“It is,” Yugi agrees. “You can send messages far away, keep records of important things so that they will be remembered. Reading and writing can be used to bring people together. Our missionary has even told us that the reason the English and the Americans became so powerful is because they have reading and writing.”

“Could being able to read and write help our people then?”

“Of course,” Yugi says. “That is why my parents have encouraged me to go to the missionary’s school. My father has said that if we Tsalagi are able to read and write we may gain power like the white men.” He pauses. “But why would we need to read and write in Tsalagi? Things can already be written in English.”

“How many of our people can speak English as well as a white person?” I ask him.

“Very few,” he says, shaking his head. “It is a hard language to learn. It does not make sense the way Tsa-lagi does.”

“Do most of our people want to learn English?”

Yugi shakes his head again. “Most of our people do not trust writing in the English language. They say it is just used to deceive us. When we make agreements with the white men and they write them down, the things they write are seldom what we agreed to.”

“But if our people could use our own language in our own way, read and write in Tsalagi, might they want to learn then?”

Yugi strokes his chin. “Uh-huh,” he says. “They might. They might, indeed!”

He slaps his hands together so suddenly that it startles me. “Yes,” he says. “Yes!”

If the light I saw in his eyes before was like the first rays of dawn, what is shining from his face now is as bright as noon on a cloudless summer day!

Yugi takes me by the arm. “My friend,” he says. “I am sorry I doubted you. How can I help?”

CHAPTER 20

Learning

The sun is in my heart now. My friend no longer doubts me and may even be my ally. I have won one small victory. I am smiling as I watch him walk away. He turns once to touch his chest and then waves at me.

Yes.

But this has been only the first battle I have to fight. I know that what comes next will not be easy. The next thing I have to do is convince my mother.

The white men do not understand just how important women are among the Tsalagi. In their world, women seem to have little power. Their main jobs are to take care of the homes and raise the children. They make none of the important decisions and they seem to own nothing—not even themselves.

It is very different among our people. One of our oldest stories tells of First Man and First Woman.

They lived together happily. But then one day, First Man did something that upset First Woman.