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Sequoyah: A Man of Letters

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Se-Quo-Yah. Hand-colored lithograph by John T. Bowen, copyrighted 1838. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g02566
Se-Quo-Yah. Hand-colored lithograph by John T. Bowen, copyrighted 1838. Published in History of the Indian Tribes of North America by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g02566

The gentleman with the long pipe and the colorful garments (right) points to a document.

What is it?

Take a closer look (below). It does not appear to be a letter or excerpt from a text. Some letters are recognizable as part of the Roman alphabet: I can see an A, an H, a J, for example. But then there are other unfamiliar characters, too. Is it an alphabet? And if so, for what language?

Detail of Se-Quo-Yah. Hand-colored lithograph by John T. Bowen, copyrighted 1838. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g02566
Detail of  Se-Quo-Yah. Hand-colored lithograph by John T. Bowen, copyrighted 1838. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g02566

 

The man and