The First Printing of Sequoyah's Cherokee Alphabet

We recently sold this item but want to keep it online for research purposes.

Barbour, James; Sequoyah; et al. Preservation and Civilization of the Indians. Letter from the Secretary of War, to the Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, accompanied by a bill for the Preservation and Civilization of the Indian Tribes within the United States. 19th Congress, 1st Session, Doc. No. 102. Washington: Printed by Gales & Seaton, 1826. First Edition. Removed, newly stab sewn, 9 x 5 1/2 inches, 22 pp. Good. Pamphlet. [11880]

Appendix C. of this document is the first printed example of the Cherokee alphabet (properly, syllabary) of 86 characters. It includes a letter by the creator of the alphabet, a Cherokee whom he calls Guess, who describes the state of his tribe. This is Sequoyah, also known as George Gist or George Guess. He writes from Willstown, Cherokee Nation, Sept. 2d. 1825.

He speaks of the slow process of translating the New Testament, the want of a Cherokee dictionary or complete grammar, and says "I have made a hasty translation of the four Gospels, which will require a close criticism...and I hope the day is not far distant, when the Cherokees, my brethen [sic] and kindred, according to the flesh, shall read the words of eternal life, in their own tongue." He describes the lands of the Cherokees in glowing terms, and their agricultural successes. In numbering the tribe, east and west of the Mississippi, he includes 1,227 African slaves, with the note, "there is hardly any intermixture of Cherokee and African blood," and speaks in favor of repatriating the Negros to Africa. In addition, "The christian religion is the religion of the nation. Presbyterians, Baptists and Moravians, are the most numerous sects," and "The whole nation is penetrated with gratitude for the aid it has received from the United States government, and from different religious societies."

The letter is transcribed within a report by Thomas L. McKenney (1785-1859), who was Superintendent of Indian Affairs at the time. McKenney argues for teaching the Indians agriculture and manufactures, in addition to maintaining Christian missionary efforts among them.

The Cherokee alphabet was adopted by the tribe in 1825; the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper did not begin publishing until 1828. The first recorded printing using the alphabet was the same year as this report - 1826 - when the Cherokee National Council commissioned George Lowrey and David Brown to print eight copies of the laws of the Cherokee nation. 

This predates them all. It is the earliest printed copy of the Cherokee syllabary. See Christopher Grisham, Sequoyah and His Syllabary, Tennessee State Museum online. 

Portion of Letter Written by Sequoyah

Front