The Cherokee and The Newsman

Here is the true story of Sequoyah (George Gist), inventor of the Cherokee written language and his half-nephew, Henry Howard Gratz, editor of the Kentucky Gazette. Based on Terry Foody’s book, The Cherokee and the Newsman: Kinsmen in Words, this program traces the lives of each: their famous relatives, literary achievements, political proclivities and common characteristics. Spanning three centuries and four wars, the Gist Boys were on the forefront of American history with Washington, Jackson, and Lincoln, in Kentucky, Georgia, Missouri, and Oklahoma. From articles, letters, and interviews, Foody illuminates Sequoyah and Gratz’s connection to relevant topics of the times: a free press, slavery, indigenous rights, and race relations.