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Little is known of Sequoyah's parents. His mother, Wut-teh was certainly a Cherokee Indian who belonged to the Paint Clan. Some people believe his father was Nathaniel Gist who was a scout for George Washington. Supposedly, Gist was captured by the Cherokees and was their prisoner for six years. It was during this time Sequoyah was born.

Sequoyah was raised by his mother who was a successful trader. He learned the fur trade from her. He became lame during his youth, possibly due to an accident. After her death he was a fur trader and also became an excellent silversmith*. He took the name George Guess and signed his silver works with that name.

After his mother died he went through a period of reckless living. Many of his friends deserted him calling him "drunken Sequoyah". He realized he was ruining his life and changed his ways. He took up blacksmithing*, and people came from far and near to have him make things for them; things such as spurs, horse bridles, hoes, and knives.

He stopped drinking and discouraged drinking among the other Indians.

He married and he and his wife were happy for a while, but he was a meditative* person and she began to nag him about working.

One day the men in his shop were talking about the white man's "speaking leaves"; pages with English writing on them. Sequoyah told them he could make marks that stood for words. They all laughed at him. Even his family ridiculed the idea. But the more he thought about it, the more sure he became that he really could make marks to signify words.

He started out by drawing pictures, but finally decided it was an impossible task because of the enormous number of pictures that would be required to illustrate every word.

He then started studying the sounds of the words in the Cherokee language. He found there were more than eighty sounds. He was able to get an English book and looked at the letters in it, even though he didn't know the meaning or sound of them. He took these English letters, added more symbols of his own, and devised an alphabet in which each symbol represented a syllable. So in fact it was actually a syllabary* rather than an alphabet. With it he was able to write any word in the Cherokee language by making a symbol for each syllable of sound.

He spent twelve years working on his invention of a system of written language for the Cherokee nation. The alphabet was completed in 1821.

In the example shown here the three characters on the top line read tsalagi which means "Cherokee." The word "tsalagi" has three syllables and there is a symbol for each syllable. Compare it to the chart above. Try to figure out how to say the word.

He tried to interest his tribesmen in learning the symbols, but they thought he was crazy.

He taught his young daughter Ahyoka to read and write the language. It was so simple she readily learned it. His tribesmen thought Sequoyah was trying to trick them. He must convince them of the value of his new written language. They sent his daughter to the other side of the village. Away from her presence, they asked Sequoyah to write a message which they would tell him. He wrote the words they dictated and they took it to Ahyoka. She read the message to them and wrote one in return for them to take back to her father. She told the men what it said.

They carried the message from Ahyoka to Sequoyah and he read it back to them, word for word. The tribesmen were convinced. This would be a valuable tool for conveying ideas and preserving their stories.

Within a short time the Cherokee nation was literate*; most of them could now read. They wrote books and published a newspaper called the Cherokee Phoenix. It was the first Indian newspaper published in the United States.

It is said the language was so easy to learn a person could learn it in three or four days, seldom more than a week.

Sequoyah has been referred to as the "Cadmus of America". There is a Greek myth about Cadmus, and it is told he brought the Phoenician* alphabet into Greece.

The Christian missionaries learned the language and translated the Bible into Cherokee.

Sequoyah took the written language to the Western Cherokee tribes 700 miles away. In 1824 the Cherokee General Council of the Eastern tribes gave him a large silver medal to honor him. (See the picture at the top of the page.) He wore it the rest of his life.

There are conflicting reports concerning the death of Sequoyah. Some say he was lost while hunting for lost tribesmen and was never found. Another version states that the Indian agent sent a Cherokee Oo-no-leh to look for him, and he was told the aged Sequoyah had died the preceding July and was buried at San Fernando.

Today in America you will find the name Sequoyah (Sequoia) on schools, caverns, hospitals, and ranches. There is also a wild life refuge named for him as well as a national forest and a nuclear power plant. The state of Oklahoma placed a bronze statue of him in the rotunda of the Capitol, the Hall of Fame at Washington D.C.

In the 1830's the Cherokee people were forced by the government to move to Indian Territory which is now the state of Oklahoma. It was a sad time in American history and the move is referred to as the Trail of Tears. Translated into the Cherokee language it literally means The Trail Where They Cried.

Many of the facts in this story were taken from the book,
( The Chickasaw Nation: A Short Sketch of a Noble People by James Henry Malone, 1922 )
(Begin on page 358. To make the text larger click on the "+" sign. )

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PRINTABLES Sequoyah Word Search Sequoyah Crossword Puzzle Sequoyah - Word Scramble Sequoyah Study Sheet Worksheet Color a picture of Sequoyah Print Excerpts from "The Chickasaw Nation: A Short Sketch of a Noble People"

The Life and Work of Sequoyah Chronicles of Oklahoma Sequoyah at Wikipedia Sequoyah at Think Quest Vinnie Ream created a bronze statue of Sequoyah Sequoyah's Gift by Stan Hoig (PDF) Sequoyah short biography Charles Jahtlohi Rogers M.D. Traditional Chief with thoughts about the Cherokee nation Sequoyah Biography The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum Sequoyah inventor of the Cherokee syllabary Sequoyah, Tsalagi Sequoyah from New Georgia Encyclopedia Sequoyah from PowerSource.com The legend of Cadmus at Wikipedia Lithographs of Indian Leaders The Trail of Tears Native Americans at Kid Info Sequoyah Lesson Plan PDF version search for "Sequoyah" Lake Mohonk Conference - Friends of the Indian, 1903

Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing By James Rumford / Houghton-mifflin This beautifully illustrated book is a "Robert F. Sibert Honor Book", and is filled with stark, colorful drawings of Sequoyah, the Cherokee people and land. The story of an illiterate man who invented the Cherokee written language, the text is fittingly written in both English and Cherokee. Sequoyah celebrates literacy, and the struggle of a people to stand tall and proud. 29 pages, hardcover with dust jacket.

Life On The Trail Of Tears By Laura Fischer / Heinemann Raintree School This book describes what life was like for the Native American people on the Trail of Tears during the winter of 1838 to 1839. The Trail of Tears was a journey the Native Americans made when they were forced out of their homeland by the United States government. The trail took the Native Americans west to land called Indian Territory. The tribes who walked the Trail of Tears were the Creek, Chicksaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Seminole. This book focuses on the story of the Cherokee tribe. The book is illustrated with drawings and paintings from the time period and with artists' ideas of how things looked on the trail. 32 pages, softcover.

From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster
(Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by &)

silversmith
Pronunciation: sil-v&r-smith
Function: noun
a person who makes articles of silver

blacksmith
Pronunciation: blak-smith
Function: noun
a worker who shapes iron (as into horseshoes) by heating it
and then hammering it on an iron block

meditative
Pronunciation: med-&-tAt-iv
Function: adjective
having the habit of meditating

syllabary
Pronunciation: SIL-&-ber-ee
Function: noun
a set of written characters each of which stands for a syllable

literate
Pronunciation: LIT-&-r&t
Function: adjective
1 : educated, cultured
2 : able to read and write
3 : having knowledge or experience in a particular area

Phoenician
Pronunciation: fih-NISH-&n or fih-NEE-sh&n
Function: noun
1 : a person born or living in ancient Phoenicia
2 : the Semitic language of ancient Phoenicia

Biographies in this Series

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	James Monroe 5th U.S. President	Andrew Jackson 7th U.S. President	Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S.President
	Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd U.S. President	John F. Kennedy 35th U.S. President	James Madison 4th U.S. President
	Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President	Ronald Reagan 40th U.S. President
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin patriot and statesman	Francis Scott Key Star Spangled Banner	Deborah Sampson woman soldier in the Revolutionary War
World Leaders	Constantine Roman Emperor	Alexander the Great conqueror	Winston Churchill British Prime Minister
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell telephone	Johann Gutenberg printing press	Cyrus McCormick mechanical reaper
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	Sequoyah Cherokee alphabet	Nikola Tesla 700 patents	.
Explorers	Christopher Columbus explorer	Meriwether Lewis explorer	Robert Peary Arctic explorer
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Women who made a difference	Clara Barton founder of the Red Cross	Helen Keller overcame blindness & deafness	Florence Nightingale founder of nursing profession
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Scientists	George Washington Carver botanist and educator	Sir Isaac Newton explained gravity and properties of light	Marie Curie scientist, physicist
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	Lise Meitner Physicist	.	.
Educators	Noah Webster writer of dictionary	Booker T. Washington leader and educator	Aristotle Greek philosopher
Physicians	Hippocrates father of medicine	Walter Reed discovered cause of yellow fever	Albert Schweitzer humanitarian
Religious Leaders	Increase Mather Salem witch trials	.
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Composers	Beethoven composer
Artists	John James Audubon artist and naturalist	Gutzon Borglum sculptor, Mount Rushmore	Ansel Adams photographer

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