Sequoyah

Sequoyah [si kwoi′ə]

1760?-1843; Cherokee scholar and leader: created Cherokee syllabary: also sp. Sequoya

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(also Sequoya) (c. 1765–1843)

a Cherokee Native American who created an alphabet of 86 syllables for his people’s language in the early 19th century. He is the only person known to have invented a whole alphabet. The Cherokees used it to communicate in writing, and he also recorded their history. Sequoyah had a Cherokee mother and European father. The sequoia tree is named after him.

See also redwood.

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or Sequoya or Sequoia

born с 1760/1770, Taskigi, North Carolina colony

died August 1843, near San Fernando, Mex.

Creator of the Cherokee writing system.

Sequoyah was probably the son of a British trader. Convinced that the secret of the white people's power was written language, Sequoyah set about developing a Cherokee system. Adapting letters from English, Greek, and Hebrew, he created a system of 86 symbols representing all the syllables of the Cherokee language. Most Cherokee quickly became literate as a result. Sequoyah never learned to speak, read, or write English.

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▪ Cherokee leader

also spelled  Sequoya , or  Sequoia , Cherokee  Sikwayi , also called  George Gist , or  George Guess 

born c. 1760, /1770, Taskigi, North Carolina colony [U.S.]

died August 1843, near San Fernando, Mex.

 creator of the Cherokee writing system.

      Sequoyah was probably the son of a British trader named Nathaniel Gist. Reared by his Cherokee mother in the Tennessee country, he never learned to speak, read, or write English. He was an accomplished silversmith, painter, and warrior and served with the U.S. Army in the Creek War in 1813–14.

 Sequoyah became convinced that the secret of the white people's superior power was written language, which enabled them to accumulate and transmit more knowledge than was possible for a people dependent on memory and word of mouth. Accordingly, about 1809 he began working to develop a system of writing for the Cherokees, believing that increased knowledge would help them maintain their independence from the whites. He experimented first with pictographs and then with symbols representing the syllables of the spoken Cherokee language, adapting letters from English, Greek, and Hebrew. His daughter helped him to identify the Cherokee syllables. By 1821 he had created a system of 86 symbols, representing all the syllables of the Cherokee language.

      Sequoyah convinced his people of the utility of his syllabary by transmitting messages between the Cherokees of Arkansas (with whom he went to live) and those of the east and by teaching his daughter and other young people of the tribe to write. The simplicity of his system enabled pupils to learn it rapidly, and soon Cherokees throughout the nation were teaching it in their schools and publishing books and newspapers in their own Cherokee language.

      Sequoyah's name (spelled Sequoia) was given to the giant redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) of the Pacific Coast and the big trees (Sequoiadendron giganteum) of the Sierra Nevada range.

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