Sequoyah, or George Guess, independently creates a…

1821 CE

Sequoyah, or George Guess, independently creates a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible.

An able linguist fluent in English, French and Spanish, born to a Cherokee mother, he had been a fierce champion of Cherokee culture determined to keep Americans from encroaching upon tribal lands.

When this proved impossible, Sequoyah had moved west in 1797, making periodic return visits to his homeland.

Sequoyah had first married Sally Waters, with whom he has four children.

Another wife is Utiyu, with whom he has three children.

He may have also had three other wives, since polygamy is common among the Cherokee.

At some point before 1809, Sequoyah had moved to Willstown, in present-day northeast Alabama, where he established his trade as a silversmith, dealing regularly with whites who have settled in the area.

He had served in 1813 as one of the warriors of the Cherokee Regiment (Col. Gideon Morgan, Commander) at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against the "Red Sticks" (pro-British Creek, or Muskogee).

The Cherokee refer to the written correspondence of English speakers as "talking leaves."

Around 1809, Sequoyah had begun work to create a system of writing for the Cherokee language.

At first seeking to create a character for each word in the language, he had spent a year on this effort, leaving his fields unplanted, so that his friends and neighbors thought he had lost his mind.

His wife is said to have burned his initial work, believing it to be witchcraft.

Sequoyah did not succeed until he gave up trying to represent entire words and developed a symbol for each syllable in the language.

After approximately a month, he had a system of eighty-six characters, some of which were Latin letters that he had obtained from a spelling book.

Unable to find adults willing to learn the syllabary, he had taught it to his daughter, Ayokeh (also spelled Ayoka); he then traveled to the Indian Reserves in the newly organized Arkansaw Territory (later Arkansas Territory), where some Cherokee had settled.

When he tried to convince the local leaders of the syllabary's usefulness, they doubted him, believing that the symbols were merely ad hoc reminders.

Sequoyah asked each to say a word, which he wrote down, and then called his daughter in to read the words back.

This demonstration convinced the leaders to let him teach the syllabary to a few more people.

This took several months, during which it was rumored that he might be using the students for sorcery.

After completing the lessons, Sequoyah wrote a dictated letter to each student, and read a dictated response.

This test convinced the western Cherokee that he had created a practical writing system.