 | The Genius of Sequoyah |  |
1. Address by Representative Hastings
Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen: Oklahoma was admitted to statehood on November 16, 1907, less than 10 years ago. At the time of admission the State had greater resources than any sister State when admitted. It has developed wonderfully since that time, and now has a population of about two and one-half million, with a healthful climate, splendid railroad facilities, immense agricultural possibilities, and inexhaustible supplies of minerals, including zinc, lead, coal, oil, and gas. Her citizenship was drawn from every State in the Union, her constitution and laws are the most progressive, and her educational system is unexcelled. Her cities and towns have had a remarkable growth and are modern in every respect. However, it is not of her resources that I want to speak. They are already well known throughout the length and breadth of this Nation. It is to one of her distinguished sons that I invite attention at this time.
Oklahoma when admitted to statehood had the Five Civilized Tribes in the eastern part; Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, each occupying separate and distinct areas and each with their own tribal government, with a constitution and laws modeled in part after that of the United States and the surrounding States. Each nation, however, was unique in that the lands occupied were held in common, no individual member having a title to the same, but only had a right to occupy, improve, and use his pro rata part of the surface. A number of other tribes had lands throughout the State, including the Osages and the Quapaw Reservation.
In 1911 the legislature of the State provided that a statue of Sequoyah should be placed in Statuary Hall as one of Oklahoma's distinguished sons, in recognition of his services and genius in inventing the Cherokee alphabet.
Sequoyah was born about the year 1770, of a full-blood Cherokee Indian woman and a white trader named Gist, who abandoned his mother before the birth of her distinguished son. His English name was George Guess, a corruption of Gist, and Sequoyah means in Cherokee "Guessed it." In order to fully appreciate and properly estimate Sequoyah it must be remembered that he was born prior to the Revolutionary War; that the tribe of which his mother was a member had no schools or churches, and that but few, if any, Cherokees could read or write the English language. Sequoyah was born in a tent, grew up without educational advantages, and never learned to read or write the English language. His attention was invited to the fact that white people communicated with each other by letters, which he called "talking leaves." He accepted the challenge to accomplish the same in his own language. This great work was begun about the year 1809 and it was not until 1821 that it was completed.
In his younger days Sequoyah was one of the most active, progressive, and spirited members of his tribe. He was regarded as a splendid companion, an entertaining storyteller, a leader in all sports, a good shot, and shrewd trader. He accumulated considerable property, cleared up and placed a farm in cultivation, built a modern home, and became a fine silversmith, which trade enabled him to make numerous articles for sale and barter. He was not only active in these pursuits, but he was looked upon as a leader of his tribe, a man of great intellect, a deep thinker, and a philosopher.
During the 12 years he was engaged in forming the Cherokee alphabet he withdrew from active pursuits and participation in public affairs. When his great work was accomplished it was looked upon with suspicion and reluctantly accepted. It was with difficulty that he convinced the members of his tribe of the genuineness of his invention and its great usefulness to them. He conquered all obstacles and set about to teach it to them. Within two years the Cherokee Council recognized his genius and great worth, voting him a medal and passing resolutions expressive of the deep appreciation of the members of the tribe.
In the meantime Sequoyah, with some of the other members of his tribe, had gone West, first to the Territory of Arkansas and later to the Indian Territory, now a part of 0klahoma. He came to Washington as a representative of the Cherokee west in 1828, where his services were recognized by Congress and an appropriation was made in his behalf. Money was furnished by the Government of the United States to establish a printing plant, upon which the first newspaper ever published in any Indian language, The Phoenix, was printed at New Echota, Ga., February 21, 1828. The civilizing effect of this alphabet resulting in a printed language, not only upon the members of the tribe of which Sequoyah was a member, but upon all the surrounding tribes, can never be estimated.
Prior to that time there were no schools or churches, and the missionaries among the Indians had accomplished but little. From that press, not only the newspaper containing useful and valuable information of every kind was printed, but parts of the New Testament, tracts, hymns, and books, resulting in a great awakening in educational work, the establishment of schools, the adoption of a written constitution and laws, and a government modeled after the government of the surrounding States.
The newspaper was discontinued about 1835. The Cherokee Advocate was established in its place in the Indian Territory in 1845, [1844, ed.] but discontinued during the Civil War. It was reestablished in 1870, and published until 1905, [1906, ed.] at which time the Government of the United States, under prior legislation, practically assumed control of the affairs of the Cherokee Indians.
Sequoyah was a representative of the western branch of Indians when the act of union between the Eastern and Western Cherokees was signed in 1838, cementing the Cherokees, east and west, into one body in the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. He was also a member of the constitutional convention which framed and adopted the constitution in 1839, providing a form of government regarded as a model for a body of people holding their lands in common, with all the protection and personal safeguards contained in the constitutions of the several States.
More fully appreciating the work of Sequoyah, the Cherokee Nation, after moving west in 1843, voted him a literary pension, the only act of the kind ever passed by the legislative body of the tribe. Upon his death this pension was continued to his widow.
While in Washington City as a representative of the tribe Sequoyah met many Indians of other tribes. In the early forties be started on a trip west with the double purpose of searching out the members of the Cherokee Tribe who, according to tradition, had moved to the far Southwest and visiting other tribes to become acquainted with their customs and usages. He wished to compile the same in a book and invent an alphabet by means of which all Indian tribes could communicate with each other in a common language. However, he suffered much with rheumatism, which sapped his vitality and left him unable to endure the hardships encountered in his western journey across the Rocky Mountains and through the valleys of New Mexico in an oxcart with a lone companion. Tradition has it that somewhere near the sweep of the great Colorado River he was seized with a fever, and in an unknown cave, watched over by his attendant, this philosopher, teacher, inventor, genius, and dreamer fell asleep about the year 1844.
Congress had recognized his services and the Cherokee Council had done likewise in commendatory resolutions. He was rewarded with a pension by his tribe, and his name was given to the district in which he resided, which name was continued for that county by the convention which framed the constitution for the State of Oklahoma.
The log house in which he lived still stands in the hills of Sequoyah County in the district represented by me. Considering the time of his birth, the manner in which he grew up, his environment, his rearing by a widowed mother, his not being able to read or write the English language, his invention was marvelous. I am glad to be able to take part in these exercises to-day.
Eighty-nine years ago the man whose memory we seek to honor to-day came here as a representative of his tribe. Almost a century afterwards the great State of Oklahoma further recognizes his services to mankind and honors his memory by directing that his statue be placed here among the statues of our most distinguished men. No man exhibited a greater genius, and no man's work had a more immediate and lasting influence upon the people among which he lived. He richly deserves the honor which we show him to-day and which the State of Oklahoma confers upon him.
Only a few centuries ago the American Indians were the sole inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere. How appropriate that we should place in the Nation's Capitol, as a gift from Oklahoma, which means the home of the red man, formed by a union of vast areas of land occupied by Indian tribes, making them citizens of the State, combining the seals of the several tribes into one representing the State, indicating that it was a friendly assimilation and not a destruction of them, the statue of one representative not only of our great State but the Nation and Indian race as well, and that from among them was selected one representing the forward thought of his time--the Cadmus of his race.
| The Genius of Sequoyah | |