Possum's Tail

This undated illustrated chidren's book titled "Possum's Tail" is written in the Cherokee syllabary. An English translation is provided at the end of the story. While the Cherokee language has been spoken for thousands of years, its written form is only 200 years old. The writing system is called the syllabary because its sounds are represented syllable-by-syllable, rather than by individual letters, like the English alphabet. There are 85 characters in the Cherokee syllabary. Sequoyah (c.1776 – c.1843), who is sometimes referred to his English name—George Gist or Guess—began to develop the syllabary around 1810 and worked on it for more than a decade. After its official adoption by the Cherokee Nation in 1825, the use of the syllabary grew quickly and Cherokee people learned to read and write their language