--- title: Books in the Indian Language — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · full text with trees description: Books in the Indian Language, «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: John Eliot, of Massachusetts, published the first Indian Bible. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/5/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Wigwam stories told by North American…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/) / Books in the Indian Language # Books in the Indian Language Books in the Indian Language of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd: the whole text, 24 sentences and 470 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. John Eliot, of Massachusetts, published the first Indian Bible.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") This and other Bibles and books in the Indian languages may be seen in the larger city libraries.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") The Indians had no printed languages with letters before the white man came; their painted or carved picture-writing meant much to them.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") Their teepees were covered with histories of the battles their owners had fought, but they had no books of “talking leaves.”[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") Se-quoyah, a Georgia Indian half-breed, was a modern Cadmus to his people.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") He invented a perfect alphabet of over eighty letters for his native Cherokee language, and by his own zeal inspired his nation with a love for written words.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") His paper was birch bark; his ink the juices of berries and weeds.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") He hated the white people, for his white father had basely deserted his mother when Se-quoyah was a helpless babe.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") His mother’s father was a proud chief, and the grandson seems to have inherited his spirit.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") Se-quoyah never learned to read or to write a word or a letter of English, and his anger was aroused when he saw one of his tribe reading a book made by the hated white people; Se-quoyah then declared he would make as good a one for the Cherokees, and he did.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") He listened for sounds while his people talked.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") He became a silent student and lost or forgot his old warlike spirit.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") He sat beside his doorway and marked upon bark.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") His people pitied him, for he did not fight.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") At last he called a council; he wrote on bark and gave the writing to his little daughter, who had been taught by him to read.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") She read it and did as the writing commanded; the test was tried many times.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") This caused great excitement; young men came in scores to learn of him; they forgot hunting and war for letter-writing.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") The white missionaries adopted his letters and made a Bible which was read by all these Indian students.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") The nation became civilized in a short time, and the first printing press sent to an Indian tribe was that sent about 1820 by the United States government to the Cherokees.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") The type was cast in Cherokee characters, the same that Se-quoyah had invented.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") A marble bust of Se-quoyah adorns the council house in Tahlequah, the capital of Indian Territory, where this tribe was sent after gold was found on their reservation in Georgia.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") They knew the value of these mines, but the white man’s power was stronger than theirs, and they had to leave homes and wealth for a strange new land.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") Sequoia, the botanical name of the big trees of California, is the only memorial the white man has given this truly American genius.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") Adapted from Smithsonian Report.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [Stories Recently Told of Hiawatha and Other Heroes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/4/) - next →: [Some Things the Indians Knew Before White Men Came](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/6/) - ↑ back to [Wigwam stories told by North American Indians](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/)