Famous Native American Men

Sequoyah (?-1843)

Sequoyah was born in Tennessee during the 1760s or 1770s, his father probably a white trader named Nathaniel Gist and his mother a Cherokee. Seqouyah was an outstanding silversmith and, more importantly, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet. His invention was at first regarded with scorn and suspicion, but soon the idea caught on; within a matter of months thousands of Cherokees had taught themselves to read and write in their own language. Sequoyah died in Mexico in 1843 while searching for a lost Cherokee tribe believed to have settled there before the Revolution. He is shown here holding a tablet on which the alphabet he devised is written.

Source: Famous Native American Leaders - Dover Press