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Ellen Cushman. The Cherokee Syllabary: Writing the People's Perseverance. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011. 256 pp. Cloth, $34.95.
The Cherokee syllabary is a system of writing that was created in the early nineteenth century and has achieved an iconic status among indigenous languages. It has become a symbol of both literacy and identity for Cherokee people because of its unique characters and the amazing story of its creation. A Cherokee man named Sequoyah singlehandedly created the syllabary despite much adversity and hardship. This system of writing continues to be a unique element of indigenous and typographic history, and this book seeks to tell that story.
Cushmans The Cherokee Syllabary presents the impact of Sequoyah's writing system. She argues that the syllabary is not just a sign system for the language; instead, she also casts it as a vehicle for history, culture, religion, and national perseverance. The book uses archival research coupled with ethnographic interviews to paint a portrait of the syllabary's meaning to the people and within their communicative practices. The book is divided into eight chapters, each one treating a facet of the syllabary or a period in its history.
The first chapter deals directly with the historical moment in which the syllabary was created. Cushman relies on archival sources to create an argument that Sequoyah may have been an English speaker and literate in English but that he refused to use English. She offers this proposal as evidence of Sequoyah's conscious political and cultural agenda to un- dergird Cherokee peoplehood through the creation and promotion of the syllabary. This argument is in direct opposition to stories that Sequoyah was not literate in any language when he created the syllabary, although it does lend credence to Cushman's argument that Sequoyah was conscious of the impact his system of writing would have politically and culturally. There is very little documentation of Sequoyah's life, so it is hard to ascertain the veracity of Cushman's arguments on this...