The Cherokee Messenger

The complete set of The Cherokee Messenger, Oklahoma’s earliest periodical, will be coming to auction in our Printed & Manuscript Americana sale on April 27. Only one other complete set has ever appeared at auction.

In 1839, just months after the Trail of Tears brought the Cherokees to the Indian Territory, the Cherokee Baptist Mission was established. Its founder Evan Jones was a Welsh missionary and an ardent abolitionist. The mission acquired a printing press and printer in July 1843 to spread literacy and information among the recently displaced people. A syllabic Cherokee font, devised by Cherokee scholar Sequoyah several decades previous, arrived that December. This magazine was one of the earliest products of the press.

Lot 3: The Cherokee Messenger, complete set of 12 issues, Oklahoma, August 1844-46. Estimate $5,000 to $7,000.

The great majority of the content was in Cherokee, with the mastheads and article titles mostly in English. Several articles on Cherokee grammar are presented in English, as well as a few news stories near the end of the first three issues.

Lot 3: The Cherokee Messenger, complete set of 12 issues, Oklahoma, August 1844-46. Estimate $5,000 to $7,000.

The Oklahoman relates the development of the syllabic Cherokee alphabet thus: “Sequoyah had marveled at the sight of white men absorbing new ideas from what he described as the ‘talking leaves’ of their literature. He labored 12 years to perfect the Cherokee syllabary, which he completed in 1821. So perfect was it that it has never been amended or embellished. So obsessed was he with the project that tribal elders and holy men began to suspect that he was mad. There was talk of putting him to death. He spoke eloquently for his life, and was spared.”

Detail of The Cherokee Messenger showing verb tenses and phonetical designations.

The Oklahoman continues: “In less than six months, every Cherokee who could speak the language could read it — illiteracy vanished in a half-year. Sequoyah taught his syllabary in his home, completing each course of study in four days. His students, in turn, taught others.”

Detail from The Cherokee Messenger showing a Cherokee translation of Genesis.

The Cherokee-language content includes several long biblical translations. English-language highlights include an obituary of the Reverend Jesse Bushyhead, a Cherokee Baptist leader, a long message from principal chief John Ross, and several reports from local temperance societies and abolitionist organizations.

For more information, browse the full catalogue.