Friday Reprise: Sequoyah of the Cherokee

One of the prerequisites for being thought a civilized tribe by European-Americans was education.  Elite status young men, the sons of chiefs and prominent warriors, were often sent to schools or even universities.  Parents of these young men hoped that by educating their children after the White man's way, it would better enable them to work with the Settlers and ease conflicts with them.  One Cherokee went even further, he developed a system of writing based on the syllables used in the Cherokee language.

Sequoyah was born in the Cherokee town of Tuskegee, near present-day Knoxville, Tennessee.  He is sometimes given the English last name of Gist or Guess, on the assumption that his father was one of two White men, Christopher Gist, the son of a prominent Maryland family who had traveled West, or a German trader with the last name of Guess.  Descendants of Sequoyah reject any idea of mixed race ancestry, so we'll give them the last word.  His Cherokee mother may have been the sister of John Watts, a prominent Cherokee leader of the period.  More on him later.  Sequoyah grew up under his mother's care, helping her run a small trading post and tending their farm.  At some point in his childhood, he suffered an illness or accident that left him partially lame.  Becoming a warrior or a successful farmer was not in his future plans.  Nor is there any evidence that he went to school. 

But Sequoyah was an inquisitive person with an inventive turn of mind.  He devised and built milk troughs and skimmers for the dairy house on his mother's farm.  From his contacts with Settlers, he learned how to make jewelry and became a noted silversmith.  After his mother's death, he took over her trading post.  It became a local gathering place for the men of the neighborhood who liked to drink.  Sequoyah developed a drinking problem and soon was on the verge of losing his farm and store.  He stopped drinking and developed other interests to raise money and keep his mind off alcohol, including drawing and working as a blacksmith.  He could create bridles and bits decorated with silver, which made his work much in demand.  He soon put his store back in the black despite the fact that he refused to stock one of the most lucrative items in a trader's inventory, alcohol. 

He moved to Alabama, and despite his infirmity, served in a Cherokee Regiment which was aiding the U.S. forces in putting down the Red Stick Creek revolt (1813-1814).  While in Alabama, he married his wife, Sally.  No one knows for certain when Sequoyah got the idea of creating the syllabary.  In his dealings with Settlers, he noticed their writing and understood that it was an important means of preserving or transmitting ideas.  While some Cherokees avoided the idea as sorcery or a pretense, Sequoyah knew it was a worthwhile endeavor.  In 1809, while still in Tennessee, he began experimenting with the idea of creating symbols for sounds in the Cherokee language. Friends, family and neighbors were certain he had lost his mind.  Sally burned his initial papers, believing that he was involving himself in witchcraft.  He persevered and came up with a system of 86 characters, each representing a syllable of the Cherokee language. 

Like many inventors, getting his idea accepted was another thing altogether.  He taught his daughter Ayoka the syllabary, because she was the only available pupil.  Not getting any traction on his idea locally, he went to Native reservations in Arkansas, where some Cherokee had settled.  Leaders there were convinced the syllabary was a form of sorcery, so Sequoyah proved them wrong.  He had each man say a word, which he wrote down.  He then called Ayoka and had her read the words back.  Leaders reluctantly allowed Sequoyah to open a school to teach the syllabary, but witchcraft rumors again threatened to derail his efforts.  Sequoyah wrote a dictated letter to each student, and read their responses aloud.  Leaders were convinced that he had developed a practical system of writing their language.  One of the Western Cherokee leaders dictated a message for Sequoyah to carry with him when he returned East.  When Sequoyah read the message, Eastern Cherokee leaders were also convinced.  In 1824, the Eastern Cherokee council awarded Sequoyah a silver medal for his services in creating and teaching the syllabary,  In 1825, the Cherokee National Council officially adopted the syllabary and commissioned a printing of the laws of the Cherokee Nation in written form.  A newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, also used the syllabary from1828-1834. 

Sequoyah returned to Arkansas, set up his blacksmith shop and continued to teach the syllabary.  In 1828, he was part of the delegation that traveled to Washington, D.C. to negotiate lands for settlement in a planned Indian Territory.  He wanted to create a syllabary for use as a universal communication system for all Natives and even traveled to New Mexico and Arizona to promote his idea.  In 1829, Sequoyah voluntarily moved to Sallinaw, Oklahoma and built a cabin and smithy there.  After 1839, while the Cherokees were still divided over the issue of their recent move to Indian Territory, Sequoyah reached out to another Cherokee leader, Jesse Bushyhead, in an effort to reunite the various factions.  In 1842, he traveled to Mexico to persuade Cherokees who had fled there to return to Oklahoma.  Sometimes between 1843-1845 he died and was buried in Zaragoza, near the Texas, Mexico border.  A letter, signed by Natives who had accompanied him on the trip, gives his date of death as August, 1843.  Efforts to find his exact grave have been unsuccessful. 

Sequoyah represents Oklahoma in the National Statuary Hall collection.  His cabin has been designated a National Historic Landmark.  Although some claim that the giant redwoods were named in his honor, there is no definitive proof of that.