45 Facts About Sequoyah

In 1821, Sequoyah completed his Cherokee syllabary, enabling reading and writing in the Cherokee language.

Sequoyah was an important representative for the Cherokee nation; he went to Washington, DC, to sign two relocation-and-land-trading treaties.

Sequoyah was born in the Cherokee town of Tuskegee, Tennessee, around 1778.

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.

Sequoyah's name is believed to come from the Cherokee word meaning "hog".

Davis cites Emmet Starr's 1917 book, Early History of the Cherokees, as saying that Sequoyah's father was a Virginian fur trader from Swabia named Nathaniel Guyst, Guist, or Gist.

The Cherokee Phoenix reported in 1828 that Sequoyah's father was a half-blood and his grandfather a white man.

Bird says that Sequoyah was a full-blood Cherokee who always opposed the submission and assimilation of his people into the white man's culture.

Sequoyah had no siblings, and his mother raised him alone.

Sequoyah became lame early in life; how, when, and where are not known.

Sequoyah became a noted silversmith, creating various items from the silver coins that trappers and traders carried.

Sequoyah never signed his pieces, so there are none that can be positively identified as his work.

Sequoyah's store became an informal meeting place for Cherokee men to socialize and, especially, drink whiskey.

Sequoyah developed a great fondness for alcohol and soon spent much of his time drunk.

Sequoyah began to draw, then he took up blacksmithing, so he could repair the iron farm implements that had recently been introduced to the area by traders.

Sequoyah was doing a good business either repairing items or selling items he had created himself.

Sequoyah came to believe that one of white people's many advantages was their written language, which allowed them to expand their knowledge, partake in many forms of media, and have a better network of communication.

In 2008, archeologist Kenneth B Tankersley of the University of Cincinnati found carvings from the syllabary in a cave in southeastern Kentucky, where Sequoyah is known to have had relatives.

However, this date is too late, because Sequoyah was already living in Alabama when he enlisted in the army.

In 1817, Sequoyah signed a treaty that traded Cherokee land in the southeast for land in Arkansas.

In 1824, Sequoyah was awarded a medal from the Cherokee National Council.

In 1829, Sequoyah settled in present-day Sallisaw, Oklahoma, with his wife and daughter.

Sequoyah was hoping to spread his teachings of the syllabary and convince the migrated Cherokees to move to Indian Territory.

Sequoyah was impressed by their writing, and referred to their correspondence as "talking leaves".

Sequoyah knew that the papers represented a way to transmit information to other people in distant places, which his fellow American soldiers were able to do but he and other indigenous people could not.

Sequoyah said that he could invent a way for Cherokees to talk on paper, even though his friends and family thought the idea was absurd.

Around 1809, Sequoyah began creating a system of writing for the Cherokee language.

Sequoyah's wife is said to have burned his initial work, believing it to be witchcraft, a notion shared by some of his peers.

Sequoyah then tried making a symbol for each idea, but this proved impractical.

Sequoyah used the Bible as a reference, along with adaptations from English, Greek, and Hebrew letters.

Sequoyah traveled to the Indian Reserves in the Arkansas Territory, where some Cherokee had settled west of the Mississippi River.

Intrigued, the leaders allowed Sequoyah to teach a few local people the syllabary.

When Sequoyah went to the eastern tribes, he brought a sealed envelope containing a written speech from one of the Arkansas Cherokee leaders.

Sequoyah continued to teach the syllabary to anyone who wished.

In 1828, Sequoyah journeyed to Washington, DC, as part of a delegation to negotiate a treaty for land in the planned Indian Territory.

Sequoyah holds a copy of the syllabary in his left hand and is smoking a long-stemmed pipe.

Sequoyah began to journey into areas of present-day Arizona and New Mexico, to meet with tribes there.

In 1829, Sequoyah moved to a location on Big Skin Bayou, where he built Sequoyah's Cabin that became his home for the rest of his life.

In 1839, when the Cherokee were bitterly divided over the issue of removal to Indian Territory, Sequoyah joined with Jesse Bushyhead to try to reunite the Cherokee Nation.

Sequoyah, representing the Western Cherokee, and Bushyhead representing the Eastern Cherokee, made a joint plea at a tribal council meeting at Takatoka on 20 June 1839.

Sequoyah dreamed of seeing reunification of the splintered Cherokee Nation.

Sequoyah was accompanied by his son, Teesy, as well as other Cherokee men identified as Co-tes-ka, Nu-wo-ta-na, Cah-ta-ta, Co-wo-si-ti, John Elijah, and The Worm:.

Sequoyah's work has had international influence, encouraging the development of syllabaries for other previously unwritten languages.

The result of the diffusion of Sequoyah's work has been the development of a total of 21 known scripts, which have been used to write more than 65 languages.

Sequoyah was said to wear the medal throughout the rest of his life and it was buried with him.