Sequoyah (Ssiquaya in Cherokee) (c.1767 - July or August 1843), known as George Guess, Guest or Gist, was a Cherokee silversmith who invented the Cherokee syllabary, thus earning him a place on the list of inventors of writing systems.

Portrait of Sequoyah

Birth and early life

The exact place and date of Sequoyah's birth are unknown, since no written record exists. Speculation and guesswork by historians place his birth at some point between 1760 and 1776. As for the location, speculation places it in either Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama or South Carolina. James Mooney, a prominent anthropologist and historian of the Cherokee people, quotes a cousin in saying that Sequoyah and his mother spent his early years in the village of Tuskegee, Tennessee.

The name Sequoyah or Sikwâ'yǐ is believed to be derived from the Cherokee word siqua meaning 'hog'. This is either a reference to a childhood deformity or a later injury that left Sequoyah disabled.

Of his mother, it is known that she was a Cherokee and belonged to the Paint Clan. Mooney states that she was the niece of a Cherokee chief. His father was either white or part-white and part Native American. Sources differ as to the exact identity of Sequoyah's father, but many (including Mooney) suggest that he was possibly a fur trader or the son of Christopher Gist, a scout for George Washington.

The fact that Sequoyah did not speak English may be an indication that he and his mother were abandoned by his father. At some point before 1809, Sequoyah moved to the Willstown of Alabama. There he established his trade as a silversmith. He may have fought in the Creek War between 1813 and 1814 against the Red Sticks. If he was disabled, it is unlikely he would have fought, but some historians speculate that his disability was a result of a battle injury.

Example of characters from Sequoyah's syllabary. The first three characters read "tsalagi" meaning "Cherokee."

"Talking Leaves" and a syllabary

As a silversmith, Sequoyah dealt regularly with whites who had settled in the area. Often, the Native Americans were impressed by their writing, referring to their correspondence as "talking leaves." Around 1809, Sequoyah began work to create a system of writing for the Cherokee language.

After attempting to create a character for each word, Sequoyah decided to divide each word into syllables and create one character for each syllable. Utilizing the Roman alphabet and quite possibly the Cyrillic alphabet, he created 85 characters to represent the various syllables. This work took Sequoyah 12 years to complete.

There was some doubt amongst his fellow Cherokee as to the worthiness of his syllabary. In order to prove his creation, Sequoyah taught his daughter Ah-yo-ka how to read and write in Cherokee. After amazing locals with his new writing, Sequoyah attempted to display his feat to tribal medicine men only to be rebuffed by them for being possessed by evil spirits. Sequoyah finally proved his feat to a gathering of Chickamaugan warriors. Quickly news of the syllabary spread and the Cherokee were filling schools in order to learn the new written language. By 1823 the syllabary was in full use by the Cherokee Nation. The writing system was made official by the Cherokee Nation in 1825.

Life in Arkansas and further west

After the acceptance of his syllabary by the nation in 1825, Sequoyah walked to the new Cherokee territory in Arkansas. There he set up a blacksmith shop and a salt works. He continued to teach the syllabary to anyone who came to him. In 1828, Sequoyah journeyed to Washington, D.C. as part of a delegation to negotiate a treaty for land in Oklahoma.

His trip brought him into contact with representatives of other Native American tribes from around the nation. With these meetings he decided to create a syllabary for universal use among all Native American tribes. With this in mind, Sequoyah began to journey to areas of present day Arizona and New Mexico seeking tribes there.

In addition, Sequoyah dreamed of seeing the splintered Cherokee Nation reunited. It was on a trip seeking Cherokees who had moved to Mexico that he died between 1843 and 1845.

Source

Invention of the Cherokee Alphabet -  published in the Cherokee Phoenix

The Life and Work of Sequoyah -  Chronicles of Oklahoma

The Father of Sequoyah: Nathaniel Gist -  Chronicles of Oklahoma

Sequoyah from Tiro Typeworks

Sequoyah (aka George Gist), a North Georgia Notable

The Cherokee Nation

The Official Cherokee Font