American schools are based on the understanding of the written word. This is done by reading information and transcribing ideas through writing.
While oral storytelling is capable of transmitting cultural ideas accurately, a written alphabet transforms a culture. Writing allows people from different cultures and countries to learn and experience a society. Since storytelling relies on an immense amount of time to memorize, writing gives members of a society the capability to quickly develop thought and capture cultural ideas in books, letters and essays. Writing allows a society to develop beyond a hunter/gatherer mentality.
In Native American tribes, history was usually passed on through oral tradition. But this tradition was changed in the Cherokee tribe because of the efforts of one man. That man was Sequoyah, the inventor of the written Cherokee language.
Sequoyah was born in the 1760s and was partially crippled. He learned to be a metal worker and made both sturdy iron tools and delicate silverware. As the migration into Cherokee land in Georgia began to happen in the 1790s, Sequoyah began to see that contracts, deeds and other important documents were always written.
He decided to create a written system for the Cherokee language. Many of his fellow Cherokees thought he was foolish for wasting his time on such a silly project. In fact, members of his tribe actually burned down his cabin with all of his early attempts to write Cherokee. But in spite of this mean-spirited attack, Sequoyah persevered. While he had first tried to draw a picture for each idea around him, the amount of pictures became too vast to be useable. He needed to try a new method. What would happen if there was a symbol for each sound in the language? How many sounds were there in Cherokee? Sequoyah decided to find out.
After he had listened and studied his language, he created all the letters needed to form an alphabet. All of his neighbors were reduced to silence when his 6-year-old daughter read in the newly-written language. Soon, Cherokee warriors started writing out their thoughts as well. Now a new way was possible to record the history of the Cherokee people.
Terrible times soon came to the Cherokee people through the stubborn cruelty of President Andrew Jackson. They were marched from Georgia to Oklahoma on the sorrowful "Trail of Tears." Throughout this awful time, their language was preserved, and with it the memory of their nation.
How did all this happen? How did Sequoyah’s great invention help save the cultural memory of the Cherokee nation? Have you ever tried to invent a form of writing? How would you do it? And finally, why did Sequoyah’s work make him a true American hero? To find out, go to the library and read this excellent biography, "Sequoyah," by James Rumford.
This award-winning book is a highly readable introduction to the remarkable life of Sequoyah. The author does not belabor the deportation of the Cherokees from the Southeast, but tells the story in a sensitive manner. All of the English writing in this story has a Cherokee translation at the bottom of each page. While some of the Cherokee letters were historically transformed into durable English characters, most of the Cherokee scripts retained the beautiful loops and whirls Sequoyah invented. I hope you take the time to read this interesting book about Sequoyah and the beautiful writing he created.
