Honoring Sequoyah
Vonore, Tennessee, is home to the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians runs the museum.
The Cherokee people named the museum to honor Sequoyah. He invented the Cherokee alphabet that allows his people to read and write their own language. Each year, on the first Sunday in August, the museum holds a celebration to pay respect to Sequoyah.
All during the year many people visit the museum to learn about Cherokee history and culture. The museum holds special events where Cherokee artists demonstrate beadwork and pottery. Visitors can hear Cherokee music and learn about traditional medicine.
Early Life
Sequoyah was born George Gist around 1776 near the Cherokee village of Tuskeegee. His father, Nathaniel Gist, was a fur trader. His mother, Wu-the, was the daughter of a Cherokee Chief.
George was raised in the old ways of the Cherokee. He became a trapper and fur trader. He also learned how to make silver ornaments. As a young man he became known as Sequoyah.
Sequoyah married a Cherokee woman and had a family. The family moved to Cherokee County, Georgia. There, he was enlisted to fight under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. Unlike the other soldiers, however, he could not write letters home. At that time, there was no written Cherokee language. Sequoyah wanted to solve this problem.
Inventing a Writing System
After the war, Sequoyah began work on a Cherokee writing system. At first, he tried to create a character for each word. Then he decided to divide each word into syllables instead. He invented a character for each syllable. Sequoyah created 85 symbols that could form Cherokee words. This system is called a syllabary.
Sequoyah worked hard for 12 years. Some people thought he should give up, but he kept at it. He knew that a Cherokee writing system would help his people. He even turned the writing system into a game and taught his daughter Ayoka how to make the symbols.
In 1821, Sequoyah and Ayoka presented his syllabary to the Cherokee elders. Within a few months, thousands of Cherokees had learned to read and write. The Cherokee Nation made the writing system official in 1825. Soon the Bible and other books were translated into Cherokee. The Cherokee Phoenix printed articles in Cherokee and English. It was the nation's first bilingual newspaper.
Political Leader
The Cherokee nation was divided into the Eastern and Western Cherokee. Sequoyah worked to unite the two groups and all Cherokee, wherever they lived. He was born among the Eastern Cherokee. He moved to live with the Western Cherokee soon after the Eastern Cherokee accepted his syllabary. First he lived in Arkansas. Later he moved to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma.
Sequoyah traveled to Washington, D.C., as part of a group who wanted land for Indians in Oklahoma and Indian territories. He met other Native Americans from around the United States. He decided he would create a syllabary that all Native Americans could use. He began traveling to meet with Native American groups in present-day Arizona and New Mexico.
Many years after Sequoyah died, Native Americans wanted to create a separate state for Indians. They wanted to call the state Sequoyah. In 1905, five Native American groups held a convention and wrote a constitution. Leaders went to Washington, D.C., to meet with the president.
President Theodore Roosevelt listened to what the Indians had to say, but he denied their request. He would only grant statehood to the combined Oklahoma and Indian territories. However, parts of the Sequoyah state constitution were used in the constitution for the State of Oklahoma.
The state of Sequoyah is nearly forgotten, but Sequoyah the Cherokee leader is not. The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum is just one way that Sequoyah is remembered. There is a Sequoyah County in Oklahoma where he lived. Mount Sequoyah is in the Great Smoky Mountains along the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. Also, the U.S. Postal Service created a stamp in Sequoyah's honor in 1980. The best way Sequoyah is remembered is whenever anyone reads or writes the Cherokee language.