Sequoyah (ᏍᏏᏆᏱ Ssiquaya in language cherokee), also known under the name of George Guess , Guest or Gist , born in 1767 (approximately), dead in July or August 1843, inventive goldsmith cherokee of the alphabet cherokee. The name Sequoyah or Sikwâ' yǐ east seems T it derived from the word Cherokee siqua which means “Porc”. That is either a reference to a malformation during childhood or with a later wound.

Its name was given to a tree, the Séquoia (also known under the name of wellingtonia). This dedication was made by the Austrian botanist Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher.

The first part of its life is very badly known. According to the authors, its birth date is placed between 1760 and 1776. Its birthplace is not less obscure: the Tennessee, the Georgia, the North Carolina or the Alabama were quoted. His/her mother is cherokee but it seems that his/her father is English or mongrel. Some affirm that it would have made trade of furs of others which he was the son of Christopher Gist, a Scout of George Washington.

James Mooney, anthropologist and historian of the people Cherokee indicates that Sequoyah would have lived its first years with his/her mother in the village of Tuskegee (Tennessee). At all events, he does not speak English, which could be an index that him and his/her mother was given up by the father. On a date unknown, but former to 1809, it settles in Wills Valley, in Alabama, as a goldsmith. It is possible that it took share with the civil war which tears the Creek in 1813-1814. If it were handicapped, it is not very probable that it would have fought, but some historians suppose that its incapacity was in fact the result of a wound of war.

As a goldsmith, Sequoyah is in contact with the white population. In 1809 it attends the installation of a printing works actuated by white, fallen after a plundering in the hands from Cherokees. Persuaded that the white owe their power with the fact of knowing to read and write, he invents a Alphabet making it possible to transcribe the 86 Syllabe S which the dialect cherokee comprises. Sequoyah re-uses for that the Latin lead letters found in printing works, sometimes by reversing them on the side, or while completely placing them at back. This invention represents for him 12 years of work. After some resistances, the alphabet is essential in the nation cherokee which adopts it in an official way in 1825.

Dice 1828 partially appears the first newspaper in language cherokee, the “ Cherokee Phoenix ”. Other newspapers follow then which use this alphabet, still used nowadays. This creation is one of the intellectual achievements most impressive on behalf of a man alone.

Thereafter, while continuing to diffuse its alphabet, Sequoyah undertakes the design of a universal alphabet to all the Amerindian tribes and works to join together Cherokees dispersed. He dies during a voyage to the Mexico.

The name of Sequoyah was given to a district Oklahoma. Lastly, in the Years 1920, a gathering of five tribes works out a constitution project for a State which would have been located on the territory of Oklahoma and would have borne the name of “State de Sequoyah”.

Bonds

• Invention of the Cherokee alphabet published in the Cherokee Phoenix
• life and the work of Sequoyah; '' Chronicles off Oklahoma ''
• the father of Sequoyah: Nathaniel Gist; '' Chronicles off Oklahoma ''
• Sequoyah from Tiro Typeworks
• Sequoyah (aka George Gist), notable of Georgia of north
• the site of the nation Cherokee
• the typographical police force Cherokee official