Preface.
It has long been deplored that that portion of the children of this Nation, who do not speak English, have been compelled to lose entirely the benefits of our Public Schools, or else, while attending School, to pore, day after day, over lessons of which they could learn only the sounds. They have had to endure all the toil and drudgery of study, without that encouragement which comes from the pleasure of acquiring new ideas.
Some have attended School long enough, and faithfully enough, to have acquired a good education, had the text books been written, and the Schools taught, in their vernacular language. After years of most irksome labor, when they had arrived at manhood and womanhood, many of them have found that they had scarcely acquired sufficient knowledge of the English language to begin successfully the study of the Elementary branches. It was too late; the responsibilities and cares of life were upon them. Baffled and despairing, they have given over the struggle for an education.
As one step toward remedying the evil, the National Council, in November, 1869, appointed Rev. Stephen Foreman, W. P. Boudinot, and myself, a Committee to select an Arithmetic, Geography, and History, to be translated, and published in both the Cherokee and English languages. The Committee has found no Arithmetic suitable to be wholly translated. The work of translation having been entrusted to my hands, I have consulted various authors, and have prepared much of what follows especially for this volume.
It is hoped that every principle has been sufficiently explained to give a clear idea of it, both in the Cherokee and English languages. Teachers will, of course, give many additional examples to their pupils, and have them practice well on those here given.
This little work is now put forth as in part carrying out the design of the National Council. May it prove, to that portion of the people who speak the Cherokee language only, the key to unlock the science of Arithmetic.
John B. Jones.
(3)
