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

The Last Days of Sequoyah

Where the mortal remains of Sequoyah rest, no man knows, though it is generally conceded that he died amid the towering peaks of the Rocky Mountain ranges. His ancient ancestors occupied the loftiest peaks of the Appalachian Mountains, and as intellectually he towered far above the average man, it seems fitting that he should have sought the lofty ranges of the West, after his people had been driven from their homes in the East, to breathe his last, and yield up his spirit to "The Beloved One who dwelleth in the blue sky."

This short sketch will not admit of the various versions as to the circumstances attending the last days of Sequoyah, much less the speculations as to where his body now sleeps; but in reference to his later years this much may be said: In 1823 he took up his permanent residence in Arkansas, where a portion of the tribe had been removed. He took a prominent part in the treaties by which the Cherokees, or the most of them, were moved from their homes in North Carolina to the West.

In his declining years Sequoyah withdrew from activities among the Cherokees, and once again gave himself over to speculative ideas. He conceived the idea that there should be elements of a common speech and grammar among the various Indian languages, and he traveled far and near among many tribes in a vain endeavor to demonstrate the correctness of his theory. There was a current tradition to the effect that in ancient times a band of Cherokees, forsaking their mountain home and kindred in the Appalachian range, had crossed the Mississippi River and found another home in a distant range of mountains in the West.