Sequoyah By: Justine Fontes

Introduction

AA man named Sequoyah created a Cherokee alphabet for his people.  Some letters from the Cherokee alphabet make different sounds than our alphabet.

Young Sequoyah

IIn 1773 a woman gave birth to a boy named Sequoyah. TThey lived in Taskigi of Tennessee in the Smoky Mountains. MMen from the village played games and as a boy, he hunted and fished with the men. TThe United States was growing when Sequoyah was young.

 Native Americans and settlers had to sign treaties.  Sequoyah was worried that the Cherokee could not hold onto their lands.  Sequoyah learned how to melt silver and he moved to Georgia.

 Someone asked Sequoyah if he could sign some work.  Sequoyah learned how to write his name in English.  Sequoyah drew pictures of the words he knew.

Sequoyah’s Gift

 When Sequoyah got married, and had children his wife didn’t know why he cared about the Cherokee language so much.  In 1812 war began and Sequoyah joined the army where he began to write letters to his family.  When Sequoyah came home, he found out all of his scrolls had been burned by his wife. He started to think he had to work on the farm, but instead he built a cabin in the woods and started doing his writing again.

 He decided he’d make a new Cherokee language based on the sounds by putting the correct sounds in the right order creating any word.  Sequoyah tried every sound that made the Cherokee language,and spent more time working at his cabin with his child Ayoka.  In 1812 Sequoyah finished his alphabet, and made a symbol that only Ayoka liked.  Sequoyah’s people were in trouble and the Cherokee nation was losing land.

The Tribal Council

 People don’t know what happened at Tribal Council, but people think Ayoka got her father’s alphabet and wrote what the chiefs had said.  From 1821 to 1822 Sequoyah went to Cherokee towns and taught people to read and write.  People used the alphabet to write down things about their culture.  Sequoyah and his family moved to Arkansas. There he sold salt,and did some mining. In 1824 Tribal Council gave Sequoyah a silver medal in honor of his work.

Oklahoma

 The Cherokee were a peaceful nation.  They were skilled farmers.  In 1828 the U.S. government set aside territory in unsettled land that is now Oklahoma.  The Cherokee nation published the first Native American newspaper, “The Cherokee Phoenix”.  Despite this, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act the next year. SSequoyah moved to Oklahoma.

 The U.S. Army sent troops to take the Cherokee people to Oklahoma.  Over 15,000 Cherokee people started a 1,200 trip that was very dangerous.  4,000 Cherokee people died.  In Oklahoma the Cherokee people started public schools.

Conclusion

 In 1842 Sequoyah went to Mexico, and visited some people who had not heard his alphabet yet.  When he was in Mexico he died, and no one knows where he was buried.