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By: Natalie Hinch

Junior Division; Historical paper

Around 3,000 years ago we believe that the Cherokee came from around the Great Lakes to Southeast. The Cherokee language came from the Iroqouian language family. After awhile there was a separation from different groups of Cherokee's.

In America around the late 1700's and early 1800's Sequoyah was working on his writing system. It was very difficult for him to get the Cherokees to believe that it would work. Only after a lot of hard work, and a long time did they finally believe it could. Then Sequoyah gave his gift to his people.

How did there get to be different dialects within the Cherokee language and how did the Cherokee's written language form?

The Cherokee spoken language came from the Iroquoian language family. Some people called Linguists believe that Cherokee came from around the Great Lakes to the Southeast over 3,000 years ago.

In 1540 Cherokee claimed a territory of 40,000 square miles in the Southeast. Where today in America would be Alabama, Georgia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The white man had forced the Cherokee to split up causing them to have different dialects. There were three different dialects... Eastern (lower), the middle dialect (Kituwah), and the Western (The Overhill) dialect.

The Eastern dialect is now extinct. The main thing that was different is a rolling "r" which takes the place of the "L" of other dialects. They lived in what is now South Carolina and made first contact with the British. It died out because of war on the 1800's. They (some of the speakers that had escaped) went with the Cherokees further in land.

The middle dialect (Kituwah) is being spoken by the CHerokee living on the Qualla reservation in North Carolina. It goes with the Western by having the "L" sound.

The Western (The Overhill) dialect is spoken by Cherokee in the West. Because of their isolation from others the Kituwah dialect was less influenced by other Indian cultures and the conflicts that the WEstern Cherokees had (and are) going through. The Overhill dialect is the softest and most musical of the Cherokee language.

Cherokee is written in 50 different spellings. In 1708 the Eastern dialect tsa-ra-gi form is what the English settlers became familiar with first. It is where Cherokee came from. The Spanish from the south became familiar with tsa-la-gi. That is where Chalaque came from. Today Cherokee refer to themselves: tsi-tsa-la-gi meaning "I am Cherokee".

The proper name by the Cherokee is: yun-wi-yah. Yun-wi (person), and ya (real or principal). If they are talking about the tribe they add the prefix ani :ani-yun-wi-ya.

In the 1800's there was a man half white and half Cherokee. He was lame in one leg so he was given the name Sequoyah meaning "The Lame One". He was born in Tuskege, Tennessee.

His father was a white man while his mother was Cherokee. This was not uncommon. This was only one of the ways the Cherokee were changing.

A medicine man, the caster of spells, named Old Kaluna thought that Sequoyah was foolish to try to run fast like the other boys. Instead he thought that Sequoyah should try to learn as much as he could. After all isn't The Lame One part of the Red Paint Clan? And isn't one of them in the future going to help the Cherokees in time of trouble? So the medicine men would take Sequoyah to find herbs and plants. Even the sacred bloodroot. Sometimes they would even take him to places where the rarest plants grew. Before long Sequoyah had learned the name and the uses for every herb and plant. He learns that not one person knew everything. Instead certain people know one thing while others knew some things that were different. He also had a keen memory so it was easier for him to learn all the formulas for spells. He even learned them for the most secret ones. His mother thought that Sequoyah should not just learn the ways of the medicine men so she took him from their wandering and taught him the value of furs in the white man's money and the weight of silver in hand. And also the ring of good and bad coins.

As Sequoyah grew so did all the things he learned. He knew every animal and the sounds. One day he, not thing about it, picked up a small piece of rock and began to draw different designs. After he looked down he saw he had drawn a squirrel and it even looked like one! For the first time he felt a pleasure with himself. He found that he could do a lot of things with his hands. He learned how to use a hammer and a saw. He would build different things.

He began, at 18, to paint. He would paint anything he could. His horse, deer, and buffalo were very successful.

Sequoyah left his hometown and went to a Cherokee village near Willstown, Alabama. He thought he would do some blacksmithing. He also worked with silver. As his work became popular his friends told him he needed to get a trademark. So Sequoyah got one, George Guess.

The Cherokees began to drift apart. They would become like the white man. Sequoyah felt that he had to do something for his people.

When in war Sequoyah saw the whites writing letters to their families and getting letters back. That's when he learned what he had to do. He had to invent a system of writing for his people.

He thought that the best thing he could do was start by making a picture drawing. He did so and found out that it just wasn’t what he wanted.

He thought that he should go to some of the white man’s schools. He did and would lean over the pupils shoulders and look into their “talking leaves”. He thought that this did not help him so he left.

Seqouyah took his time and thought of every sound the Cherokee language had. He thought that there he could use syllables for each sound.

One day while his daughter was playing she found a white man’s book. Seqouyah looked through it and found that they had repeating symbols. 26 to be exact. So he looked at his syllables and thought that they were too many. He started again and came up with 86. He had done it! He started to teach his daughter how to read and write it. His friends where quick to discourage him. Saying that it would not work and he should just leave it alone. When he did not his once friends began to think that he was weird so they stop coming around. They thought that he had gone mad and was a freak.

People began to believe that Sequoyah was dealing in dark magic. Evil magic. They thought that his daughter was too with him. So one night they burned down Seqouyah’s home. With it burned his syllbary.

Sequoyah then moved to the other part of the Cherokee Nation. He took his daughter along. Traveling he met a mother and her son. They feel in love and got married.

He started on his syllables again. He remember them perfectly so it didn’t take to long to rewrite. He then taught his family it and when they got it down he went back to his hometown.

John Ross, one of the men that went to war with Seqouyah, let the tribal council take a look at his syllabary. They were doubtful. So they had Sequoyah’s daughter stay in the room and made Sequoyah wait outside. They told her some words to write down and then called Sequoyah back in to read what she had written. When he got it right he thought that it was over and that he had won their support. Was he ever so wrong!! They still doubted that this could work so they had Seqouyah’s daughter leave and to make sure that she could not use the dark magic made her travel a mile away. Then John Ross gave Sequoyah what he was to write. John through in some really hard words hoping that his daughter would not be able to know what they were so that she couldn’t read it. Well Sequoyah’s daughter came in and read it as clear as rain drops. Now the council believed. They told Sequoyah how sorry they were for not believing him and at once had Seqouyah stay with them to learn the syllables.

The syllabary was so right with the Cherokee tribal council, that they had learned it within a month!

Sequoyah’s syllabary had worked!!! He taught the older Cherokees and the older Cherokees taught the younger ones and it remained with the Cherokees for the rest of time.

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- Special Thanks to my close friend, Natalie (Singing Wolf) for letting me put this on my web site! ©1998 Natalie Hinch