkened the +forests, and the Indian canoe alone rippled the tranquil waters. +</P> + +<P> +Should this man be thus lost? He was aroused to his danger by the +relative to whom he owed so much. His temper was eminently philosophic. +He was, as he proved, capable of great effort and great endurance. By +an effort which few red or white men can or do make, he shook off the +habit, and his old nerve and old prosperity came back to him. It was +during the first few years of this century that he applied to Charles +Hicks, a half-breed, afterward principal chief of the nation, to write +his English name. Hicks, although educated after a fashion, made a +mistake in a very natural way. The real name of Se-quo-yah's father was +George Gist. It is now written by the family as it has long been +pronounced in the tribe when his English name is used—"Guest." Hicks, +remembering a word that sounded like it, wrote it—George Guess. It was +a "rough guess," but answered the purpose. The silversmith was as +ignorant of English as he was of any written language. Being a fine +workman, he made a steel die, a facsimile of the name written by Hicks. +With this he put his "trade mark" on his silver-ware, and it is borne +to this day on many of these ancient pieces in the Cherokee nation. +</P> + +<P> +Between 1809 and 1821, which latter was his fifty-second year, the +great work of his life was accomplished. The die, which was cut before +the former date, probably turned his active mind in the proper +direction. Schools and missions were being established. The power by +which the white man could talk on paper had been carefully noted and +wondered at by many savages, and was far too important a matter to have +been overlooked by such a man as Se-quo-yah. The rude hieroglyphics or +pictoriographs of the Indians were essentially different from all +written language. These were rude representations of events, the +symbols being chiefly the totemic devices of the tribes. A few general +signs for war, death, travel, or other common incidents, and strokes +for numerals, represented days or events as they were perpendicular or +horizontal. Even the wampum belts were little more than helps to +memory, for while they undoubtedly tied up the knots for years, like +the ancient inhabitants of China and Japan, still the meagre record +could only be read by the initiated, for the Indians only intrusted +their history and religion to their best and ablest men. The general +theory with many Indians was, that the written speech of the white man +was one of the mysterious gifts of the Great Spirit. Se-quo-yah boldly +avowed it to be a mere ingenious contrivance that the red man could +master, if he would try. +</P> + +<P> +Repeated discussion on this point at length fully turned his thoughts +in this new channel. He seems to have disdained the acquirement of the +English language. Perhaps he suspected first what he was bound to know +before he completed his task, that the Cherokee language has certain +necessities and peculiarities of its own. It is almost impossible to +write Indian words and names correctly in English. The English alphabet +has not capacity for its expression. If ten white men sat down to write +the word an Indian uttered, the probabilities are that one half of them +would write them differently from the other half. It is this which has +led to such endless confusion in Indian dictionaries. For instance, we +write the word for the tribe Cherokee, and the letter R, or its sound, +is scarcely used in their language. Today a Cherokee always pronounces +it Chalaque, the pronunciation being between that and Shalakke. On +these peculiarities it is not the purpose of this article to enter, but +hasten to George Gist, brooding over a written language for his people. +</P> + +<P> +His first essay was natural enough. He tried to invent symbols to +represent words. These he sometimes cut out of bark with his knife, but +generally wrote, or rather drew. With these symbols he would carry on a +conversation with a person in another apartment. As may be supposed, +his symbols multiplied fearfully and wonderfully. The Indian languages +are rich in their creative power. By using pieces of well-known words +that contain the prominent idea, double or compound words are freely +made. This has been called by writers treating this subject, the +polysynthetic. It is, in fact, a jumbling of sentences into words, by +abbreviation, the omitted parts of words being implied or understood. +There is one important fact which I will merely note here that is +generally overlooked. These compounded words, to a large extent, +represent the intrusive or European idea. The names the Indians gave +many of the European things were mere DEFINITIONS. Such as "Big +Knives," etc. Occasionally they made a dash at the French or English +sounds, as in the word "Yengees" for English, which has finally been +corrupted in our language to Yankees. +</P> + +<P> +Of course an attempt at fixed symbols for words was an unhappy +experiment in a language one prominent element of which is, the +facility of making words out of pieces of words, or compounded words. +Besides this difficulty, no language can be taught successfully by +means of a dictionary, until the human memory acquires more power. +Three years of hopeless struggle with the mighty debris of his symbols +left him, although in the main reticent, a mighty man of words. But his +labors were not lost. Through that heroic, unaided struggle he gained +the first true glimpses into the elements of language. It is a +startling fact, that an uneducated man, of a race we are pleased to +call barbarians, attained in a few years, without books or tutors, what +was developed through several ages of Phoenician, Egyptian, and Greek +wisdom. +</P> + +<P> +Se-quo-yah discovered that the language possessed certain musical +sounds, such as we call vowels, and dividing sounds, styled by us +consonants. In determining his vowels he varied during the progress of +his discoveries, but finally settled on the six—A, E, I, O, U, and a +guttural vowel sounding like U in UNG. +</P> + +<P> +These had long and short sounds, with the exception of the guttural. He +next considered his consonant, or dividing sounds, and estimated the +number of combinations of these that would give all the sounds required +to make words in their language. He first adopted fifteen for the +dividing sounds, but settled on twelve primary, the G and K being one, +and sounding more like K than G, and D like T. These may be represented +in English as G, H, L, M, N, QU, T, DL or TL, TS, W, Y, Z. +</P> + +<P> +It will be seen that if these twelve be multiplied by the six vowels, +the number of possible combinations or syllables would be seventy-two, +and by adding the vowel sounds, which maybe syllables, the number would +be seventy-eight. However, the guttural V, or sound of U in UNG, does +not appear as among the combinations, which make seventy-seven. +</P> + +<P> +Still his work was not complete. The hissing sound of S entered into +the ramifications of so many sounds, as in STA, STU, SPA, SPE, that it +would have required a large addition to his alphabet to meet this +demand. This he simplified by using a distinct character for the S +(OO), to be used in such combinations. To provide for the varying sound +G, K, he added a symbol which has been written in English KA. As the +syllable NA is liable to be aspirated, he added symbols written NAH, +and KNA. To have distinct representatives for the combinations rising +out of the different sounds of D and T, he added symbols for TA, TE, +TI, and another for DLA, thus TLA. These completed the eighty-five +characters of his alphabet, which was thus an alphabet of syllables, +and not of letters. +</P> + +<P> +It was a subject of astonishment to scientific men that a language so +copious only embraced eighty-five syllables. This is chiefly accounted +for by the fact that every Cherokee syllable ends in a vocal or nasal +sound, and that there are no double consonants but those provided for +the TL or DL, and TS, and combinations of the hissing S, with a few +consonants. +</P> + +<P> +The fact is, that many of our combinations of consonants in the English +written language are artificial, and worse than worthless. To indicate +by a familiar illustration the syllabic character of the alphabet of +Se-quo-yah, I will take the name of William H. Seward, which was +appended to the Emancipation Proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, printed in +Cherokee. It was written thus: "O [wi] P[li] 4 [se] G [wa] 6 [te]," and +might be anglicized Will Sewate. As has been observed, there is no R in +the Cherokee language, written or spoken, and as for the middle initial +of Mr. Seward's name, H., there being, of course, no initial in a +syllabic alphabet, the translator, who probably did not know what it +stood for, was compelled to omit it. It was in the year 1821 that the +American Cadmus completed his alphabet. +</P> + +<P> +As will be observed by examining the alphabet, which is on the table in +the engraving, he used many of the letters of the English alphabet, +also numerals. The fact was, that he came across an old English +spelling-book during his labors, and borrowed a great many of the +symbols. Some he reversed, or placed upside down; others he modified, +or added to. He had no idea of either their meaning or sound, in +English, which is abundantly evident from the use he made of them. As +was eminently fitting, the first scholar taught in the language was the +daughter of Se-quo-yah. She, like all the other Cherokees who tried it, +learned it immediately. Having completed it without the white man's +hints or aid, he visited the agent, Colonel Lowry, a gentleman of some +intelligence, who only lived three miles from him, and informed that +gentleman of his invention. It is not wonderful that the agent was +skeptical, and suggested that the whole was a mere act of memory, and +that the symbols bore no relation to the language, or its necessities. +Like all other benefactors of the race, he had to encounter a little of +the ridicule of those who, being too ignorant to comprehend, maintain +their credit by sneering. The rapid progress of the language among the +people settled the matter, however. The astonishing rapidity with which +it is acquired has always been a wonder, and was the first thing about +it that struck the writer of this article. In my own observation, +Indian children will take one or two, at times several, years to master +the English printed and written language, but in a few days can read +and write in Cherokee. They do the latter, in fact, as soon as they +learn to shape letters. As soon as they master the alphabet they have +got rid of all the perplexing questions in orthography that puzzle the +brains of our children. Is it not too much to say that a child will +learn in a month, by the same effort, as thoroughly, in the language of +Se-quo-yah, that which in ours consumes the time of our children for at +least two years. +</P> + +<P> +There has been a great clamor for a universal language. We once had it, +in our learned world, in the Latin, in which books were locked up for +the scholars and dead to the world. Language is the handmaiden of +thought, and to be useful must be obedient to its changes as well as +its elemental characteristics. For the English of three hundred years +ago we need a glossary, and to carry down his immortal thoughts in +their pristine vigor, must have, every two hundred years, a Johnson to +modernize a Shakspeare. To probe the causes of the change of language, +to ascertain why even a WRITTEN language is mutable, to pick up this +garment of thought and run its threads back through all their vagaries +to their origin and points of divergence, is one of the grand tasks for +the intellectual historian. He, indeed, must give us the history of +ideas, of which all art, including language, is but the fructification. +To say, therefore, that the alphabet of Se-quo-yah is better adapted +for his language than our alphabet is for the English, would be to pay +it a very wretched compliment. +</P> + +<P> +George Gist received all honor from his countrymen. A short time after +his invention written communication was opened up by means of it with +that portion of the Cherokee Nation then in their new home west of the +Arkansas. Zealous in his work, he traveled many hundred miles to teach +it to them; and it is no reproach to their intellect to say that they +received it readily. +</P> + +<P> +It has been said the Indians are besotted against all improvements. The +cordiality with which this was received is worthy of attention. +</P> + +<P> +In 1823 the General Council of the Cherokee Nation voted a large silver +medal to George Gist as a mark of distinction for his discovery. On one +side were two pipes, the ancient symbol of Indian religion and law; on +the other a man's head. The medal had the following inscription in +English, also in, Cherokee in his own alphabet: +</P> + +<P> +"Presented to George Gist, by the General Council of the Cherokee +Nation, for his ingenuity in the invention of the Cherokee alphabet." +</P> + +<P> +John Ross, acting as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, sent it +West to Se-quo-yah, together with an elaborate address, the latter +being at that time in the new nation. +</P> + +<P> +In 1828 Gist went to Washington city as a delegate from the Western +Cherokees. He was then in his fifty-ninth year. At that time the +portrait was taken, an engraving from which we present to our readers. +He is represented with a table containing his alphabet. The +missionaries were not slow to employ it. It was arranged with the +Cherokee, and English sounds and definitions. Rev. S.A. Worcester +endeavored to get the outlines of its grammar, and both he and Mr. +Boudinot prepared vocabularies of it, as did many others. In this way, +by having more and better observers, we know more of this language than +many others, and affinities have been traced between it and some +others, supposed to be radically different, which would have appeared +in the case of some others, had they been as fully or correctly written. +</P> + +<P> +Besides the Scriptures, a very considerable number of books were +printed in it, and parts of several different newspapers existing from +time to time; also almanacs, songs, and psalms. +</P> + +<P> +During the closing portion of his life, the home of Se-quo-yah was near +Brainerd, a mission station in the new nation. Like his countrymen, he +was driven an exile from his old home, from his fields, work-shops, and +orchards by the clear streams flowing from the mountains of Georgia. Is +it wonderful if such treatment should throw a sadder tinge on a +disposition otherwise mild, hopeful, and philosophic? +</P> + +<P> +One of his sons is a very fair artist, using promiscuously pencil, pen, +chalk, or charcoal. He served, as a private soldier, in the Union army +in the late war, and there, in his quarters, made many sketches. His +power of caricaturing was very considerable. If a humorous picture of +some officer who had rendered himself obnoxious was found, chalked in +unmistakable but grotesque lineaments, on the commissary door, it was +said, "It must have been by the son of Se-quo-yah." +</P> + +<P> +In his mature years, at Brainerd, although approaching seventy, the +nerve or fire of the old man was not dead. Some narrow-minded +ecclesiastics, because Gist would not go through the routine of a +Christian profession after the fashion they prescribed, have not +scrupled to intimate that he was a pagan, and grieved that the Bible +was printed in the language he gave. This arose simply from not +comprehending him. They persisted in considering him an ignorant +savage, while he comprehended himself and measured them. +</P> + +<P> +In his old days a new and deeper ambition seized him. He was not in the +habit of asking advice or assistance in his projects. In his journey to +the West, as well as to Washington, he had an opportunity of examining +different languages, of which, as far as lay in his power, he carefully +availed himself. His health had been somewhat affected by rheumatism, +one of the few inheritances he got from the old fur peddler of +Ebenezer; but the strong spirit was slow to break. +</P> + +<P> +He formed a theory of certain relations in the language of the Indian +tribes, and conceived the idea of writing a book on the points of +similarity and divergence. Books were, to a great extent, closed to +him; but as of old, when he began his career as a blacksmith by making +his bellows, so he now fell back on his own resources. This brave +Indian philosopher of ours was not the man to be stopped by obstacles. +He procured some articles for the Indian trade he had learned in his +boyhood, and putting these and his provisions and camping equipage in +an ox-cart, he took a Cherokee boy with him as driver and companion, +and started out among the wild Indians of the plain and mountain, on a +philological crusade such as the world never saw. +</P> + +<P> +One of the most remarkable features of his experience was the uniform +peace and kindness with which his brethren of the prairie received him. +They furnished him means, too, to prosecute his inquiries in each tribe +or clan. That they should be more sullen and reticent to white men is +not wonderful when we reflect that they have a suspicion that all these +pretended inquirers in science or religion have a lurking eye to real +estate. Several journeys were made. The task was so vast it might have +discouraged him. He started on his longest and his last journey. There +was among the Cherokees a tradition that part of their nation was +somewhere in New Mexico, separated from them before the advent of the +whites. Se-quo-yah knew this, and expected in his rambles to meet them. +He had camped on the spurs of the Rocky Mountains; he had threaded the +valleys of New Mexico; looked at the adobe villages of the Pueblos, and +among the race, neither Indian nor Spaniard, with swarthy face and +unkempt hair. He had occasion to moralize over those who had +voluntarily become the slaves of others even meaner than themselves, +who spoke a jargon neither Indian nor Spanish. Catholics in name, who +ate red pepper pies, gambled like the fashionable frequenters of Baden, +and swore like troopers. +</P> + +<P> +It was late in the year 1842 that the wanderer, sick of a fever, worn +and weary, halted his ox-cart near San Fernandino, in Northern Mexico. +Fate had willed that his work should die with him. But little of his +labor was saved, and that not enough to aid any one to develop his +idea. Bad nursing, exposure, and lack of proper medical attendance +finished the work. He sleeps, not far from the Rio Grande, the greatest +of his race. +</P> + +<P> +At one time Congress contemplated having his remains removed and a +monument erected over them; it was postponed, however. +</P> + +<P> +The Legislature of the Little Cherokee Nation every year includes in +its general appropriations a pension of three hundred dollars to his +widow—the only literary pension paid in the United States. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Se-Quo-Yah; from Harper's New Monthly, +V. 41, 1870, by Unknown + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SE-QUO-YAH *** + +***** This file should be named 4241-h.htm or 4241-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/4/4241/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Se-Quo-Yah; from Harper's New Monthly, V. 41, 1870 + +Author: Unknown + +Posting Date: July 9, 2009 [EBook #4241] +Release Date: July, 2003 +First Posted: December 15, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SE-QUO-YAH *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +SE-QUO-YAH. + +From Harper's New Monthly, V. 41, 1870 + + + + +In the year 1768 a German peddler, named George Gist, left the +settlement of Ebenezer, on the lower Savannah, and entered the Cherokee +Nation by the northern mountains of Georgia. He had two pack-horses +laden with the petty merchandise known to the Indian trade. At that +time Captain Stewart was the British Superintendent of the Indians in +that region. Besides his other duties, he claimed the right to regulate +and license such traffic. It was an old bone of contention. A few years +before, the Governor and Council of the colony of Georgia claimed the +sole power of such privilege and jurisdiction. Still earlier, the +colonial authorities of South Carolina assumed it. Traders from +Virginia, even, found it necessary to go round by Carolina and Georgia, +and to procure licenses. Augusta was the great centre of this commerce, +which in those days was more extensive than would be now believed. +Flatboats, barges, and pirogues floated the bales of pelts to +tide-water. Above Augusta, trains of pack-horses, sometimes numbering +one hundred, gathered in the furs, and carried goods to and from remote +regions. The trader immediately in connection with the Indian hunter +expected to make one thousand per cent. The wholesale dealer made +several hundred. The governors, councilors, and superintendents made +all they could. It could scarcely be called legitimate commerce. It was +a grab game. + +Our Dutch friend Gist was, correctly speaking, a contrabandist. He had +too little influence or money to procure a license, and too much +enterprise to refrain because he lacked it. He belonged to a class more +numerous than respectable, although it would be a good deal to say that +there was any virtue in yielding to these petty exactions. It was a +mere question of confiscation, or robbery, without redress, by the +Indians. He risked it. With traders, at that time, it was customary to +take an Indian wife. She was expected to furnish the eatables, as well +as cook them. By the law of many Indian tribes property and the control +of the family go with the mother. The husband never belongs to the same +family connection, rarely to the same community or town even, and often +not even to the tribe. He is a sort of barnacle, taken in on his wife's +account. To the adventurer, like a trader, this adoption gave a sort of +legal status or protection. Gist either understood this before he +started on his enterprise, or learned it very speedily after. Of the +Cherokee tongue he knew positively nothing. He had a smattering of very +broken English. Somehow or other he managed to induce a Cherokee girl +to become his wife. + +This woman belonged to a family long respectable in the Cherokee +Nation. It is customary for those ignorant of the Indian social polity +to speak of all prominent Indians as "chiefs." Her family had no +pretension to chieftaincy, but was prominent and influential; some of +her brothers were afterward members of the Council. She could not speak +English; but, in common with many Cherokees of even that early date, +had a small proportion of English blood in her veins. The Cherokee +woman, married or single, owns her property, consisting chiefly of +cattle, in her own right. A wealthy Cherokee or Creek, when a son or +daughter is born to him, marks so many young cattle in a new brand, and +these become, with their increase, the child's property. Whether her +cattle constituted any portion of the temptation, I can not say. At any +rate, the girl, who had much of the beauty of her race, became the wife +of the German peddler. + +Of George Gist's married life we have little recorded. It was of very +short duration. He converted his merchandise into furs, and did not +make more than one or two trips. With him it had merely been cheap +protection and board. We might denounce him as a low adventurer if we +did not remember that he was the father of one of the most remarkable +men who ever appeared on the continent. Long before that son was born +he gathered together his effects, went the way of all peddlers, and +never was heard of more. + +He left behind him in the Cherokee Nation a woman of no common energy, +who through a long life was true to him she still believed to be her +husband. The deserted mother called her babe "Se-quo-yah," in the +poetical language of her race. His fellow-clansmen as he grew up gave +him, as an English one, the name of his father, or something sounding +like it. No truer mother ever lived and cared for her child. She reared +him with the most watchful tenderness. With her own hands she cleared a +little field and cultivated it, and carried her babe while she drove up +her cows and milked them. + +His early boyhood was laid in the troublous times of the war of the +Revolution, yet its havoc cast no deeper shadows in the widow's cabin. + +As he grew older he showed a different temper from most Indian +children. He lived alone with his mother, and had no old man to teach +him the use of the bow, or indoctrinate him in the religion and morals +of an ancient but perishing people. He would wander alone in the +forest, and showed an early mechanical genius in carving with his knife +many objects from pieces of wood. He employed his boyish leisure in +building houses in the forest. As he grew older these mechanical +pursuits took a more useful shape. The average native American is +taught as a question of self-respect to despise female pursuits. To be +made a "woman" is the greatest degradation of a warrior. + +Se-quo-yah first exercised his genius in making an improved kind of +wooden milk-pans and skimmers for his mother. Then he built her a +milk-house, with all suitable conveniences, on one of those grand +springs that gurgle from the mountains of the old Cherokee Nation. As a +climax, he even helped her to milk her cows; and he cleared additions +to her fields, and worked on them with her. She contrived to get a +petty stock of goods, and traded with her countrymen. She taught +Se-quo-yah to be a good judge of furs. He would go on expeditions with +the hunters, and would select such skins as he wanted for his mother +before they returned. In his boyish days the buffalo still lingered in +the valleys of the Ohio and Tennessee. On the one side the French +sought them. On the other were the English and Spaniards. These he +visited with small pack-horse trains for his mother. + +For the first hundred years the European colonies were of traders +rather than agriculturists. Besides the fur trade, rearing horses and +cattle occupied their attention. The Indians east of the Mississippi, +and lying between the Appallachian Mountains and the Gulf, had been +agriculturists and fishermen. Buccaneers, pirates, and even the regular +navies or merchant ships of Europe, drove the natives from the haunted +coast. As they fell back, fur traders and merchants followed them with +professions of regard and extortionate prices. Articles of European +manufacture--knives, hatchets, needles, bright cloths, paints, guns, +powder--could only be bought with furs. The Indian mother sighed in her +hut for the beautiful things brought by the Europeans. The warrior of +the Southwest saw with terror the conquering Iroquois, armed with the +dreaded fire-arms of the stranger. When the bow was laid aside, or +handed to the boys of the tribe, the warriors became the abject slaves +of traders. Guns meant gunpowder and lead. These could only come from +the white man. His avarice guarded the steps alike to bear-meat and +beaver-skins. Thus the Indian became a wandering hunter, helpless and +dependent. These hunters traveled great distances, sometimes with a +pack on their backs weighing from thirty to fifty pounds. Until the +middle of the eighteenth century horses had not become very common +among them, and the old Indian used to laugh at the white man, so lazy +that he could not walk. A consuming fire was preying on the vitals of +an ancient simple people. Unscrupulous traders, who boasted that they +made a thousand per cent, held them in the most abject thrall. It has +been carefully computed that these hunters worked, on an average, for +ten cents a day. The power of their old village chiefs grow weaker. No +longer the old men taught the boys their traditions, morals, or +religion. They had ceased to be pagans, without becoming Christians. + +The wearied hunter had fire-water given him as an excitement to drown +the cares common to white and red. Slowly the polity, customs, +industries, morals, religion, and character of the red race were +consumed in this terrible furnace of avarice. The foundations of our +early aristocracies were laid. Byrd, in his "History of the Dividing +Line," tells us that a school of seventy-seven Indian children existed +in 1720, and that they could all read and write English; but adds, that +the jealousy of traders and land speculators, who feared it would +interfere with their business, caused it to be closed. Alas! this +people had encountered the iron nerve of Christianity, without reaping +the fruit of its intelligence or mercy. + +Silver, although occasionally found among the North American Indians, +was very rare previous to the European conquest. Afterward, among the +commodities offered, were the broad silver pieces of the Spaniards, and +the old French and English silver coins. With the most mobile spirit +the Indian at once took them. He used them as he used his shell-beads, +for money and ornament. Native artificers were common in all the +tribes. The silver was beaten into rings, and broad ornamented silver +bands for the head. Handsome breast-plates were made of it; necklaces, +bells for the ankles, and rings for the toes. + +It is not wonderful that Se-quo-yah's mechanical genius led him into +the highest branch of art known to his people, and that he became their +greatest silversmith. His articles of silverware excelled all similar +manufactures among his countrymen. + +He next conceived the idea of becoming a blacksmith. He visited the +shops of white men from time to time. He never asked to be taught the +trade. He had eyes in his head, and hands; and when he bought the +necessary material and went to work, it is characteristic that his +first performance was to make his bellows and his tools; and those who +afterward saw them told me they were very well made. + +Se-quo-yah was now in comparatively easy circumstances. Besides his +cattle, his store, and his farm, he was a blacksmith and a silversmith. +In spite of all that has been alleged about Indian stupidity and +barbarity, his countrymen were proud of him. He was in danger of +shipwrecking on that fatal sunken reef to American character, +popularity. Hospitality is the ornament, and has been the ruin, of the +aborigine. His home, his store, or his shop, became the resort of his +countrymen; there they smoked and talked, and learned to drink +together. Among the Cherokees those who have are expected to be liberal +to those who have not; and whatever weaknesses he might possess, +niggardliness or meanness was not among them. + +After he had grown to man's estate he learned to draw. His sketches, at +first rude, at last acquired considerable merit. He had been taught no +rules of perspective; but while his perspective differed from that of a +European, he did not ignore it, like the Chinese. He had now a very +comfortable hewed-log residence, well furnished with such articles as +were common with the better class of white settlers at that time, many +of them, however, made by himself. + +Before he reached his thirty-fifth year he became addicted to convivial +habits to an extent that injured his business, and began to cripple his +resources. Unlike most of his race, however, he did not become wildly +excited when under the influence of liquor. + +Se-quo-yah, who never saw his father, and never could utter a word of +the German tongue, still carried, deep in his nature, an odd compound +of Indian and German transcendentalism; essentially Indian in opinion +and prejudice, but German in instinct and thought. A little liquor only +mellowed him--it thawed away the last remnant of Indian reticence. He +talked with his associates upon all the knotty questions of law, art, +and religion. Indian Theism and Pantheism were measured against the +Gospel as taught by the land-seeking, fur-buying adventurers. A good +class of missionaries had, indeed, entered the Cherokee Nation; but the +shrewd Se-quo-yah, and the disciples this stoic taught among his +mountains, had just sense enough to weigh the good and the bad +together, and strike an impartial balance as the footing up for this +new proselyting race. + +It has been erroneously alleged that Se-quo-yah was a believer in, or +practiced, the old Indian religious rites. Christianity had, indeed, +done little more for him than to unsettle the pagan idea, but it had +done that. + +It was some years after Se-quo-yah had learned to present the bottle to +his friends before he degenerated into a toper. His natural industry +shielded him, and would have saved him altogether but for the vicious +hospitality by which he was surrounded. With the acuteness that came of +his foreign stock, he learned to buy his liquor by the keg. This +species of economy is as dangerous to the red as to the white race. The +auditors who flocked to see and hear him were not likely to diminish +while the philosopher furnished both the dogmas and the whisky. Long +and deep debauches were often the consequence. Still it was not in the +nature of George Gist to be a wild, shouting drunkard. His mild, +philosophic face was kindled to deeper thought and warmer enthusiasm as +they talked about the problem of their race. All the great social +questions were closely analyzed by men who were fast becoming +insensible to them. When he was too far gone to play the mild, sedate +philosopher, he began that monotonous singing whose music carried him +back to the days when the shadow of the white man never darkened the +forests, and the Indian canoe alone rippled the tranquil waters. + +Should this man be thus lost? He was aroused to his danger by the +relative to whom he owed so much. His temper was eminently philosophic. +He was, as he proved, capable of great effort and great endurance. By +an effort which few red or white men can or do make, he shook off the +habit, and his old nerve and old prosperity came back to him. It was +during the first few years of this century that he applied to Charles +Hicks, a half-breed, afterward principal chief of the nation, to write +his English name. Hicks, although educated after a fashion, made a +mistake in a very natural way. The real name of Se-quo-yah's father was +George Gist. It is now written by the family as it has long been +pronounced in the tribe when his English name is used--"Guest." Hicks, +remembering a word that sounded like it, wrote it--George Guess. It was +a "rough guess," but answered the purpose. The silversmith was as +ignorant of English as he was of any written language. Being a fine +workman, he made a steel die, a facsimile of the name written by Hicks. +With this he put his "trade mark" on his silver-ware, and it is borne +to this day on many of these ancient pieces in the Cherokee nation. + +Between 1809 and 1821, which latter was his fifty-second year, the +great work of his life was accomplished. The die, which was cut before +the former date, probably turned his active mind in the proper +direction. Schools and missions were being established. The power by +which the white man could talk on paper had been carefully noted and +wondered at by many savages, and was far too important a matter to have +been overlooked by such a man as Se-quo-yah. The rude hieroglyphics or +pictoriographs of the Indians were essentially different from all +written language. These were rude representations of events, the +symbols being chiefly the totemic devices of the tribes. A few general +signs for war, death, travel, or other common incidents, and strokes +for numerals, represented days or events as they were perpendicular or +horizontal. Even the wampum belts were little more than helps to +memory, for while they undoubtedly tied up the knots for years, like +the ancient inhabitants of China and Japan, still the meagre record +could only be read by the initiated, for the Indians only intrusted +their history and religion to their best and ablest men. The general +theory with many Indians was, that the written speech of the white man +was one of the mysterious gifts of the Great Spirit. Se-quo-yah boldly +avowed it to be a mere ingenious contrivance that the red man could +master, if he would try. + +Repeated discussion on this point at length fully turned his thoughts +in this new channel. He seems to have disdained the acquirement of the +English language. Perhaps he suspected first what he was bound to know +before he completed his task, that the Cherokee language has certain +necessities and peculiarities of its own. It is almost impossible to +write Indian words and names correctly in English. The English alphabet +has not capacity for its expression. If ten white men sat down to write +the word an Indian uttered, the probabilities are that one half of them +would write them differently from the other half. It is this which has +led to such endless confusion in Indian dictionaries. For instance, we +write the word for the tribe Cherokee, and the letter R, or its sound, +is scarcely used in their language. Today a Cherokee always pronounces +it Chalaque, the pronunciation being between that and Shalakke. On +these peculiarities it is not the purpose of this article to enter, but +hasten to George Gist, brooding over a written language for his people. + +His first essay was natural enough. He tried to invent symbols to +represent words. These he sometimes cut out of bark with his knife, but +generally wrote, or rather drew. With these symbols he would carry on a +conversation with a person in another apartment. As may be supposed, +his symbols multiplied fearfully and wonderfully. The Indian languages +are rich in their creative power. By using pieces of well-known words +that contain the prominent idea, double or compound words are freely +made. This has been called by writers treating this subject, the +polysynthetic. It is, in fact, a jumbling of sentences into words, by +abbreviation, the omitted parts of words being implied or understood. +There is one important fact which I will merely note here that is +generally overlooked. These compounded words, to a large extent, +represent the intrusive or European idea. The names the Indians gave +many of the European things were mere DEFINITIONS. Such as "Big +Knives," etc. Occasionally they made a dash at the French or English +sounds, as in the word "Yengees" for English, which has finally been +corrupted in our language to Yankees. + +Of course an attempt at fixed symbols for words was an unhappy +experiment in a language one prominent element of which is, the +facility of making words out of pieces of words, or compounded words. +Besides this difficulty, no language can be taught successfully by +means of a dictionary, until the human memory acquires more power. +Three years of hopeless struggle with the mighty debris of his symbols +left him, although in the main reticent, a mighty man of words. But his +labors were not lost. Through that heroic, unaided struggle he gained +the first true glimpses into the elements of language. It is a +startling fact, that an uneducated man, of a race we are pleased to +call barbarians, attained in a few years, without books or tutors, what +was developed through several ages of Phoenician, Egyptian, and Greek +wisdom. + +Se-quo-yah discovered that the language possessed certain musical +sounds, such as we call vowels, and dividing sounds, styled by us +consonants. In determining his vowels he varied during the progress of +his discoveries, but finally settled on the six--A, E, I, O, U, and a +guttural vowel sounding like U in UNG. + +These had long and short sounds, with the exception of the guttural. He +next considered his consonant, or dividing sounds, and estimated the +number of combinations of these that would give all the sounds required +to make words in their language. He first adopted fifteen for the +dividing sounds, but settled on twelve primary, the G and K being one, +and sounding more like K than G, and D like T. These may be represented +in English as G, H, L, M, N, QU, T, DL or TL, TS, W, Y, Z. + +It will be seen that if these twelve be multiplied by the six vowels, +the number of possible combinations or syllables would be seventy-two, +and by adding the vowel sounds, which maybe syllables, the number would +be seventy-eight. However, the guttural V, or sound of U in UNG, does +not appear as among the combinations, which make seventy-seven. + +Still his work was not complete. The hissing sound of S entered into +the ramifications of so many sounds, as in STA, STU, SPA, SPE, that it +would have required a large addition to his alphabet to meet this +demand. This he simplified by using a distinct character for the S +(OO), to be used in such combinations. To provide for the varying sound +G, K, he added a symbol which has been written in English KA. As the +syllable NA is liable to be aspirated, he added symbols written NAH, +and KNA. To have distinct representatives for the combinations rising +out of the different sounds of D and T, he added symbols for TA, TE, +TI, and another for DLA, thus TLA. These completed the eighty-five +characters of his alphabet, which was thus an alphabet of syllables, +and not of letters. + +It was a subject of astonishment to scientific men that a language so +copious only embraced eighty-five syllables. This is chiefly accounted +for by the fact that every Cherokee syllable ends in a vocal or nasal +sound, and that there are no double consonants but those provided for +the TL or DL, and TS, and combinations of the hissing S, with a few +consonants. + +The fact is, that many of our combinations of consonants in the English +written language are artificial, and worse than worthless. To indicate +by a familiar illustration the syllabic character of the alphabet of +Se-quo-yah, I will take the name of William H. Seward, which was +appended to the Emancipation Proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, printed in +Cherokee. It was written thus: "O [wi] P[li] 4 [se] G [wa] 6 [te]," and +might be anglicized Will Sewate. As has been observed, there is no R in +the Cherokee language, written or spoken, and as for the middle initial +of Mr. Seward's name, H., there being, of course, no initial in a +syllabic alphabet, the translator, who probably did not know what it +stood for, was compelled to omit it. It was in the year 1821 that the +American Cadmus completed his alphabet. + +As will be observed by examining the alphabet, which is on the table in +the engraving, he used many of the letters of the English alphabet, +also numerals. The fact was, that he came across an old English +spelling-book during his labors, and borrowed a great many of the +symbols. Some he reversed, or placed upside down; others he modified, +or added to. He had no idea of either their meaning or sound, in +English, which is abundantly evident from the use he made of them. As +was eminently fitting, the first scholar taught in the language was the +daughter of Se-quo-yah. She, like all the other Cherokees who tried it, +learned it immediately. Having completed it without the white man's +hints or aid, he visited the agent, Colonel Lowry, a gentleman of some +intelligence, who only lived three miles from him, and informed that +gentleman of his invention. It is not wonderful that the agent was +skeptical, and suggested that the whole was a mere act of memory, and +that the symbols bore no relation to the language, or its necessities. +Like all other benefactors of the race, he had to encounter a little of +the ridicule of those who, being too ignorant to comprehend, maintain +their credit by sneering. The rapid progress of the language among the +people settled the matter, however. The astonishing rapidity with which +it is acquired has always been a wonder, and was the first thing about +it that struck the writer of this article. In my own observation, +Indian children will take one or two, at times several, years to master +the English printed and written language, but in a few days can read +and write in Cherokee. They do the latter, in fact, as soon as they +learn to shape letters. As soon as they master the alphabet they have +got rid of all the perplexing questions in orthography that puzzle the +brains of our children. Is it not too much to say that a child will +learn in a month, by the same effort, as thoroughly, in the language of +Se-quo-yah, that which in ours consumes the time of our children for at +least two years. + +There has been a great clamor for a universal language. We once had it, +in our learned world, in the Latin, in which books were locked up for +the scholars and dead to the world. Language is the handmaiden of +thought, and to be useful must be obedient to its changes as well as +its elemental characteristics. For the English of three hundred years +ago we need a glossary, and to carry down his immortal thoughts in +their pristine vigor, must have, every two hundred years, a Johnson to +modernize a Shakspeare. To probe the causes of the change of language, +to ascertain why even a WRITTEN language is mutable, to pick up this +garment of thought and run its threads back through all their vagaries +to their origin and points of divergence, is one of the grand tasks for +the intellectual historian. He, indeed, must give us the history of +ideas, of which all art, including language, is but the fructification. +To say, therefore, that the alphabet of Se-quo-yah is better adapted +for his language than our alphabet is for the English, would be to pay +it a very wretched compliment. + +George Gist received all honor from his countrymen. A short time after +his invention written communication was opened up by means of it with +that portion of the Cherokee Nation then in their new home west of the +Arkansas. Zealous in his work, he traveled many hundred miles to teach +it to them; and it is no reproach to their intellect to say that they +received it readily. + +It has been said the Indians are besotted against all improvements. The +cordiality with which this was received is worthy of attention. + +In 1823 the General Council of the Cherokee Nation voted a large silver +medal to George Gist as a mark of distinction for his discovery. On one +side were two pipes, the ancient symbol of Indian religion and law; on +the other a man's head. The medal had the following inscription in +English, also in, Cherokee in his own alphabet: + +"Presented to George Gist, by the General Council of the Cherokee +Nation, for his ingenuity in the invention of the Cherokee alphabet." + +John Ross, acting as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, sent it +West to Se-quo-yah, together with an elaborate address, the latter +being at that time in the new nation. + +In 1828 Gist went to Washington city as a delegate from the Western +Cherokees. He was then in his fifty-ninth year. At that time the +portrait was taken, an engraving from which we present to our readers. +He is represented with a table containing his alphabet. The +missionaries were not slow to employ it. It was arranged with the +Cherokee, and English sounds and definitions. Rev. S.A. Worcester +endeavored to get the outlines of its grammar, and both he and Mr. +Boudinot prepared vocabularies of it, as did many others. In this way, +by having more and better observers, we know more of this language than +many others, and affinities have been traced between it and some +others, supposed to be radically different, which would have appeared +in the case of some others, had they been as fully or correctly written. + +Besides the Scriptures, a very considerable number of books were +printed in it, and parts of several different newspapers existing from +time to time; also almanacs, songs, and psalms. + +During the closing portion of his life, the home of Se-quo-yah was near +Brainerd, a mission station in the new nation. Like his countrymen, he +was driven an exile from his old home, from his fields, work-shops, and +orchards by the clear streams flowing from the mountains of Georgia. Is +it wonderful if such treatment should throw a sadder tinge on a +disposition otherwise mild, hopeful, and philosophic? + +One of his sons is a very fair artist, using promiscuously pencil, pen, +chalk, or charcoal. He served, as a private soldier, in the Union army +in the late war, and there, in his quarters, made many sketches. His +power of caricaturing was very considerable. If a humorous picture of +some officer who had rendered himself obnoxious was found, chalked in +unmistakable but grotesque lineaments, on the commissary door, it was +said, "It must have been by the son of Se-quo-yah." + +In his mature years, at Brainerd, although approaching seventy, the +nerve or fire of the old man was not dead. Some narrow-minded +ecclesiastics, because Gist would not go through the routine of a +Christian profession after the fashion they prescribed, have not +scrupled to intimate that he was a pagan, and grieved that the Bible +was printed in the language he gave. This arose simply from not +comprehending him. They persisted in considering him an ignorant +savage, while he comprehended himself and measured them. + +In his old days a new and deeper ambition seized him. He was not in the +habit of asking advice or assistance in his projects. In his journey to +the West, as well as to Washington, he had an opportunity of examining +different languages, of which, as far as lay in his power, he carefully +availed himself. His health had been somewhat affected by rheumatism, +one of the few inheritances he got from the old fur peddler of +Ebenezer; but the strong spirit was slow to break. + +He formed a theory of certain relations in the language of the Indian +tribes, and conceived the idea of writing a book on the points of +similarity and divergence. Books were, to a great extent, closed to +him; but as of old, when he began his career as a blacksmith by making +his bellows, so he now fell back on his own resources. This brave +Indian philosopher of ours was not the man to be stopped by obstacles. +He procured some articles for the Indian trade he had learned in his +boyhood, and putting these and his provisions and camping equipage in +an ox-cart, he took a Cherokee boy with him as driver and companion, +and started out among the wild Indians of the plain and mountain, on a +philological crusade such as the world never saw. + +One of the most remarkable features of his experience was the uniform +peace and kindness with which his brethren of the prairie received him. +They furnished him means, too, to prosecute his inquiries in each tribe +or clan. That they should be more sullen and reticent to white men is +not wonderful when we reflect that they have a suspicion that all these +pretended inquirers in science or religion have a lurking eye to real +estate. Several journeys were made. The task was so vast it might have +discouraged him. He started on his longest and his last journey. There +was among the Cherokees a tradition that part of their nation was +somewhere in New Mexico, separated from them before the advent of the +whites. Se-quo-yah knew this, and expected in his rambles to meet them. +He had camped on the spurs of the Rocky Mountains; he had threaded the +valleys of New Mexico; looked at the adobe villages of the Pueblos, and +among the race, neither Indian nor Spaniard, with swarthy face and +unkempt hair. He had occasion to moralize over those who had +voluntarily become the slaves of others even meaner than themselves, +who spoke a jargon neither Indian nor Spanish. Catholics in name, who +ate red pepper pies, gambled like the fashionable frequenters of Baden, +and swore like troopers. + +It was late in the year 1842 that the wanderer, sick of a fever, worn +and weary, halted his ox-cart near San Fernandino, in Northern Mexico. +Fate had willed that his work should die with him. But little of his +labor was saved, and that not enough to aid any one to develop his +idea. Bad nursing, exposure, and lack of proper medical attendance +finished the work. He sleeps, not far from the Rio Grande, the greatest +of his race. + +At one time Congress contemplated having his remains removed and a +monument erected over them; it was postponed, however. + +The Legislature of the Little Cherokee Nation every year includes in +its general appropriations a pension of three hundred dollars to his +widow--the only literary pension paid in the United States. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Se-Quo-Yah; from Harper's New Monthly, +V. 41, 1870, by Unknown + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SE-QUO-YAH *** + +***** This file should be named 4241.txt or 4241.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/4/4241/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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A few years before, the Governor and +Council of the colony of Georgia claimed the sole power of such +privilege and jurisdiction. Still earlier, the colonial +authorities of South Carolina assumed it. Traders from Virginia, +even, found it necessary to go round by Carolina and Georgia, and +to procure licenses. Augusta was the great centre of this +commerce, which in those days was more extensive than would be now +believed. Flatboats, barges, and pirogues floated the bales of +pelts to tide-water. Above Augusta, trains of pack-horses, +sometimes numbering one hundred, gathered in the furs, and carried +goods to and from remote regions. The trader immediately in +connection with the Indian hunter expected to make one thousand +per cent. The wholesale dealer made several hundred. The +governors, councilors, and superintendents made all they could. It +could scarcely be called legitimate commerce. It was a grab game. + +Our Dutch friend Gist was, correctly speaking, a contrabandist. He +had too little influence or money to procure a license, and too +much enterprise to refrain because he lacked it. He belonged to a +class more numerous than respectable, although it would be a good +deal to say that there was any virtue in yielding to these petty +exactions. It was a mere question of confiscation, or robbery, +without redress, by the Indians. He risked it. With traders, at +that time, it was customary to take an Indian wife. She was +expected to furnish the eatables, as well as cook them. By the law +of many Indian tribes property and the control of the family go +with the mother. The husband never belongs to the same family +connection, rarely to the same community or town even, and often +not even to the tribe. He is a sort of barnacle, taken in on his +wife's account. To the adventurer, like a trader, this adoption +gave a sort of legal status or protection. Gist either understood +this before he started on his enterprise, or learned it very +speedily after. Of the Cherokee tongue he knew positively nothing. +He had a smattering of very broken English. Somehow or other he +managed to induce a Cherokee girl to become his wife. + +This woman belonged to a family long respectable in the Cherokee +Nation. It is customary for those ignorant of the Indian social +polity to speak of all prominent Indians as "chiefs." Her family +had no pretension to chieftaincy, but was prominent and +influential; some of her brothers were afterward members of the +Council. She could not speak English; but, in common with many +Cherokees of even that early date, had a small proportion of +English blood in her veins. The Cherokee woman, married or single, +owns her property, consisting chiefly of cattle, in her own right. +A wealthy Cherokee or Creek, when a son or daughter is born to +him, marks so many young cattle in a new brand, and these become, +with their increase, the child's property. Whether her cattle +constituted any portion of the temptation, I can not say. At any +rate, the girl, who had much of the beauty of her race, became the +wife of the German peddler. + +Of George Gist's married life we have little recorded. It was of +very short duration. He converted his merchandise into furs, and +did not make more than one or two trips. With him it had merely +been cheap protection and board. We might denounce him as a low +adventurer if we did not remember that he was the father of one of +the most remarkable men who ever appeared on the continent. Long +before that son was born he gathered together his effects, went +the way of all peddlers, and never was heard of more. + +He left behind him in the Cherokee Nation a woman of no common +energy, who through a long life was true to him she still believed +to be her husband. The deserted mother called her babe "Se-quo- +yah," in the poetical language of her race. His fellow-clansmen as +he grew up gave him, as an English one, the name of his father, or +something sounding like it. No truer mother ever lived and cared +for her child. She reared him with the most watchful tenderness. +With her own hands she cleared a little field and cultivated it, +and carried her babe while she drove up her cows and milked them. + +His early boyhood was laid in the troublous times of the war of +the Revolution, yet its havoc cast no deeper shadows in the +widow's cabin. + +As he grew older he showed a different temper from most Indian +children. He lived alone with his mother, and had no old man to +teach him the use of the bow, or indoctrinate him in the religion +and morals of an ancient but perishing people. He would wander +alone in the forest, and showed an early mechanical genius in +carving with his knife many objects from pieces of wood. He +employed his boyish leisure in building houses in the forest. As +he grew older these mechanical pursuits took a more useful shape. +The average native American is taught as a question of self- +respect to despise female pursuits. To be made a "woman" is the +greatest degradation of a warrior. + +Se-quo-yah first exercised his genius in making an improved kind +of wooden milk-pans and skimmers for his mother. Then he built her +a milk-house, with all suitable conveniences, on one of those +grand springs that gurgle from the mountains of the old Cherokee +Nation. As a climax, he even helped her to milk her cows; and he +cleared additions to her fields, and worked on them with her. She +contrived to get a petty stock of goods, and traded with her +countrymen. She taught Se-quo-yah to be a good judge of furs. He +would go on expeditions with the hunters, and would select such +skins as he wanted for his mother before they returned. In his +boyish days the buffalo still lingered in the valleys of the Ohio +and Tennessee. On the one side the French sought them. On the +other were the English and Spaniards. These he visited with small +pack-horse trains for his mother. + +For the first hundred years the European colonies were of traders +rather than agriculturists. Besides the fur trade, rearing horses +and cattle occupied their attention. The Indians east of the +Mississippi, and lying between the Appallachian Mountains and the +Gulf, had been agriculturists and fishermen. Buccaneers, pirates, +and even the regular navies or merchant ships of Europe, drove the +natives from the haunted coast. As they fell back, fur traders and +merchants followed them with professions of regard and +extortionate prices. Articles of European manufacture--knives, +hatchets, needles, bright cloths, paints, guns, powder--could only +be bought with furs. The Indian mother sighed in her hut for the +beautiful things brought by the Europeans. The warrior of the +Southwest saw with terror the conquering Iroquois, armed with the +dreaded fire-arms of the stranger. When the bow was laid aside, or +handed to the boys of the tribe, the warriors became the abject +slaves of traders. Guns meant gunpowder and lead. These could only +come from the white man. His avarice guarded the steps alike to +bear-meat and beaver-skins. Thus the Indian became a wandering +hunter, helpless and dependent. These hunters traveled great +distances, sometimes with a pack on their backs weighing from +thirty to fifty pounds. Until the middle of the eighteenth century +horses had not become very common among them, and the old Indian +used to laugh at the white man, so lazy that he could not walk. A +consuming fire was preying on the vitals of an ancient simple +people. Unscrupulous traders, who boasted that they made a +thousand per cent, held them in the most abject thrall. It has +been carefully computed that these hunters worked, on an average, +for ten cents a day. The power of their old village chiefs grow +weaker. No longer the old men taught the boys their traditions, +morals, or religion. They had ceased to be pagans, without +becoming Christians. + +The wearied hunter had fire-water given him as an excitement to +drown the cares common to white and red. Slowly the polity, +customs, industries, morals, religion, and character of the red +race were consumed in this terrible furnace of avarice. The +foundations of our early aristocracies were laid. Byrd, in his +"History of the Dividing Line," tells us that a school of seventy- +seven Indian children existed in 1720, and that they could all +read and write English; but adds, that the jealousy of traders and +land speculators, who feared it would interfere with their +business, caused it to be closed. Alas! this people had +encountered the iron nerve of Christianity, without reaping the +fruit of its intelligence or mercy. + +Silver, although occasionally found among the North American +Indians, was very rare previous to the European conquest. +Afterward, among the commodities offered, were the broad silver +pieces of the Spaniards, and the old French and English silver +coins. With the most mobile spirit the Indian at once took them. +He used them as he used his shell-beads, for money and ornament. +Native artificers were common in all the tribes. The silver was +beaten into rings, and broad ornamented silver bands for the head. +Handsome breast-plates were made of it; necklaces, bells for the +ankles, and rings for the toes. + +It is not wonderful that Se-quo-yah's mechanical genius led him +into the highest branch of art known to his people, and that he +became their greatest silversmith. His articles of silverware +excelled all similar manufactures among his countrymen. + +He next conceived the idea of becoming a blacksmith. He visited +the shops of white men from time to time. He never asked to be +taught the trade. He had eyes in his head, and hands; and when he +bought the necessary material and went to work, it is +characteristic that his first performance was to make his bellows +and his tools; and those who afterward saw them told me they were +very well made. + +Se-quo-yah was now in comparatively easy circumstances. Besides +his cattle, his store, and his farm, he was a blacksmith and a +silversmith. In spite of all that has been alleged about Indian +stupidity and barbarity, his countrymen were proud of him. He was +in danger of shipwrecking on that fatal sunken reef to American +character, popularity. Hospitality is the ornament, and has been +the ruin, of the aborigine. His home, his store, or his shop, +became the resort of his countrymen; there they smoked and talked, +and learned to drink together. Among the Cherokees those who have +are expected to be liberal to those who have not; and whatever +weaknesses he might possess, niggardliness or meanness was not +among them. + +After he had grown to man's estate he learned to draw. His +sketches, at first rude, at last acquired considerable merit. He +had been taught no rules of perspective; but while his perspective +differed from that of a European, he did not ignore it, like the +Chinese. He had now a very comfortable hewed-log residence, well +furnished with such articles as were common with the better class +of white settlers at that time, many of them, however, made by +himself. + +Before he reached his thirty-fifth year he became addicted to +convivial habits to an extent that injured his business, and began +to cripple his resources. Unlike most of his race, however, he did +not become wildly excited when under the influence of liquor. + +Se-quo-yah, who never saw his father, and never could utter a word +of the German tongue, still carried, deep in his nature, an odd +compound of Indian and German transcendentalism; essentially +Indian in opinion and prejudice, but German in instinct and +thought. A little liquor only mellowed him--it thawed away the +last remnant of Indian reticence. He talked with his associates +upon all the knotty questions of law, art, and religion. Indian +Theism and Pantheism were measured against the Gospel as taught by +the land-seeking, fur-buying adventurers. A good class of +missionaries had, indeed, entered the Cherokee Nation; but the +shrewd Se-quo-yah, and the disciples this stoic taught among his +mountains, had just sense enough to weigh the good and the bad +together, and strike an impartial balance as the footing up for +this new proselyting race. + +It has been erroneously alleged that Se-quo-yah was a believer in, +or practiced, the old Indian religious rites. Christianity had, +indeed, done little more for him than to unsettle the pagan idea, +but it had done that. + +It was some years after Se-quo-yah had learned to present the +bottle to his friends before he degenerated into a toper. His +natural industry shielded him, and would have saved him altogether +but for the vicious hospitality by which he was surrounded. With +the acuteness that came of his foreign stock, he learned to buy +his liquor by the keg. This species of economy is as dangerous to +the red as to the white race. The auditors who flocked to see and +hear him were not likely to diminish while the philosopher +furnished both the dogmas and the whisky. Long and deep debauches +were often the consequence. Still it was not in the nature of +George Gist to be a wild, shouting drunkard. His mild, philosophic +face was kindled to deeper thought and warmer enthusiasm as they +talked about the problem of their race. All the great social +questions were closely analyzed by men who were fast becoming +insensible to them. When he was too far gone to play the mild, +sedate philosopher, he began that monotonous singing whose music +carried him back to the days when the shadow of the white man +never darkened the forests, and the Indian canoe alone rippled the +tranquil waters. + +Should this man be thus lost? He was aroused to his danger by the +relative to whom he owed so much. His temper was eminently +philosophic. He was, as he proved, capable of great effort and +great endurance. By an effort which few red or white men can or do +make, he shook off the habit, and his old nerve and old prosperity +came back to him. It was during the first few years of this +century that he applied to Charles Hicks, a half-breed, afterward +principal chief of the nation, to write his English name. Hicks, +although educated after a fashion, made a mistake in a very +natural way. The real name of Se-quo-yah's father was George Gist. +It is now written by the family as it has long been pronounced in +the tribe when his English name is used--"Guest." Hicks, +remembering a word that sounded like it, wrote it--George Guess. +It was a "rough guess," but answered the purpose. The silversmith +was as ignorant of English as he was of any written language. +Being a fine workman, he made a steel die, a facsimile of the +name written by Hicks. With this he put his "trade mark" on his +silver-ware, and it is borne to this day on many of these ancient +pieces in the Cherokee nation. + +Between 1809 and 1821, which latter was his fifty-second year, the +great work of his life was accomplished. The die, which was cut +before the former date, probably turned his active mind in the +proper direction. Schools and missions were being established. The +power by which the white man could talk on paper had been +carefully noted and wondered at by many savages, and was far too +important a matter to have been overlooked by such a man as Se- +quo-yah. The rude hieroglyphics or pictoriographs of the Indians +were essentially different from all written language. These were +rude representations of events, the symbols being chiefly the +totemic devices of the tribes. A few general signs for war, death, +travel, or other common incidents, and strokes for numerals, +represented days or events as they were perpendicular or +horizontal. Even the wampum belts were little more than helps to +memory, for while they undoubtedly tied up the knots for years, +like the ancient inhabitants of China and Japan, still the meagre +record could only be read by the initiated, for the Indians only +intrusted their history and religion to their best and ablest men. +The general theory with many Indians was, that the written speech +of the white man was one of the mysterious gifts of the Great +Spirit. Se-quo-yah boldly avowed it to be a mere ingenious +contrivance that the red man could master, if he would try. + +Repeated discussion on this point at length fully turned his +thoughts in this new channel. He seems to have disdained the +acquirement of the English language. Perhaps he suspected first +what he was bound to know before he completed his task, that the +Cherokee language has certain necessities and peculiarities of its +own. It is almost impossible to write Indian words and names +correctly in English. The English alphabet has not capacity for +its expression. If ten white men sat down to write the word an +Indian uttered, the probabilities are that one half of them would +write them differently from the other half. It is this which has +led to such endless confusion in Indian dictionaries. For +instance, we write the word for the tribe Cherokee, and the letter +R, or its sound, is scarcely used in their language. Today a +Cherokee always pronounces it Chalaque, the pronunciation being +between that and Shalakke. On these peculiarities it is not the +purpose of this article to enter, but hasten to George Gist, +brooding over a written language for his people. + +His first essay was natural enough. He tried to invent symbols to +represent words. These he sometimes cut out of bark with his +knife, but generally wrote, or rather drew. With these symbols he +would carry on a conversation with a person in another apartment. +As may be supposed, his symbols multiplied fearfully and +wonderfully. The Indian languages are rich in their creative +power. By using pieces of well-known words that contain the +prominent idea, double or compound words are freely made. This has +been called by writers treating this subject, the polysynthetic. +It is, in fact, a jumbling of sentences into words, by +abbreviation, the omitted parts of words being implied or +understood. There is one important fact which I will merely note +here that is generally overlooked. These compounded words, to a +large extent, represent the intrusive or European idea. The names +the Indians gave many of the European things were mere +DEFINITIONS. Such as "Big Knives," etc. Occasionally they made a +dash at the French or English sounds, as in the word "Yengees" for +English, which has finally been corrupted in our language to +Yankees. + +Of course an attempt at fixed symbols for words was an unhappy +experiment in a language one prominent element of which is, the +facility of making words out of pieces of words, or compounded +words. Besides this difficulty, no language can be taught +successfully by means of a dictionary, until the human memory +acquires more power. Three years of hopeless struggle with the +mighty debris of his symbols left him, although in the main +reticent, a mighty man of words. But his labors were not lost. +Through that heroic, unaided struggle he gained the first true +glimpses into the elements of language. It is a startling fact, +that an uneducated man, of a race we are pleased to call +barbarians, attained in a few years, without books or tutors, what +was developed through several ages of Phoenician, Egyptian, and +Greek wisdom. + +Se-quo-yah discovered that the language possessed certain musical +sounds, such as we call vowels, and dividing sounds, styled by us +consonants. In determining his vowels he varied during the +progress of his discoveries, but finally settled on the six--A, E, +I, O, U, and a guttural vowel sounding like U in UNG. + +These had long and short sounds, with the exception of the +guttural. He next considered his consonant, or dividing sounds, +and estimated the number of combinations of these that would give +all the sounds required to make words in their language. He first +adopted fifteen for the dividing sounds, but settled on twelve +primary, the G and K being one, and sounding more like K than G, +and D like T. These may be represented in English as G, H, L, M, +N, QU, T, DL or TL, TS, W, Y, Z. + +It will be seen that if these twelve be multiplied by the six +vowels, the number of possible combinations or syllables would be +seventy-two, and by adding the vowel sounds, which maybe +syllables, the number would be seventy-eight. However, the +guttural V, or sound of U in UNG, does not appear as among the +combinations, which make seventy-seven. + +Still his work was not complete. The hissing sound of S entered +into the ramifications of so many sounds, as in STA, STU, SPA, +SPE, that it would have required a large addition to his alphabet +to meet this demand. This he simplified by using a distinct +character for the S (OO), to be used in such combinations. To +provide for the varying sound G, K, he added a symbol which has +been written in English KA. As the syllable NA is liable to be +aspirated, he added symbols written NAH, and KNA. To have distinct +representatives for the combinations rising out of the different +sounds of D and T, he added symbols for TA, TE, TI, and another +for DLA, thus TLA. These completed the eighty-five characters of +his alphabet, which was thus an alphabet of syllables, and not of +letters. + +It was a subject of astonishment to scientific men that a language +so copious only embraced eighty-five syllables. This is chiefly +accounted for by the fact that every Cherokee syllable ends in a +vocal or nasal sound, and that there are no double consonants but +those provided for the TL or DL, and TS, and combinations of the +hissing S, with a few consonants. + +The fact is, that many of our combinations of consonants in the +English written language are artificial, and worse than worthless. +To indicate by a familiar illustration the syllabic character of +the alphabet of Se-quo-yah, I will take the name of William H. +Seward, which was appended to the Emancipation Proclamation of Mr. +Lincoln, printed in Cherokee. It was written thus: "O [wi] P[li] 4 +[se] G [wa] 6 [te]," and might be anglicized Will Sewate. As has +been observed, there is no R in the Cherokee language, written or +spoken, and as for the middle initial of Mr. Seward's name, H., +there being, of course, no initial in a syllabic alphabet, the +translator, who probably did not know what it stood for, was +compelled to omit it. It was in the year 1821 that the American +Cadmus completed his alphabet. + +As will be observed by examining the alphabet, which is on the +table in the engraving, he used many of the letters of the English +alphabet, also numerals. The fact was, that he came across an old +English spelling-book during his labors, and borrowed a great many +of the symbols. Some he reversed, or placed upside down; others he +modified, or added to. He had no idea of either their meaning or +sound, in English, which is abundantly evident from the use he +made of them. As was eminently fitting, the first scholar taught +in the language was the daughter of Se-quo-yah. She, like all the +other Cherokees who tried it, learned it immediately. Having +completed it without the white man's hints or aid, he visited the +agent, Colonel Lowry, a gentleman of some intelligence, who only +lived three miles from him, and informed that gentleman of his +invention. It is not wonderful that the agent was skeptical, and +suggested that the whole was a mere act of memory, and that the +symbols bore no relation to the language, or its necessities. Like +all other benefactors of the race, he had to encounter a little of +the ridicule of those who, being too ignorant to comprehend, +maintain their credit by sneering. The rapid progress of the +language among the people settled the matter, however. The +astonishing rapidity with which it is acquired has always been a +wonder, and was the first thing about it that struck the writer of +this article. In my own observation, Indian children will take one +or two, at times several, years to master the English printed and +written language, but in a few days can read and write in +Cherokee. They do the latter, in fact, as soon as they learn to +shape letters. As soon as they master the alphabet they have got +rid of all the perplexing questions in orthography that puzzle the +brains of our children. Is it not too much to say that a child +will learn in a month, by the same effort, as thoroughly, in the +language of Se-quo-yah, that which in ours consumes the time of +our children for at least two years. + +There has been a great clamor for a universal language. We once +had it, in our learned world, in the Latin, in which books were +locked up for the scholars and dead to the world. Language is the +handmaiden of thought, and to be useful must be obedient to its +changes as well as its elemental characteristics. For the English +of three hundred years ago we need a glossary, and to carry down +his immortal thoughts in their pristine vigor, must have, every +two hundred years, a Johnson to modernize a Shakspeare. To probe +the causes of the change of language, to ascertain why even a +WRITTEN language is mutable, to pick up this garment of thought +and run its threads back through all their vagaries to their +origin and points of divergence, is one of the grand tasks for the +intellectual historian. He, indeed, must give us the history of +ideas, of which all art, including language, is but the +fructification. To say, therefore, that the alphabet of Se-quo-yah +is better adapted for his language than our alphabet is for the +English, would be to pay it a very wretched compliment. + +George Gist received all honor from his countrymen. A short time +after his invention written communication was opened up by means +of it with that portion of the Cherokee Nation then in their new +home west of the Arkansas. Zealous in his work, he traveled many +hundred miles to teach it to them; and it is no reproach to their +intellect to say that they received it readily. + +It has been said the Indians are besotted against all +improvements. The cordiality with which this was received is +worthy of attention. + +In 1823 the General Council of the Cherokee Nation voted a large +silver medal to George Gist as a mark of distinction for his +discovery. On one side were two pipes, the ancient symbol of +Indian religion and law; on the other a man's head. The medal had +the following inscription in English, also in, Cherokee in his own +alphabet: + +"Presented to George Gist, by the General Council of the Cherokee +Nation, for his ingenuity in the invention of the Cherokee +alphabet." + +John Ross, acting as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, sent +it West to Se-quo-yah, together with an elaborate address, the +latter being at that time in the new nation. + +In 1828 Gist went to Washington city as a delegate from the +Western Cherokees. He was then in his fifty-ninth year. At that +time the portrait was taken, an engraving from which we present to +our readers. He is represented with a table containing his +alphabet. The missionaries were not slow to employ it. It was +arranged with the Cherokee, and English sounds and definitions. +Rev. S.A. Worcester endeavored to get the outlines of its grammar, +and both he and Mr. Boudinot prepared vocabularies of it, as did +many others. In this way, by having more and better observers, we +know more of this language than many others, and affinities have +been traced between it and some others, supposed to be radically +different, which would have appeared in the case of some others, +had they been as fully or correctly written. + +Besides the Scriptures, a very considerable number of books were +printed in it, and parts of several different newspapers existing +from time to time; also almanacs, songs, and psalms. + +During the closing portion of his life, the home of Se-quo-yah was +near Brainerd, a mission station in the new nation. Like his +countrymen, he was driven an exile from his old home, from his +fields, work-shops, and orchards by the clear streams flowing from +the mountains of Georgia. Is it wonderful if such treatment should +throw a sadder tinge on a disposition otherwise mild, hopeful, and +philosophic? + +One of his sons is a very fair artist, using promiscuously pencil, +pen, chalk, or charcoal. He served, as a private soldier, in the +Union army in the late war, and there, in his quarters, made many +sketches. His power of caricaturing was very considerable. If a +humorous picture of some officer who had rendered himself +obnoxious was found, chalked in unmistakable but grotesque +lineaments, on the commissary door, it was said, "It must have +been by the son of Se-quo-yah." + +In his mature years, at Brainerd, although approaching seventy, +the nerve or fire of the old man was not dead. Some narrow-minded +ecclesiastics, because Gist would not go through the routine of a +Christian profession after the fashion they prescribed, have not +scrupled to intimate that he was a pagan, and grieved that the +Bible was printed in the language he gave. This arose simply from +not comprehending him. They persisted in considering him an +ignorant savage, while he comprehended himself and measured them. + +In his old days a new and deeper ambition seized him. He was not +in the habit of asking advice or assistance in his projects. In +his journey to the West, as well as to Washington, he had an +opportunity of examining different languages, of which, as far as +lay in his power, he carefully availed himself. His health had +been somewhat affected by rheumatism, one of the few inheritances +he got from the old fur peddler of Ebenezer; but the strong spirit +was slow to break. + +He formed a theory of certain relations in the language of the +Indian tribes, and conceived the idea of writing a book on the +points of similarity and divergence. Books were, to a great +extent, closed to him; but as of old, when he began his career as +a blacksmith by making his bellows, so he now fell back on his own +resources. This brave Indian philosopher of ours was not the man +to be stopped by obstacles. He procured some articles for the +Indian trade he had learned in his boyhood, and putting these and +his provisions and camping equipage in an ox-cart, he took a +Cherokee boy with him as driver and companion, and started out +among the wild Indians of the plain and mountain, on a +philological crusade such as the world never saw. + +One of the most remarkable features of his experience was the +uniform peace and kindness with which his brethren of the prairie +received him. They furnished him means, too, to prosecute his +inquiries in each tribe or clan. That they should be more sullen +and reticent to white men is not wonderful when we reflect that +they have a suspicion that all these pretended inquirers in +science or religion have a lurking eye to real estate. Several +journeys were made. The task was so vast it might have discouraged +him. He started on his longest and his last journey. There was +among the Cherokees a tradition that part of their nation was +somewhere in New Mexico, separated from them before the advent of +the whites. Se-quo-yah knew this, and expected in his rambles to +meet them. He had camped on the spurs of the Rocky Mountains; he +had threaded the valleys of New Mexico; looked at the adobe +villages of the Pueblos, and among the race, neither Indian nor +Spaniard, with swarthy face and unkempt hair. He had occasion to +moralize over those who had voluntarily become the slaves of +others even meaner than themselves, who spoke a jargon neither +Indian nor Spanish. Catholics in name, who ate red pepper pies, +gambled like the fashionable frequenters of Baden, and swore like +troopers. + +It was late in the year 1842 that the wanderer, sick of a fever, +worn and weary, halted his ox-cart near San Fernandino, in +Northern Mexico. Fate had willed that his work should die with +him. But little of his labor was saved, and that not enough to aid +any one to develop his idea. Bad nursing, exposure, and lack of +proper medical attendance finished the work. He sleeps, not far +from the Rio Grande, the greatest of his race. + +At one time Congress contemplated having his remains removed and a +monument erected over them; it was postponed, however. + +The Legislature of the Little Cherokee Nation every year includes +in its general appropriations a pension of three hundred dollars +to his widow--the only literary pension paid in the United States. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of Se-quo-yah, from Harper's New Monthly + diff --git a/old/sqoyh10.zip b/old/sqoyh10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..97cc4e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/sqoyh10.zip |