First Native American Newspaper
On February 21, 1828, the first Native American newspaper, utilizing Sequoyah’s Cherokee Syllabary, was printed.
Sequoyah was born around 1770 into a family respected for its knowledge of Cherokee tribal traditions. Accounts of Sequoyah’s early life vary, but it is known that by 1809, he was a silversmith in present-day Alabama.
Around 1809, Sequoyah became interested in creating a system of writing for the Cherokee language. At first he tried to create a character for each word, but he eventually developed a system of symbols to represent each syllable. Basing some of his work on the Roman, and possibly Cyrillic, alphabets, Sequoyah developed a written language of 86 characters to represent each syllable. In 1821, after twelve years of work, Sequoyah completed his writing system. He hoped the writing system would allow the Cherokee to remain independent of whites, and wanted to record ancient traditions in a permanent form.
Initially, many doubted its value, so Sequoyah taught the language to his daughter Ah-yo-ka. While many of the locals were impressed with his writing system, the medicine men he showed it to believed he was possessed by evil spirits. Despite the negative reaction of the medicine men, Sequoyah showed his language to a group of Chickamauga warriors, who were impressed by it. Soon after, schools were being filled with Cherokees wanting to learn the new language. By 1823, the language was in widespread use among the Cherokees, and in 1825, it was made the official language of the Cherokee Nation.
Around this time, the Cherokee Nation was under frequent pressure from the nearby states to abandon their claim to their land, or move to a territory west of the Mississippi River. The Cherokee General Council believed that their people needed to be informed of the situation and remain united. So they had a special printing press made using Sequoyah’s Cherokee Syllabary. The press would be used to produce the first Native American newspaper in the U.S.
The newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, was first published on February 21, 1828, and featured articles in both English and Cherokee. Printed once a week, the Phoenix presented official laws and documents of the Cherokee nation as well as local and national news. It also had articles about the Cherokee progress in the “arts of civilized life,” stories about temperance and Christian living, as well as short fictional stories.
In 1829, the paper was renamed the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians’ Advocate, to reflect the increased focus on the ongoing removal crisis. In 1835, a Georgia militia unit confiscated the printing press to stop them from printing anti-removal materials. Later that year the Cherokee signed the New Echota Treaty, giving up their claim to lands east of the Mississippi River.
Click here for the Cherokee Syllabary and here to read an issue of the Cherokee Phoenix.
Click here to see what else happened on This Day in History.
Great accomplishment at such an early time in US history-1828! I’m sure he would be so sad to see what finally happened. A disgrace for our early forefathers.
At the rate we are going, ironically, the reservations may end up being the only true natural and scenic wonders in America.
I enjoy your historitical inffformation on stamps very much. Thks, Bill Stahl
Sadly, the 5 civilized tribes were treated in such an “uncivilized” manner by the white people. I am ashamed of my white ancestors who were in fact less civilized than the native people who they alienated and ultimately exterminated.
Nice commentary on how civilized these tribes were. Thanks. I am descended from a different tribe (Seneca) but glad to hear how Sequoyah was able to make his language printable. He was the civilized one, more than his white contemporaries some of whom might have been illiterate.
Thank you for this informative article. I have never heard of this. Native history of this sort was not taught when I went to school. What we did to the Native Peoples is a disgrace.
Thank you for this interesting and informative article. It is much more than that though. I feel these articles are important to read about and absorb for all of us, to learn how the beginnings of our country came about and perhaps why it is in such trouble today.
The writing system is not a language; it’s the system used to write a language.
Amazing…. celebrating my Birthday and read this. God bless there Legacy