USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 76
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accident injured and was thereafter a cripple for life. Thus debarred from active work, he was still able to make various and distant expedi- tions in a search other than that for wild beasts.
"Even as a hunter Sequoya was noted for his inventive genius and extraordinary mechanical skill. He was, too, a craftsman in silverwork and indeed a kind of Indian Tubal-Cain in the fashioning of metals. His maiming had caused the development of his reflective, undeveloped mentality. Although totally unacquainted with letters, his quick ob- serving powers very early made him conscious of the value of the art of writing and of the power of the printing press among the whites, although he had little love for the pale faces. What could the Cherokee do to appropriate to himself this wonderful power which Sequoya felt to be at the basis of the white man's civilization ?
"It would be a most interesting study to follow, if possible, the mental processes of this child of nature in his long quest of means to an end in working out his problem for his nation. He had no model for a guide, not even a blind Indian trace in the wilderness, for no predecessor had ever blazed a way which might serve even for suggestion. A real or a mythmie Cadmus had an immortality covering at least thousands of years, for bringing to Greece au alphabet representing sixteen ele- mentary sounds-mere breathings or ejaculations, of the human voice, though severally representing nothing. But Sequoya had never heard of Cadmus, nor of his invention-if the first alphabet was really of Phoenician origin.
"Hieroglyphs or hierograms-even had Sequoya ever dreamed of these-would not have answered his purpose. The ideograph, or idea- hierograph, could not work in Cherokee, for the Indian has never recog- nized the abstract. Mere picture writing was too complicated for the needs of ordinary life, and practicality was Sequoya's gospel. Nor did the symbolic hieroglyph offer anything better. Thousands of symbols would be necessary to furnish expression for even a limited language and how could these ever be committed to memory by the people and made of any practical utility. If Sequoya ever thought of symbolism for his system, he doubtless soon gave up the idea. Phoneties seemed to offer something better, and to this field the Indian genius soon devoted his exclusive attention.
"Happily, Sequoya knew nothing of ancient phonetics; he under- took to deal with sounds, not with ideas. Had he undertaken, like the ancients, to represent ideas by symbols, it is very certain that he could never have reached his proposed end; could never have devoloped his idea ; could never have found a workable system of character representa- tion. Turning into the field of real phoneties, or abstract sounds divested of all connection with ideas or word-representatives-this wonderful child of the forest set himself to the task of counting up and calendar- izing-pardon the word-the separate sounds found in the Cherokee language.
"These he reckoned at eighty-five in number. Arrived at this point his work was already, for the most part, accomplished. The inventing of eighty-five character-representatives for these eighty-five distinct sounds, was a much lighter task. But what infinite toil and research to examine all the words of his language with their constituent sounds
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or syllables, resolve them and find a key for representing them. Cad- mus, nor any Phoenician, Egyptian. Chinaman, nor other ancient nor modern had ever reached any such solution to the literary problem.
"For about twelve years he labored at his strange task, and, as usual with men of real genius, was ridiculed by his people, who could
Cherokee Alphabet .
R.
T,
Si Ohu
2
C
.
Sounds represented by Vowels.
a .às a in latur or short aren in vient c . is a in hale in short as a in med ins i in pique. in short is i'm pit
no, as un inclui, a share us ein und is us un ir houd ur short us n in pull
" as " in but, unsulised
Consonant Sounds
y nearly as in English , but approaching to k. I weil as in Ruglish bed approaching Vol_ hktmany, stw.v. as in English. Syllables beginning with y recept & hove sometimes the power of his EO' are somestaats sounded to, tu. tv and Syllables written with Il acceptli sometimes vary to the.
THE CHEROKEE ALPHABET
not grasp the meaning of his bizarre life and studies. He is usually pictured with a pipe in his mouth, bending over his work; though we can give no credit to the nicotine for any part of his invention. For untold centuries the Indians had used their tobacco for offerings, for the curing of diseases, for sealing treaties, and for nerve-soothing around their camp-fires. But we have never read of anything of intel-
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lectual, moral, or physical worth as a probable result of this devotion to their native weed, the chief of narcotics.
"But Sequoya won at last. In 1821 the Cherokee council adopted the new syllabary, and the nation, with great enthusiasm, set about to learn it. In a few months thousands of them could read and write Sequoyan with facility. The Cherokee boy made no mistakes in his spelling. Ilis written language had no silent letters, no ambiguous sounds, to deal with. Sequoya was now in high feather among the people who had once derided him.
"In 1822 he went to those Cherokees who had already settled be- yond the Mississippi to teach these also the new system, and the next year he established his permanent home with these western tribesmen. The practicability of the new system was soon put to the proof, for in 1824 parts of the Bible were published in Sequoyan Cherokee, and in 1828 the first North American Indian periodical-the Cherokee Phoenix-began to be published at New Echota, the Cherokee capital, near the present Rome in North Georgia. The Phoenix-published partly in English and partly in Sequoyan-ran until October, 1835, when the general forced migration of the tribe to the trans-Mississippi brought about its suspension. Elias Boudinot was its editor.
"Several other periodicals at irregular intervals-The. Cherokee Messenger, in 1844, published at the Baptist mission, Park Hill, I. T., and entirely in Cherokee; The Cherokee Advocate, in 1844, a weekly, partly in English and partly in Cherokee; The Cherokee Almanac, an annual now of many years' standing, and various other current or per- manent publications have since appeared.
"Sequoya's worth was now appreciated by his people. In 1828 the western Cherokees sent him to Washington to negotiate in their behalf with the government, and when the eastern and western Cherokees were united in their new home, he became a powerful factor in the organiza- tion of the tribal government.
"But he was still a dreamer and an idealist. The conception of a common Indian language with a common grammar and a common sylla- bary, took possession of his mind, and he visited many tribes searching for these common linguistic elements for aboriginal uniformity. He probably never realized the need, as preliminary to his generalization, for individual and native investigators to do for their respective tongues what he himself had done for Cherokee, viz .: to first reduce these dia- leets to syllabaries with character representatives, out of which a large system of common phonetics might be produced, though we fail to see how a common written language could have been the outcome.
"In China twenty totally different vernaculars have a common literary language; but this is due to a common system of word, or idea, representation, e. g., the ideographs for horse, cow, dog, etc., may be universally recognized while the words severally expressing these ideas in the various dialects may be widely different and mutually unintelligible.
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"But in a system of sound characters the ideas are wholly wanting, and unrelated to the sounds. Sequoya went in his old age in quest of a lost Cherokee tribe which, according to tradition, had settled some- where in the west. In August, 1843, he died, near San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, the most extraordinary literary genius of perhaps all the ages.
"It is curious to speculate upon the possible and the probable out- come of Sequoya's remarkable invention, could it have had fair play for two or three centuries among the Cherokees. What could it have accomplished alone and unhampered among these tribesmen? To what degree of civilization might they have attained with their syllabary alone to help them in science and arts? Of course we must allow as preliminary its author's first acquaintance with the whites and the suggestion and the spur thus afforded to him, without which he would never have undertaken the creation of a literary system. But this much given, and then the permanent segregation of the Cherokees from the whites-what of the result ?
"Is it too much to suppose that the Cherokees would by themselves have reached a high stage of civilization? What has been the effect of a general knowledge of letters among the nations of the earth? Such peoples have uniformly attained to a high stage of advancement on every line. Nor need we suppose that the Cherokees would have fur- nished an exception to this universal ethnic rule. But Sequoya's sys- tem never had opportunity for full development. The English lan- guage, the English school, the English book and periodical-held the Cherokee in their clasp. The pressure was too powerful to be resisted. But suppose the Cherokees with their syllabary left alone with the other tribes of the forest-they would undoubtedly have become the Athenians of this Western world, while the other red men would have been the 'Barbarians,' despised by these American Hellenes." *
Sequoya's wonderful invention produced an immediate effect upon Cherokee development. In the fall of 1824, John Arch, a young con- vert, made a manuscript translation of a part of St. John's gospel, which was the first Bible literature in which the characters of the new alphabet were used. Hundreds of copies were made, and the work was widely dis- seminated. Later David Brown completed a translation of the entire New Testament. Some two years after the new alphabet was com- pleted, the Cherokee council, having decided to establish a newspaper, type was cast in Boston, under the superintendence of the noted mis- sionary, Worcester, who, during the winter of 1827, contributed to the Missionary Herald five verses of Genesis in the new syllabary, this being the first appearance in print. Early in 1828, the newspaper out- fit arrived at New Echota, and the first number of the Cherokee Phoenix appeared on February 21, 1828. Elias Boudinot, an educated Cher- okee, was the editor. The first printers were two white men, Isaac N. Harris and John F. Wheeler.
* "The Library of Southern Literature," Vol. XVI, Atlanta, 1913.
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It was in a log house that this pioneer newspaper of North Georgia was edited and published. The outfit was shipped from Boston to Augusta and transported two hundred miles by wagon. Such was the beginning of journalism in the Cherokee nation. After a precarious existence of some six years, the Phoenix was suspended, owing to the hostile action of the Georgia authorities; but its successor, the Advocate, arose in 1844 at Tahlequah, under William P. Ross. Bibles, hymn- books, school books, theologieal works, etc., were also printed in large numbers. Besides being the first newspaper published in North Georgia and the first newspaper in which the characters of the new alphabet were used, it was also the first newspaper owned and edited by the Indians of North America. Simultaneously with the decree establishing the national press at New Echota, the Cherokee national council, on July 26, 1827, adopted a constitution. John Ross was presi- dent of the convention. The choice of principal chief fell upon Charles R. Hicks, a Moravian convert of mixed blood, but he was soon succeeded by John Ross, who became the great leader of the national party, in opposition to the policy of removal, and, first and last, amid the turbu- lent times in Georgia and throughout the long period of unrest in Indian Territory, he remained steadily at the helm, a devoted servant of his people for nearly forty years.
CHAPTER XXII
THE DEPORTATION OF THE CHEROKEES-PROF. JAMES MOONEY, OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY, IN WASHINGTON, HAS WRITTEN AN EX- HAUSTIVE ACCOUNT OF THIS EPISODE BASED UPON RECORDS PRE- SERVED BY THE GOVERNMENT AND INTERVIEWS HELD WITH AGED CHEROKEES IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY-HOW THE TRIBES WERE REMOVED-THE STORY TOLD IN DETAIL-SUFFERINGS OF THE INDIANS EN ROUTE-SOME DIE ALONG THE JOURNEY-ONE OF THE MOST PATHETIC CHAPTERS IN GEORGIA'S HISTORY-MAJOR RIDGE, JOHN RIDGE, ELIAS BOUDINOT AND OTHERS ARE MURDERED IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY-ROSS Is ACQUITTED OF ANY COMPLICITY IN THE AFFAIR -AT LAST THE BREACH BETWEEN THE TWO FACTIONS IS HEALED.
To an eminent investigator, Professor Mooney, of the Bureau of Ethnology, in Washington, D. C., who has devoted his life to Indian researches, we are indebted for the following graphic account of the removal of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia. He makes no effort to soften the colors. The story is most pathetic ; and even at this late day some of the incidents cannot fail to melt the reader to tears. Says Pro- fessor Mooney :
"The history of this Cherokee removal of 1838, as gleaned by the author from the lips of actors in the tragedy, may well exceed in weight of grief and pathos, any other passage in American annals. Even the much-sung exile of the Acadians falls far behind it in the sum of death and suffering. Under the orders of General Winfield Scott, troops were stationed at various points throughout the Cherokee country, where stockade forts were erected for the purpose of corralling the In- dians preparatory to removal. From these forts, squads of troops were sent out to search with rifle and bayonet every small cabin hidden away in the coves of the mountains and to make prisoners of all the occu- pants, however or wherever they might be found.
"Families at dinner were startled by the sudden gleam of bayonets in the doorway and rose up to be driven with blows and oaths along the weary miles of travel leading to the stockade. Men were seized in the fields or along the roads. Women were taken from their wheels and children from their play. In many cases, on turning for one last look as they crossed the ridge, they saw their homes in flames, fired by the lawless rabble who followed on the heels of the soldiers to loot and to pillage. So keen were these outlaws on the scent that in some instances they were driving off the cattle and other stock of the In- dians almost before the soldiers had started their owners in the other direction. Systematic hunts were made by the same men for Indian graves to rob them of the silver pendants and other valuables deposited
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with the dead. One of the Georgia Volunteers, afterwards a Colonel in the Confederate service, said: 'I fought through the Civil War. It" has been my experience to see men shot to pieces and slaughtered by thousands. But the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever saw.'
"To prevent escape, the soldiers were ordered to surround each house, as far as possible, so as to come upon the occupants without warning. One old patriarch, when thus surprised, calmly called his children and grandchildren around him, and, kneeling down, bade them pray with him in their own language, while the astonished soldiers looked on in silence. Then rising, he led the way into exile. In an- other instance, a woman, on finding the house surrounded, went to the door and called up the chickens to be fed for the last time, after which, taking her infant on her back and her two older children by the hand, she followed her husband with the soldiers.
"All were not thus submissive. One old man named Charles was seized with his wife, his brother, and his three sons, together with the families of the latter. Exasperated by the brutality accorded his wife, who, being unable to travel fast, was prodded with bayonets to hasten her steps, he urged the other men to join with him in a dash for liberty. As he spoke in Cherokee, the soldiers understood nothing until each warrior sprang upon the one nearest and endeavored to wrench his gun from him. The attack was so sudden and unexpected that one soldier was killed, while the Indians escaped to the mountains. Hundreds of others, some of them from the stockades, also managed to escape from time to time and subsisted on roots and wild berries until the hunt was over. Finding it impossible to secure these fugitives, General Scott finally tendered them a proposition, through Colonel W. H. Thomas, their trusted friend, to the effect that if they would surrender Charles for punishment the rest would be allowed to remain until the matter could be adjusted by the government. On hearing of the proposition Charles voluntarily came in with his sons, offering himself a sacrifice for his people. By command of General Scott, Charles, his brother and his sons were shot near the mouth of the Tuckasegee, a detachment of Cherokee prisoners being forced to do the shooting in order to impress upon the Indians the fact that they were helpless. From these fugitives, who were thus permitted to remain, originated the eastern band of Cherokees.
"When nearly 17,000 Indians had thus thus been gathered into the stockades, the work of removal began. Early in June several par- ties, aggregating about 5,000 persons, were brought down by the troops to the old agency on the Hiawassee at Calhoun, Tenn., to Ross's Land- ing, now Chattanooga, Tenn., and to Gunter's Landing, now Gunters- ville, Ala., where they were put upon steamers and transported down the Tennessee and Ohio to the further side of the Mississippi, where the journey was continued by land to Indian Territory. The removal, in the hottest part of the year, was attended by such sickness and mor- tality that, by resolution of the Cherokee national council, Ross and other chiefs submitted to General Scott a proposition that the Cher-
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okees be allowed to move themselves in the fall, after the sickly season was ended. This was granted on condition that all should start by October 20th, except the sick and the aged. Accordingly, officers were appointed by the Cherokee council to take charge of the emigration; the Indians being organized into detachments averaging 1,000 each, with the leaders in charge of each detachment and a sufficient number of wagons and horses for the purpose. In this way, the remainder, enrolled at about 13,000, including negro slaves, started on the long march overland in the fall.
"Those who thus migrated under the management of native officers, assembled at Rattle Snake Springs, about two miles south of Hiawassee River, near Charleston, Tenn., where a final council was held, at which it was decided to continue the old constitution and laws in the new home. Then the long procession of exiles was set in motion. Some went by the river route, but most over land. Crossing to the north side by a ferry, they proceeded down the river, the sick, the old, and the infants, with the blankets, cooking pots, etc., the rest on foot and on horse. The number of wagons was 645.
"It was like the march of an army, regiment after regiment, the wagons in the center, the officers along the line, and the horsemen on the flank and at the rear. After crossing the Tennessee River, at Tuek- er's Ferry, they moved toward Nashville, where the Cumberland was crossed. Thence to Hopkinsville, Ky., where the noted chief, White Path, who was in charge of one of the detachments, sickened and died. His people buried him by the roadside, with a box over the grave, and streamers around it, so that the others, coming on, might note the spot and remember him. Somewhere further along the march of death -for the exiles died by tens and twenties each day-the devoted wife of John Ross sank down, leaving him to go on with the bitter pang of bereavement added to heart-break at the ruin of his nation. The Ohio was reached at a ferry near the mouth of the Cumberland and the army passed through Southern Illinois, until the great Mississippi was reached, opposite Cape Girardeau, Mo. It was now the middle of win- ter, with the river running full of ice, so that several detachments were obliged to wait some time on the eastern bank for the channel to clear.
"In talking with old men and women at Tallequah, the author found that the lapse of over half a century had not sufficed to wipe out the memory of the miseries of this halt beside the frozen river, with hundreds of sick and dying penned up in wagons or stretched upon the ground, with only a blanket overhead to keep out the January blast. The crossing was made at last in two divisions at Cape Girar- deau and at Green's Ferry, a short distance below, when the march was through Missouri to Indian Territory, the later detachments mak- ing a circuit through Springfield, because those who had gone before had killed off all the game along the direct ronte. At last the destina- tion was reached-the journey having occupied six months of the hard- est part of the year.
"It is difficult to arrive at any accurate statement of the number of Cherokees who died as the result of the removal. According to official figures those who removed under the direction of Ross lost over
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1,600 on the journey. The proportionate mortality among those who previously removed under military supervision was probably greater. Hundreds died in the stockades and in the waiting camps, chiefly by reason of the rations furnished, which were of flour and other provi- sions to which they were not accustomed. Hundreds of others died on arrival from sickness and exposure. Altogether, it is asserted, possibly with reason, that over 4,000 Cherokees died as the direct result of the removal. On reaching Indian Territory, the emigrants at once set about building houses and planting erops, the government having agreed under the treaty to furnish them with rations for one year after arrival. They were welcomed by the Arkansas Cherokees, kinsmen who held the country under previous treaties. These, however, being regularly organized, were not disposed to be swallowed up by the governmental authority of the new comers. Jealousies developed in which the minor- ity or treaty part of the emigrants, headed by Ridge, took sides with the old settlers, against the Ross or national party, which outnumbered the others nearly three to one; and then followed the tragic sequel."
On June 22, 1839, Major Ridge, his son, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot suffered the penalty of having advocated the removal of the Indians to the West. It was in the midst of great political excitement that the three-fold act of murder was perpetrated, but the evidence shows that the whole affair was deliberately planned. The report made by the Indian agent to the secretary of war, two days after the occur- rence, gives the following particulars: "The murder of Boudinot was treacherous and cruel. He was assisting some workmen in building a new house. Three men called upon him and asked for medicine. He went off with them in the direction of Worcester's, the missionary who keeps medicine, about three hundred yards from Boudinot's. When they were about half way, two of the men seized Boudinot and the other stabbed him, after which the three cut him to pieces with knives and tomahawks. This murder, having occurred within two miles of the residence of John Ross, his friends were apprehensive that it might be charged to his connivance, and at this moment there are 600 armed Cherokees around the dwelling of Ross assembled for his protection. The murderers of the two Ridges and Bondinot are certainly of the late Cherokee emigrants and of course adherents of Ross but I cannot yet believe that Ross has encouraged the outrage. He is a man of too much good sense to embroil his nation at this critical time; and besides, his character, since I have known him, which is now twenty-five years, has been pacific. Boudinot's wife is a white woman, a native of New Jersey, as I understand. He has six children. The wife of John Ridge is a white woman, but from whence or what family I am not informed. Boudinot was in moderate circumstances. The Ridges, both father and son, were rich."
John Ross, the principal chief of the nation, does not seem to have been a party to the transaction, though it was doubtless in accordance with a law of the tribe, similar to the one under which the brave chief of the Creeks, Gen. William McIntosh, suffered death. Moreover, the national council afterwards declared the murdered men to have been
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outlaws, and also pronounced null and void the treaty of New Echota. Jurisdiction over the Georgia lands was reasserted; but at this stage the United States Government interfered. Chaotic conditions prevailed for several months. At last, however, the breach was healed. At a gen- eral convention in which both the Eastern and the Western Cherokees were represented, together with both the Ridge and the Ross factions, the whole tribal connection was declared to be one body politic under the name of the Cherokee nation. On behalf of the Eastern Cherokees, the compact of agreement was signed by John Ross, principal chief, George Lowrey, president of the council, and Going Snake, speaker of the council, with thirteen others. For the Western Cherokees it was signed by John Looney, acting principal chief, George Guess, president of the council, and fifteen others. On September 6, 1839, Tallequah was made the capital of the nation. At the same time a new constitu- tion was adopted by a convention composed chiefly of Eastern Chero- kees, but it was finally ratified by the old settlers at Fort Gibson, on June 26, 1840, an aet which completed the reunion of the nation .*
* For the facts contained in this article the writer is indebted in the main to a work entitled "Myths and Legends of the Cherokees, " by James Mooney, of the Ethnologi- cal Bureau, Washington, D. C. The work is embodied in Vol. 118, House Documents.
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