Person:George Gist (2)

About Sequoyah

Sequoyah (ᏍᏏᏉᏯ Ssiquoya, as he signed his name,[2][3] or ᏎᏉᏯ Se-quo-ya, as his name is often spelled today in Cherokee) (c. 1770–1840), named in English George Gist or George Guess, was a Cherokee silversmith. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible. This was the only time in recorded history that a member of a pre-literate people independently created an effective writing system.[1][4] After seeing its worth, the people of the Cherokee Nation rapidly began to use his syllabary and officially adopted it in 1825. Their literacy rate quickly surpassed that of surrounding European-American settlers.[1]

Early Life

Sequoyah's heroic status has led to several competing accounts of his life that are speculative, contradictory, or fabricated.[5] As noted by John B. Davis, there were very few primary documents describing facts of Sequoyah's life. Some anecdotes were passed down orally, but these often conflict or are vague about times and places.[6]

James Mooney, a prominent anthropologist and historian of the Cherokee people, quoted a cousin as saying that as a little boy, Sequoyah spent his early years with his mother in the village of Tuskegee. Estimates of his birth year ranged from 1760 to 1776. His name is believed to come from the Cherokee word siqua meaning 'hog'. However, Davis says the name may have been derived from sikwa (either a hog or an opossum) and vi meaning a place or an enclosure.[6] This is a reference either to a childhood deformity or to a later injury that left Sequoyah disabled.[7]

His mother, Wut-teh, was known to be Cherokee. Mooney stated that she was the niece of a Cherokee chief. McKinney and Hall noted that she was a niece of chiefs who have been identified as the brothers Old Tassel and Doublehead. Since John Watts (also known as Young Tassel) was a nephew of the two chiefs, it is likely that Wut-teh and John Watts were siblings.

Sources differ as to the identity of Sequoyah's father. Davis cites Emmet Starr's book, Early History of the Cherokees, as the source for saying that Sequoyah's father was a peddler from Swabia named Guyst, Guist, or Gist.[6] According to Goodpasture, some believe the father was an unlicensed German peddler named George Gist, who came into the Cherokee Nation in 1768, where he married and fathered a child.[8] Grant Foreman identified him as Nathaniel Gist, son of a Christopher Gist, who later became a commissioned officer with the Continental Army associated with George Washington.[9] Mooney and others suggested that he was possibly a fur trader, who would have been a man of some social status and financial backing.[10] Josiah C. Nott claimed he was the "son of a Scotchman".[11] An article in the Cherokee Phoenix, published in 1828, stated that Sequoyah's father was a half-blood and his grandfather a white man.[6][12]

The New Georgia Encyclopedia presents another version of Sequoyah's origins, from the 1971 book ,Tell Them They Lie: The Sequoyah Myth, by Traveller Bird, who claims to be a Sequoyah descendant. Bird says that Sequoyah was a full-blood Cherokee who always opposed the submission and assimilation of his people into the white man's culture. The encyclopedia noted that Bird presented no documentary evidence, but has gained some credibility in academic circles.[13]

In any case the father was absent before Sequoyah was born. Various explanations have been proposed, but the reason is unknown. Wuteh did not remarry afterward (assuming she married her son's father in the first place). There were no siblings, and Sequoyah was raised by his mother alone.[6] According to Davis, Sequoyah never went to school and never learned English. He and Wuteh spoke only Cherokee.[14] As a youth, he spent much of his time tending cattle and working in their garden, while his mother ran a trading post.[6]

Sequoyah became lame early in life, though why, when and where are not known. Some reports indicate this may have been caused by injury in battle; others say the cause was a hunting accident. Davis wrote that an early issue of the Cherokee Advocate said that "...he was the victim of a hydrarthritic trouble of the knee joint, commonly called 'white swelling'." One doctor speculated that he had anascara (sic).[6] In any case, lameness prevented him from being a successful farmer or warrior.

Despite his lack of schooling, Sequoyah displayed a good deal of natural intelligence. As a child, he had devised and built milk troughs and skimmers for the dairy house that he had constructed. As he grew older and came in contact with more white men, he learned how to make jewelry. He became a noted silversmith, creating various items from the silver coins that trappers and traders carried. He never signed his pieces, so there are none that can be positively identified as his work.[6]

Sequoyah may have taken over his mother's trading post after her death, which Davis claimed occurred about the end of the 18th Century. His store became an informal meeting place for Cherokee men to socialize and, especially, drink whiskey. Sequoyah developed a great fondness for alcohol and soon spent much of his time drunk. After a few months he was rarely seen sober, neglecting his farm and trading business and spending his money buying liquor by the keg.[6]

Fortunately, he realized that he was ruining his life, and took up new interests. He began to draw. Then he took up blacksmithing, so he could repair the iron farm implements that had recently been introduced to the area. Self-taught as usual, he made his own tools, forge and bellows. He was soon doing a good business either repairing items or selling items he had created himself. His spurs and bridle bits were in great demand because he liked to decorate them with silver. Although he maintained his store, he not only stopped drinking but stopped selling alcohol.[6]

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Sequoyah (Cherokee: ᏍᏏᏉᏯ, Ssiquoya, or ᏎᏉᏯ, Se-quo-ya; 1770 – August 1843), also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native American polymath of the Cherokee Nation. In 1821, he completed his independent creation of the Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible. His achievement was one of the few times in recorded history that an individual who was a member of a pre-literate group created an original, effective writing system. His creation of the syllabary allowed the Cherokee nation to be one of the first North American Indigenous groups to have a written language. Sequoyah was also an important representative for the Cherokee nation, by going to Washington, D.C. to sign two relocations and trading of land treaties.

After seeing its worth, the people of the Cherokee Nation rapidly began to use his syllabary and officially adopted it in 1825. It unified a forcibly divided nation with new ways of communication and a sense of independence. By the 1850s, their literacy rate reached almost 100%, surpassing that of surrounding European-American settlers.

The Cherokee syllabary has had international influence. As diffusion spread, it is believed to have inspired the development of 21 known scripts or writing systems, used in a total of 65 languages in North America, Africa, and Asia.

Link to the Cherokee Heritage Project Page