WWQP Bulletin Board Chat

QUEBEC

Rosey, give yourself a treat and spend a few days there. Even I have been there albeit 54 years ago. I found it confusing to drive despite my rudimentary school girl knowledge of French. The street signs were all in both French and English and even though I knew what ARRETTE (sic?) means it still took me several seconds for it to sink in. The city is beautiful and the food, as you may imagine, is great. Come to Cherokee and the signs are all in the Cherokee syllabary as well as the language. The former was invented in the early 19th century by a Cherokee chief named Sequoiya. Talk about distracting to an Anglo. I'm currently reading a very interesting and detailed history of the Cherokee which starts at about the American revolution up to and including the final removal (or Andrew Jackson's failed attempt to get rid of all of them). The eastern band here are desendants of the tough ones who hid out in the mountains. Many of them were half bloods and thoroughly converted to Christianity and American ways away from their from their former lives and hunters and gatherers. The US government, approved by the Senate, made a treaty, after many had moved west voluntarily, their own sovereign nation with set boundaries. Then Jackson renegged despite the Cherokee Christianization and adaptation to farming etc. by Mennonite missionaries. Jackson was a real sweetheart. Why didn't we learn about his duplicity in school? Jane

posted by Jane in NC @ 3:06 PM