Lesson38 The Cherokee
Long before the white man came to the Americas, the land belonged only to the Indian. The Cherokee lived in what is now the southeastern part of the United States. They were peace-loving farmers who lived in permanent villages. They built homes and public buildings of brick and stone. They had fine plantations.
When the first white men came, the Cherokee copied many of their ways. One Cherokee scholar, Sequoyah, saw how important reading and writing was to the white man. He decided to make a written form of the spoken Cherokee language. At first he tried to make a sign, or symbol, for each word. But that proved impossible - there were just too many words. Then he took the 85 sounds that made up the Cherokee language. Using his own imagination and an English spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabet proved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokee knew how to read and write in their own language. By 1828, the Cherokee were even printing their own newspaper.
In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed a law. It said the government could remove Indians from their lands. The Cherokee would not go. They had lived on their land for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strange land far beyond the Mississippi River?
The army was sent to force the Cherokee out. Soldiers surrounded their villages and marched them west at gunpoint.
More than 4000 Cherokee died during the terrible march. They called that march "The Trail of Tears." The end of the trail was also the end of the great Cherokee nation.

切罗基人
远在白人来到美洲之前，印第安人是这片土地的唯一主人。如今美国的东南部曾经是切罗基人居住的地方。切罗基人是热爱和平的农夫，居住在固定的村庄里。他们的家园和公共建筑是用砖和石头建造的。他们拥有美丽的种植园。
第一批白人来到之后，切罗基人学会了许多白人的生活方式。希考亚是一位切罗基学者，他看到了读和写对白人的重要性，于是决定为切罗基口语创造一种文字。起初他试图为每一个词创造一个符号，但是后来证明这是不可行的&&切罗基语言里有太多的词汇。后来他采纳了组成切罗基语言的八十五个音。借助自己的创造力和一本英语拼写课本，希考亚为每一个音发明了一个符号。令人惊讶的是，他的符号系统非常容易学。没过多久，很多切罗基人就学会了用自己的语言读和写。到一八二八年，切罗基人甚至拥有了自己的报纸。
1830年，美国议会通过了一项法律，规定政府可以把印第安人从他们居住的土地上赶走。但切罗基人不愿意离开。他们世代居住在这片土地，这片土地属于他们。为什么要让他们迁到密西西比河对岸一片遥远的陌生之地？
政府派来了军队，强迫切罗基人迁出。士兵们包围了切罗基人的村庄，用枪口逼着他们向西迁徙。四千多切罗基人死在了残酷的迁徙路途上。他们称这次迁徙为“悲伤之旅”。这条路的尽头也是伟大的切罗基民族的尽头。