A young Indian boy was auditioning along with some of us for a school play. His mother knew he’d set his heart on being in the play — just like the rest of us hoped, too — and she feared how he would react if he was not chosen.
On the day the parts were awarded the little boy’s mother went to the school on her horse to collect her son. The little boy rushed up to her and her horse, eyes shining with pride and excitement.
“Guess what, Mom,” he shouted, and then said the words that provide a lesson to us all, “I’ve been chosen to clap and cheer.”
Ed Slow Horse Chaparro (Friends of Silence)
Image: Sequoyah was a Cherokee visionary, pioneer communicator and publisher. The Sequoyah stamp was the first issue in the Great Americans series, on Dec. 27, 1980. Sequoyah, a skilled silversmith without a formal education, understood the importance of the written word or “talking leaves” of the non-Native settlers, and set out to devise a method of writing using 85 symbols to represent all the vowel and consonant sounds that formed the Cherokee language. Sequoyah’s syllabary was completed around 1821 and brought written literacy to the Cherokee people. It was used to publish books, newspapers, hymnals, and handbills. Image courtesy: National Postal Museum, USA.
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