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Sequoyah
SE-QUO-YAH - a lithograph from Indian Tribes, McKinney and Hall, 1856. This lithograph is from the portrait painted by Charles Bird King from life in 1828.
Born	c. 1770 Taskigi, Cherokee Nation (Now U.S. State of Tennessee)
Died	August 1843 Tamaulipas, Mexico
Nationality	Cherokee
Other names	George Guess or Gist
Occupation	Blacksmith, Scholar, Linguist, Warrior
Spouse(s)	1st:Sally (maiden name unknown), 2nd:U-ti-yu
Children	Four with first wife, three with second
Parents	Nathaniel Gist, Wut-teh

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Sequoyah ( se-quo-ya ^[1] in Cherokee) (circa 1767 - 1843), known as George Gist, Guest or Guess, was a Cherokee silversmith who in 1821 completed his independent creation of a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible. This was the first time in human history that a member of an illiterate people independently created an effective writing system. After seeing its worth, the Cherokee Nation rapidly began to use his syllabary and officially adopted it in 1825.

Birth and early life

The place and date of Sequoyah Gist's birth are unknown, since no written record exists. James Mooney, a prominent anthropologist and historian of the Cherokee people, quoted a cousin as saying that as a little boy, Sequoyah spent his early years with his mother in the village of Taskigi, later known as Tuskegee, Tennessee. Estimates of his birth year ranged from 1760-1776.

The names Sequoyah or Sequoia are both spellings used by missionaries, who tried to make transliterations of the Cherokee name Sogwali or Sikwâ'y-. It was believed to be derived from the Cherokee word siqua meaning 'hog'. This is either a reference to a childhood deformity or a later injury that left Sequoyah disabled (London, 193).

His mother Wut-teh was known to be Cherokee, belonging to the Paint Clan. Mooney stated that she was the niece of a Cherokee chief. Sequoyah's father was either white or mixed-race white and Cherokee. Sources differ as to the exact identity of Sequoyah's father, but many (including Mooney) suggested that he was possibly a fur trader, who would have been a man of some social status and financial backing.^[2] Based on available documentation, for decades historians believed that Sequoyah's father was Nathaniel Gist, a commissioned officer with the Continental Army associated with George Washington.^{[3] [4]} This view was challenged in the 1970s by a person claiming to be a descendant, but the issue has not been fully resolved.

The fact that Sequoyah did not speak English may indicate that he and his mother were abandoned by his white father. Also known as George Gist, Guess, or Guest, Sequoyah lived with his mother Wut-ten as a member of the Cherokee tribe. He first married Sally, with whom he had four children. After her death, he married U-ti-yu, with whom he had three children.

At some point before 1809, Sequoyah moved to Willstown, Cherokee Nation, in present-day northeast Alabama. There he established his trade as a silversmith. He may have fought in the Creek War between 1813 and 1814 against the Red Sticks (Batons Rouges). If he in fact was disabled, it is highly unlikely that he would have fought, but his disability could have been a result of the battle.

"Talking Leaves" and a syllabary

Example of characters from Sequoyah's syllabary.

As a silversmith, Sequoyah dealt regularly with whites who had settled in the area. Often, the Native Americans were impressed by their writing, referring to their correspondence as "talking leaves". Around 1809, Sequoyah began work to create a system of writing for the Cherokee language. After attempting to create a character for each word, Sequoyah decided to divide each word into syllables and create one character for each syllable. Utilizing the Roman alphabet and quite possibly the Cyrillic alphabet, he created 85 characters to represent the various syllables. This work took Sequoyah 12 years to complete.

Some of his fellow Cherokee doubted the value of his syllabary. In order to prove his creation, Sequoyah taught his daughter Ah-yo-ka how to read and write in Cherokee. After amazing locals with his new writing, Sequoyah attempted to display his feat to tribal medicine men. They at first rebuffed him as being possessed by evil spirits.

Sequoyah finally proved his creation to a gathering of Chickamaugan warriors. Quickly news of the syllabary spread and the Cherokee filled schools to learn how to read and write it. By 1823 the Cherokee Nation was using the syllabary widely. In 1825 the Cherokee Nation officially adopted the writing system. From 1828 to 1834 writers and editors used Sequoyah's syllabary to print the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper of the Cherokee Nation with text in English and Cherokee.

Many contemporary Cherokee speakers still use the syllabary, with more users in Oklahoma than in North Carolina (Bender 2002). They use it primarily in Christian worship and study, centered around reading the Bible in Cherokee. Some members also use it in practice and study of traditional medicine.

In Unicode, the Cherokee syllabary begins at U+13A0.

Life in Arkansas and further west

After the acceptance of his syllabary by the nation in 1825, Sequoyah walked to the new Cherokee territory in Arkansas. There he set up a blacksmith shop and a salt works. He continued to teach the syllabary to anyone who came to him. In 1828, Sequoyah journeyed to Washington, D.C. as part of a delegation to negotiate a treaty for land in Oklahoma.

His trip brought him into contact with representatives of other Native American tribes from around the nation. With these meetings he decided to create a syllabary for universal use among Native American tribes. With this in mind, Sequoyah began to journey to areas of present-day Arizona and New Mexico seeking tribes there.

In addition, Sequoyah dreamed of seeing the splintered Cherokee Nation reunited. Between 1843 and 1845, he died during a trip to Mexico seeking Cherokees who had moved there. His burial location is unknown.

Sequoyah's Cabin, a frontier cabin which he lived in during 1829-1844, is located in Oklahoma. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

Lee Lawrie, sculpted bronze figure of Sequoyah (1939). Library of Congress John Adams Building, Washington, D.C.

Sequoyah's namesakes

• The name of the district where Sequoyah lived in Oklahoma was changed to Sequoyah District in 1851. When Oklahoma was admitted to the union, that area became known as Sequoyah County.
• The Sequoia tree is generally thought to be named after him (see, for instance, the OED). Some botanists have challenged this claim^{[verification needed]}.
• The proposed State of Sequoyah was named in his honor.
• Sequoyah High School (Oklahoma) is a Native American boarding school named after the creator of the Cherokee syllabary.
• Sequoyah High School (Tennessee) is a public high school in Madisonville, TN named after him. *Sequoyah Research Center is a research center dedicated to collecting and archiving Native American thought and literature.
• Mount Sequoyah in the Great Smoky Mountains was named in honor of him.
• The Sequoyah Hills neighborhood of Knoxville, Tennessee, bears his name.
• The Tennessee Valley Authority Sequoyah Nuclear Generating Station bears his name.
• The Sequoyah Marina on Norris Lake which is impounded by Norris Dam, the first hydro-electric dam in Tennessee built by the Tennessee Valley Authority, was named in honor of Sequoyah.
• The Sequoyah Elementary School in Russellville, Arkansas, bears his name.
• The USS Sequoia was a long-time yacht used by American Presidents (now privately owned).

Citations

References

Bender, Margaret. (2002) Signs of Cherokee Culture: Sequoyah's Syllabary in Eastern Cherokee Life. Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina Press.

External links

• "Invention of the Cherokee Alphabet", Cherokee Phoenix, 13 Aug 1820
• John B. Davis, "The Life and Work of Sequoyah", Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol.8 (2), June 1930, Oklahoma State University
• "Sequoyah", Tiro Typeworks
• "Sequoyah (aka George Gist)", a North Georgia Notable
• The Cherokee Nation
• "The Official Cherokee Font", Cherokee Nation Official Website