Excerpt from "The Chickasaw nation : a short sketch of a noble people (1922)"   by James H. Malone  (Sequoyah - page 358)
California Digital Library

Sequoyah's Mother

There he met a Cherokee Indian girl who pleased his fancy, and she evidently was flattered by his professions, and they became husband and wife according to the customs of her people; and to her obligations in the marriage relation she was ever faithful, and proved a devoted mother, judged by the highest standards of the most enlightened people.

She came of a good family, her father being a chief in Great Echota, the town of refuge in the Cherokee nation, for they had a city of refuge similar to that of the ancient Jews, Great Echota being situated on the little Tennessee River, in what is now Monroe County, east Tennessee.

Speaking of the Indian wife, at p. 17 Foster says: " While our Dutch peddler smoked his home-made pipe around the fire or joined in the chase when his indolence would allow, she cultivated the maize, even cleared a piece of land for tillage; she helped put up a wigwam; she prepared and dried the skins, and fashioned them into clothing, and cooked his food over the wigwam fire. She even butchered the game, saddled the horses, and cared for them on his return; she brought the wood, fetched the water, and yet, though practically a slave, as she knew no better way, she was accounted a very happy woman. Her hope of happiness was based on her devotion to her husband; so the more she did for him, the more contented she became."

It is a singular fact that I have not seen the name of this remarkable woman in any of the books I have been able to read. I have written many letters to various persons, endeavoring to ascertain her name and at least some of the circumstances connected with her life. In a letter to Senator Robert L. Owens by Commissioner Sells, of January 2ist, 1921, it is said, "I am informed by Mr. Frank Boudinot, an attorney residing at the Northbrook Courts, this city (Washington), that the name of the mother of Sequoyah, was Wut-teh." A letter directed by myself to Mr. Boudinot failed to elicit any reply.