Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T05:43:55.831Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Talking leaves and rocks that teach: the archaeological discovery of Sequoyah's oldest written record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Rex Weeks  and
Ken Tankersley
Rex Weeks
Affiliation:
Anthropology, University of Arkansas, 330 Old Main, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, USA (Email: [email protected])
Ken Tankersley
Affiliation:
Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, 481 Braunstein Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The authors investigate the origins of the earliest script of the Cherokees, using inscriptions in the Red Bird River Shelter. Their analysis suggests that the engravings in the cave show the experimental creation of a syllabary (alphabet of signs). This in turn offers support for the historical notion that this writing system was not an ancestral practice preserved through missionaries, but an invention of the early nineteenth century; one that should be credited to the Native American pioneer scholar, Sequoyah.

Keywords

nineteenth centuryCherokeewriting systemsrock carvingBible
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 329 , September 2011 , pp. 978 - 993
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Awtrey, H. R. 1941. New Echota: birthplace of the American Indian press (National Park Service Popular Study Series, History 6). Washington (DC): US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Bass, A. 1932. Talking stones: John Howard Payne's story of Sequoya (The Colophon 9). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bird, T. 1971. Tell them they lie: the Sequoyah myth. Los Angeles (CA): Westernlore.Google Scholar
Cherokee Phoenix. Invention of the Cherokee alphabet, 13 August 1828.Google Scholar
Coy, F. E., Fuller, T. C., Meadows, L. G. & Swauger, J. L. 1997. Rock art of Kentucky. Lexington (KY): University of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Davis, J. B. 1930. The life and work of Sequoyah. Chronicles of Oklahoma 8: 149-80.Google Scholar
Erwin, S. 2003. The library collection, in Price, B. (ed.) Treasures of Gilcrease: 153-92. Tulsa (OK): Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art.Google Scholar
Evarts, J. 1828. Cherokee newspaper. Missionary Herald 24: 133-4.Google Scholar
Feeling, D. & Pulte, W. 1975. Cherokee-English dictionary. Tahlequah (OK): Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Fogelson, R. D. 1974. On varieties of Indian history: Sequoyah and Traveller Bird. Journal of Ethnic Studies 2: 105–112.Google Scholar
Foreman, G. 1932. John Howard Payne and the Cherokee Indians. American Historical Review 37: 723-30.Google Scholar
Foreman, G. 1938. Sequoyah. Norman (OK): University of Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Hoig, S. 1995. Sequoyah: the Cherokee genius. Oklahoma City (OK): Oklahoma Historical Society.Google Scholar
Hurst, S., Louden, E. & Johnson, E. 2009. Unraveling the Cowhead Mesa petroglyphs with 3D laser scanning and high-resolution digital photography. Rock Art Research 26: 43–53.Google Scholar
Kalter, S. 2001. America's histories revisited: the case of 'Tell them they lie'. American Indian Quarterly 25: 329-51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kehoe, A. B. 1992. North American Indians: a comprehensive account. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Kilpatrick, J. F. 1965 Sequoyah: of earth and intellect. Austin (TX): Encino Press.Google Scholar
Kilpatrick, J. F. 1966. The Wahnenauhi Manuscript (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 196, Anthropological Paper 77). Washington (DC): US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Kilpatrick, J. F. & Kilpatrick, A. G. 1965. The shadow of Sequoyah: social documents of the Cherokees. Norman (OK): University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
King, D. H. 1975. A grammar and dictionary of the Cherokee language. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Georgia.Google Scholar
Knapp, S. L. 1829. Lectures on American literature with remarks on some passages of American history. New York: E. Bliss.Google Scholar
Krupat, A. 1998. America's histories. American Literary History 10: 124-46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mckenney, T. L. 1826. Preservation and civilisation of the Indians (Nineteenth US Congress, First Session, House of Representatives, Document 102). Washington (DC): Gales & Seaton.Google Scholar
Mcloughlin, W. G. 1984. Cherokees and missionaries, 1789-1839. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Mooney, J. 1900. Myths of the Cherokee, in Powell, J. W. (ed.) 19th annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1897-8: 3–576. Washington (DC): US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Morton, S. G. 1842. Origin and characteristics of the American aborigines. US Magazine and Democratic Review 40: 603–621.Google Scholar
Sampson, G. R. 1987. Writing systems. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Scancarelli, J. 1996. Cherokee writing, in Daniels, P. T. & Bright, W. (ed.) The world's writing systems: 587-92. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scancarelli, J. 2005. Cherokee, in Hardy, H. K. & Scancarelli, J. (ed.) Native languages of the south-eastern United States: 351-84. Lincoln (NE): University of Nebraska.Google Scholar
Simek, J. F. & Cressler, A. 2005. Images in darkness: prehistoric cave art in south-eastern North America, in Loendorf, L., Chippendale, C. & Whitley, D. S. (ed.) Discovering North American rock art: 93–113. Tucson (AZ): University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Simek, J. F., Blankenship, S. A., Douglas, J. & Cressler, A. 2010. Cherokee syllabary in caves. Paper presented at the 22nd Current Research in Tennessee Archaeology Conference, Nashville, 22-23 January 2010.Google Scholar
Sneed, J. M. 1984. The Sequoyah Caverns story. National Speleological Society News 42: 178-81.Google Scholar
Starr, E. 1917. Early history of the Cherokees, embracing aboriginal customs, religion, laws, folklore and civilization. Oklahoma City (OK): Warden.Google Scholar
Stuart, J. 1837. A sketch of the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians. Little Rock (AR): Woodruff & Pew.Google Scholar
Tankersley, K. B. 2006. Red Bird (Dotsuwa) and the Cherokee history of Clay County, Kentucky. Appalachian Quarterly 11: 4–21.Google Scholar
Tripathy, J. 2009. Postcolonialism and the Native American experience: a theoretical perspective. Asiatic 3: 40–53.Google Scholar
Walker, W. & Sarbaugh, J. 1993. The early history of the Cherokee syllabary. Ethnohistory 40: 70–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wasklewicz, T., Staley, D., Volker, H. & Whitley, D. S. 2005. Terrestrial 3D laser scanning: a new method for recording rock art. International Newsletter on Rock Art 41: 16–25.Google Scholar
White, J. 1972. Elaborate fabrication. Indian Historian 5: 45-6.Google Scholar
Williams, S. C. 1937. The father of Sequoyah: Nathaniel Gist. Chronicles of Oklahoma 14: 3–20.Google Scholar
Witthoft, J. & Hadlock, W. S. 1946. Cherokee-Iroquois little people. Journal of American Folklore 59: 413-22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar