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They called him Sequoyah. And, this great
Cherokee Indian gave his people a gift that will endure forever. He
gave them a writing system - so that the greatness of the Cherokee
Nation will live forever.
Sequoyah was born in 1776 at the village of
Tuskegee, which was very near where the Museum is today. His father
was Nathaniel Gist, a Virginia fur trader. His mother was Wut-teh,
daughter of a Cherokee Chief.
Sequoyah married a Cherokee, had a family and
was a silversmith by trade. Sequoyah and other Cherokees enlisted on
the side of the United States under General Andrew Jackson to fight
the British troops and the Creek Indians in the ware of 1812.
Although Sequoyah was exposed to the concept
of writing early in his life, he never learned the English alphabet.
He began to toy with the idea of a Cherokee literacy for
the Cherokee people. Unlike the white soldiers, he and the other
Cherokees were not able to write letters home, read military orders,
or record events as they occurred. After the war, he began in
earnest to create a writing system for the Cherokees.
When he returned home after the war, he began
to make the symbols that could make words. He finally reduced the
thousands of Cherokee thoughts to 85 symbols representing
sounds. He made a game of this new writing systems and taught
his little girl Ayoka how to make the symbols.
In 1821, after 12 years working on the new
language, he and his daughter introduced his syllabary to the Cherokee
people. within a few months thousands of Cherokees became literate.
By 1825 much of the Bible and numerous hymns
had been translated into Cherokee. by 1828 they were
publishing the "Cherokee Phoenix," the first national bi-lingual
newspaper, along with religious pamphlets, educational materials and
legal documents.
In recognition of this contributions, the
Cherokee Nation awarded Sequoyah a sliver medal struck in his honor
and a lifetime literary pension. He continued to serve
Cherokee people as a statesman and diplomat until his death. |
