Like many others, I sometimes despair over the condition of education in America. However, I try to periodically remind myself of two historical events which demonstrate that great strides in education can be made when we have the will to do so.
The first example is truly of monumental proportions: Following the Civil War, literacy among black Arkansans grew from near zero in 1865 to 60 percent at the time of the 1900 U.S. Census. This startling accomplishment was achieved without substantial assistance from governmental agencies. I have written about this phenomenon previously.
Another amazing educational achievement was the development of a method for writing the Cherokee language coupled with a remarkably successful effort to teach a large percentage of the Cherokee population to read and write the language.
A Cherokee by the name of Sequoyah developed the Cherokee syllabary-often called an alphabet. While he accomplished most of his work before moving to Arkansas, Sequoyah lived for a time here, and his written language affected Arkansas in a variety of ways.
Sequoyah’s birth date is unknown, like many aspects of his life. He was born about 1770, his mother being Cherokee and his father probably white though that is a source of historical disagreement. His European name was George Gist or Guess. Sequoyah received little or no formal education. Indeed, it appears that he never learned to read English.
Alack of education did not hamper Sequoyah. He had a natural intelligence and did well despite a childhood accident that left him with a limp. His mother ran a trading post, a position that Sequoyah might have later held. He also worked as a blacksmith, and later became a skilled silversmith. Since his pieces of silver work were not signed, no known examples of his art survive.
Like many creative people, Sequoyah had an affinity for alcohol. Indeed, his alcoholism could have easily ruined his life, but Sequoyah was a man of strong will and he gave up whiskey. He had a higher purpose for his life.
It would have been useful had someone written a good biography of Sequoyah while he was still living. Perhaps that would explain how and why Sequoyah decided to develop a method for rendering the Cherokee language in written form.
Archaeologist Ann M. Early, author of the entry on Sequoyah in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, stated that “though it is not known what inspired him toward this goal [of creating an alphabet], he certainly understood the power of written communication after interacting with white people for much of his life.”
Historian and librarian Mary Ann Littlefield has described Sequoyah’s work: “Between 1809 and 1821, Sequoyah worked on his alphabet or syllabary of 85 characters, which represented all of the combination consonant and vowel sounds in the Cherokee language.” Littlefield concluded, “It is said that a Cherokee of average intelligence could learn the alphabet in three days.”
Tradition holds that initially many Cherokee were skeptical of Sequoyah’s alphabet. However, Sequoyah’s young daughter was used as an example to demonstrate the ease of learning the new system. In 1824 the Cherokee Council, headquartered in New Echota, Ga., awarded Sequoyah a medal, which you can see in the famous portrait of Sequoyah painted by Charles Bird King.
The Cherokee created the first issue of a bilingual Cherokee newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix, in 1828. Soon, numerous Cherokee language publications rolled off the press, including the New Testament, numerous religious hymns, and tribal publications.
Sequoyah relocated to Arkansas in 1824, settling near modern Russellville in Pope County. He operated a blacksmith shop and established a salt works.
In 1828 Sequoyah was appointed to a Cherokee commission sent to Washington to negotiate land rights and boundaries. As Ann Early has written, “the delegation was pressured into exchanging its Arkansas lands for territory in what was then called Lovely’s Purchase, a tract that ran west of the territorial border into what is now northeast Oklahoma.”
In his later years Sequoyah was something of a diplomat and peacemaker, working to stop the fierce and violent contention between those who willingly emigrated to the west (the Old Settlers) and those Cherokee who were later forced to leave their eastern homelands via the Trail of Tears.
In 1842 Sequoyah went to Mexico seeking Cherokee who were believed to have fled there, his goal being to bring them back to the Cherokee Nation. Sequoyah died unexpectedly near San Fernando, Mexico, in August of 1843.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living in Pulaski County. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial, Pages 84 on 03/30/2014