Sequoyah
IV
Sequoyah was probably the greatest of all Cherokees. He is the only man in the history of mankind to invent a complete alphabet, without being able to read or write any language. Not only was Sequoyah a great man of letters, but he was instrumental in always advising the Cherokees in a path of wisdom and tolerance.
He was born near Fort Laudoun, Tennessee in the village of Tuskegee. His mother was a full-blooded Cherokee and his father was probably Nathaniel Gist, the famous scout and soldier. Nathaniel Gist’s family supposedly recognized Sequoyah as Gist’s son. When Sequoyah was a small boy, his mother removed to Alabama to an Indian settlement near Willstown. Here, Sequoyah spent most of his early life, learning to trace honey bees, to shoot the bow and arrow and to look after his mother’s small farm.
The exact date of Sequoyah birthday is not known but army records show he was old enough to fight in the Creek war of 1812 in company with a group of Cherokee volunteers. He, along with Junaluska, another famous Cherokee, fought with Andrew Jackson in the battle of Horseshoe Bend. It was only four years after the battle that he signed one of the many treaties in which the Government took a great part of the Cherokee lands.
There are many stories about when and how Sequoyah started working and thinking about his alphabet. One of these stories is that he and some of his friends fell into a discussion about writing, after having the Bible translated at a white man’s house. His friends said that writing was a most wonderful thing, to be able to put all the wisdom down on the talking leaves so that they would not be forgotten. Sequoyah, hearing the remark, said, “I could do this thing that the white man does.” His friends laughed and said, “You are foolish, you could not even begin to do this wonderful thing. This has taken many long winters for the white man to do. It is his gift. The Great One has not given us this gift. It would be foolish for us to even try such a task.” But Sequoyah did not hear their last remark. He was already turning over in his mind how he was going to put his own talk down on the talking leaves.
Though the hours and the days and the years he worked. He worked against the ridicule of his friends, the threats of his enemies and the active opposition of his wife. Once she even burned every scrap of bark and material he had scribbled on, in an effort to stop him from his task. But it was of no use because he knew that eventually he would find a way to write his own language. His friends tried to dissuade him from his task; his enemies told dark tales about the evils he would bring down on his people by delving into the gifts of the white men. When they passed his house, they gave his home hostile stares and did not speak to Sequoyah nor his family.
Sequoyah began his efforts by trying to devise a symbol for every Cherokee word. When he had devised several thousand symbols, he began to see that this was useless because it would be impossible to remember so many marks. Then he tried to figure out a way to make a symbol for a sentence. But this to, he saw would not do because there were so many ways to make a sentence. Eventually, he began to listen to the different sounds that the Cherokee language had. These, he would record with a mark that he thought would be easy to remember. Soon, he ran out of ideas for new marks; his signs began to all look alike. For a long time, he did not know what to do. Then, while walking one day, he found a piece of old newspaper that he discovered was full of symbols, which he had never even thought of making. Thus, Sequoyah not knowing one English letter from another, used a great many of our own crooked marks to represent sounds in the Cherokee language.
Listening to the children, the few friends who would still come about him and to complete strangers, Sequoyah eventually worked out the eighty-six symbols that represented all the sounds in his language thus bringing to the Cherokee people a way of writing their language so that now, they could have their own newspapers, books and Bibles. It was a great day that would bring everlasting fame to Sequoyah.
While Sequoyah was thinking and working on his alphabet, the tide of his own life was ever shifting and moving. The treaty of 1816 had stipulated that any Cherokees who wanted to remove to the Indian Territory in Arkansas, could do so. One of Sequoyah’s friends, Chief John Jolly, took his family and a small group of friends and moved out to the Cherokee country of the Skin Bayou section of Arkansas. Sequoyah accompanied his group.
Two years later, Jolly returned to the Cherokee settlements of Alabama and persuaded a second group to immigrate to the Arkansas territory. Sequoyah, who made the second trip with the Chief, had completed his alphabet and was able to take letters from the Western Cherokee to the Eastern Cherokee in Alabama. There was a great deal of interest in his mode of putting down the language. Some of Sequoyah’s friends became interested in learning to read and write Sequoyah’s alphabet. He taught these people and in turn they taught others. Some of the quicker ones learned to read and write in three to four days. It was not long until nearly all the Cherokee people were interested in learning to read and write the language. The council, in 1824, recognized the greatness of Sequoyah’s alphabet by voting him a medal of honor and a letter of recognition. In 1825 an educated Cherokee by the name of David Brown began the translation of the Bible in Cherokee, and by 1828 Dr. Samuel Worcester, a missionary to the Eastern Cherokees, had been successful in having a printing press made in Boston. The printing press was shipped to Charleston, S.C. and up the river to Augusta, GA. It was taken by wagon two hundred miles inland to Echota, Georgia. New Echota at that time was the Eastern Capital of the Cherokee Nation. Elias Boudinot, another educated Cherokee, was made the editor-in-chief of the new paper, The Phoenix. This paper printed news in both English and Cherokee.
These times were not easy for the Cherokee people. Sequoyah was sent as a member of a delegation from the Arkansas group, to appeal to the Federal Government in Washington for help in defending the lands and people from encroaching whites. This group did not go to make the treaty of 1812 that was a result of their visit to Washington, but went to try to straighten out various land claims from the Government and to appeal the grievances against the encroaching whites. However, the Treaty that was worked out as a result of their visit was really good for the Western Cherokees. Sequoyah’s visit in the nation’s Capital did not go unnoted. His fame was already established from the invention of the alphabet and many people were interested in seeing the man of such unusual gift. His picture was painted by Charles Bird King, and he was the subject of lectures by Samuel Lorenzo Knapp. In describing Sequoyah, his admirers noted that he did not discard his native costume nor his innate dignity.
Turbulent times for the Cherokees were ahead; great pressures were being put on the Eastern Cherokees to remove to Oklahoma. Some did voluntarily remove but the main body of people wanted to stay in their home country of Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia. They besieged the Government with requests for the Treaty of 1828 to be set aside. They claimed it was not legal, in that the true Chief of the Cherokees did not approve nor sign it. But this was no avail. The order for removal was given by President Andrew Jackson and the fatal day set.
The arrival of the Eastern Cherokee in the Oklahoma territory was of much concern to the old settlers as they called themselves. Their government was already established and the people of influence felt the new arrivals should answer only to the will of the people who were already there. This attitude caused much ill feeling, because the newcomers far outnumbered the old settlers.
The final settlement of the differences between these two factions was partly bought about by the wisdom of Sequoyah and his recognition of the rights of others. When the council meetings were held, that eventually led to the forming of workable Tribal Government, it was Sequoyah’s wise counseling that led to the peaceful solution of a conflict that had already taken the lives of three important Cherokees.
By the time the Cherokees had established their government and had begun to prosper in their new homes, Sequoyah’s mind turned to wonder about the Cherokees in Mexico and Texas, who had suffered much at the hands of raiders. In earlier years, when these people had been attacked and nearly wiped out in Texas, he extended to them an invitation to come to the Arkansas Cherokee Country to live. Many did so, but not all. It was this remnant that Sequoyah was interested in seeing. Although, by this time Sequoyah had grown old and unwell, he was determined to go to Mexico to find and see these lost Cherokees. He gathered a party of eight of his close and trusted friends to travel the unknown trails into hostile country. In this summer of 1842, Sequoyah left his home in Oklahoma, never to return.
The story of his journey is one of hunger, lost horses, floods, and sickness and in the end, death in an unknown grave on foreign soil. The trail of Sequoyah’s life leads many places, from the hill country of Tennessee to the low country of Alabama, from the low country to the wandering of a soldier to the life of a father, the life of a father to Bayou country of Arkansas, from Arkansas to Oklahoma, from Oklahoma to the Nation’s Capital. From the Nation’s Capital to the Cherokee Capital and from there to the climactic pilgrimage to the lost Cherokee in Mexico. Although there are no stone slabs over his grave to mark Sequoyah redwood trees that were named for him and the alphabet that he alone invented.
By Tom Underwood
He was born near Fort Laudoun, Tennessee in the village of Tuskegee. His mother was a full-blooded Cherokee and his father was probably Nathaniel Gist, the famous scout and soldier. Nathaniel Gist’s family supposedly recognized Sequoyah as Gist’s son. When Sequoyah was a small boy, his mother removed to Alabama to an Indian settlement near Willstown. Here, Sequoyah spent most of his early life, learning to trace honey bees, to shoot the bow and arrow and to look after his mother’s small farm.
The exact date of Sequoyah birthday is not known but army records show he was old enough to fight in the Creek war of 1812 in company with a group of Cherokee volunteers. He, along with Junaluska, another famous Cherokee, fought with Andrew Jackson in the battle of Horseshoe Bend. It was only four years after the battle that he signed one of the many treaties in which the Government took a great part of the Cherokee lands.
There are many stories about when and how Sequoyah started working and thinking about his alphabet. One of these stories is that he and some of his friends fell into a discussion about writing, after having the Bible translated at a white man’s house. His friends said that writing was a most wonderful thing, to be able to put all the wisdom down on the talking leaves so that they would not be forgotten. Sequoyah, hearing the remark, said, “I could do this thing that the white man does.” His friends laughed and said, “You are foolish, you could not even begin to do this wonderful thing. This has taken many long winters for the white man to do. It is his gift. The Great One has not given us this gift. It would be foolish for us to even try such a task.” But Sequoyah did not hear their last remark. He was already turning over in his mind how he was going to put his own talk down on the talking leaves.
Though the hours and the days and the years he worked. He worked against the ridicule of his friends, the threats of his enemies and the active opposition of his wife. Once she even burned every scrap of bark and material he had scribbled on, in an effort to stop him from his task. But it was of no use because he knew that eventually he would find a way to write his own language. His friends tried to dissuade him from his task; his enemies told dark tales about the evils he would bring down on his people by delving into the gifts of the white men. When they passed his house, they gave his home hostile stares and did not speak to Sequoyah nor his family.
Sequoyah began his efforts by trying to devise a symbol for every Cherokee word. When he had devised several thousand symbols, he began to see that this was useless because it would be impossible to remember so many marks. Then he tried to figure out a way to make a symbol for a sentence. But this to, he saw would not do because there were so many ways to make a sentence. Eventually, he began to listen to the different sounds that the Cherokee language had. These, he would record with a mark that he thought would be easy to remember. Soon, he ran out of ideas for new marks; his signs began to all look alike. For a long time, he did not know what to do. Then, while walking one day, he found a piece of old newspaper that he discovered was full of symbols, which he had never even thought of making. Thus, Sequoyah not knowing one English letter from another, used a great many of our own crooked marks to represent sounds in the Cherokee language.
Listening to the children, the few friends who would still come about him and to complete strangers, Sequoyah eventually worked out the eighty-six symbols that represented all the sounds in his language thus bringing to the Cherokee people a way of writing their language so that now, they could have their own newspapers, books and Bibles. It was a great day that would bring everlasting fame to Sequoyah.
While Sequoyah was thinking and working on his alphabet, the tide of his own life was ever shifting and moving. The treaty of 1816 had stipulated that any Cherokees who wanted to remove to the Indian Territory in Arkansas, could do so. One of Sequoyah’s friends, Chief John Jolly, took his family and a small group of friends and moved out to the Cherokee country of the Skin Bayou section of Arkansas. Sequoyah accompanied his group.
Two years later, Jolly returned to the Cherokee settlements of Alabama and persuaded a second group to immigrate to the Arkansas territory. Sequoyah, who made the second trip with the Chief, had completed his alphabet and was able to take letters from the Western Cherokee to the Eastern Cherokee in Alabama. There was a great deal of interest in his mode of putting down the language. Some of Sequoyah’s friends became interested in learning to read and write Sequoyah’s alphabet. He taught these people and in turn they taught others. Some of the quicker ones learned to read and write in three to four days. It was not long until nearly all the Cherokee people were interested in learning to read and write the language. The council, in 1824, recognized the greatness of Sequoyah’s alphabet by voting him a medal of honor and a letter of recognition. In 1825 an educated Cherokee by the name of David Brown began the translation of the Bible in Cherokee, and by 1828 Dr. Samuel Worcester, a missionary to the Eastern Cherokees, had been successful in having a printing press made in Boston. The printing press was shipped to Charleston, S.C. and up the river to Augusta, GA. It was taken by wagon two hundred miles inland to Echota, Georgia. New Echota at that time was the Eastern Capital of the Cherokee Nation. Elias Boudinot, another educated Cherokee, was made the editor-in-chief of the new paper, The Phoenix. This paper printed news in both English and Cherokee.
These times were not easy for the Cherokee people. Sequoyah was sent as a member of a delegation from the Arkansas group, to appeal to the Federal Government in Washington for help in defending the lands and people from encroaching whites. This group did not go to make the treaty of 1812 that was a result of their visit to Washington, but went to try to straighten out various land claims from the Government and to appeal the grievances against the encroaching whites. However, the Treaty that was worked out as a result of their visit was really good for the Western Cherokees. Sequoyah’s visit in the nation’s Capital did not go unnoted. His fame was already established from the invention of the alphabet and many people were interested in seeing the man of such unusual gift. His picture was painted by Charles Bird King, and he was the subject of lectures by Samuel Lorenzo Knapp. In describing Sequoyah, his admirers noted that he did not discard his native costume nor his innate dignity.
Turbulent times for the Cherokees were ahead; great pressures were being put on the Eastern Cherokees to remove to Oklahoma. Some did voluntarily remove but the main body of people wanted to stay in their home country of Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia. They besieged the Government with requests for the Treaty of 1828 to be set aside. They claimed it was not legal, in that the true Chief of the Cherokees did not approve nor sign it. But this was no avail. The order for removal was given by President Andrew Jackson and the fatal day set.
The arrival of the Eastern Cherokee in the Oklahoma territory was of much concern to the old settlers as they called themselves. Their government was already established and the people of influence felt the new arrivals should answer only to the will of the people who were already there. This attitude caused much ill feeling, because the newcomers far outnumbered the old settlers.
The final settlement of the differences between these two factions was partly bought about by the wisdom of Sequoyah and his recognition of the rights of others. When the council meetings were held, that eventually led to the forming of workable Tribal Government, it was Sequoyah’s wise counseling that led to the peaceful solution of a conflict that had already taken the lives of three important Cherokees.
By the time the Cherokees had established their government and had begun to prosper in their new homes, Sequoyah’s mind turned to wonder about the Cherokees in Mexico and Texas, who had suffered much at the hands of raiders. In earlier years, when these people had been attacked and nearly wiped out in Texas, he extended to them an invitation to come to the Arkansas Cherokee Country to live. Many did so, but not all. It was this remnant that Sequoyah was interested in seeing. Although, by this time Sequoyah had grown old and unwell, he was determined to go to Mexico to find and see these lost Cherokees. He gathered a party of eight of his close and trusted friends to travel the unknown trails into hostile country. In this summer of 1842, Sequoyah left his home in Oklahoma, never to return.
The story of his journey is one of hunger, lost horses, floods, and sickness and in the end, death in an unknown grave on foreign soil. The trail of Sequoyah’s life leads many places, from the hill country of Tennessee to the low country of Alabama, from the low country to the wandering of a soldier to the life of a father, the life of a father to Bayou country of Arkansas, from Arkansas to Oklahoma, from Oklahoma to the Nation’s Capital. From the Nation’s Capital to the Cherokee Capital and from there to the climactic pilgrimage to the lost Cherokee in Mexico. Although there are no stone slabs over his grave to mark Sequoyah redwood trees that were named for him and the alphabet that he alone invented.
By Tom Underwood