File:Henry_Inman_-_Sequoyah_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Sequoyah
Sign in to saveAlso known as Ssiquoya, George Gist, George Guess
Sequoyah ( ; , , or , , ; 1770 – August 1843), also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native American polymath and neographer of the Cherokee Nation.
Key facts
- Person.native_name
- /
- Person.native_name_lang
- Cherokee
- Person.image
- Henry Inman - Sequoyah - Google Art Project.jpg
- Person.caption
- Portrait of Sequoyah by Henry Inman
- Person.birth_date
- 1770
- Person.birth_place
- Tuskegee, Cherokee Nation(part of modern-day Monroe County, Tennessee)
- Person.death_place
- San Fernando de Rosa, Coahuila, Mexico(near present-day Zaragoza, Coahuila, Mexico)
- Person.other_names
- George Guess, George Gist
- Person.children
- 2
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of death
- Zaragoza Municipality
- Occupation
- trader
- Languages spoken
- Cherokee
- Native language
- Cherokee
- Field of work
- linguistics
- Image
- Sequoyah.jpg
- Residence
- Mexico
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Sequoyah
- date of death
- 1843-08-01
- date of birth
- 1770-00-00
- name in native language
- ᏍᏏᏉᏯ
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~30 min read
Encyclopedic overview
18 sectionsContents
- Early life
- Move to Alabama
- Life after the creation of the syllabary
- Syllabary and Cherokee literacy
- Creation
- Teaching the syllabary
- Use in official documents and print
- Life in Indian Territory
- Final journey and death
- International influence
- Legacy
- Contemporary use of Cherokee
- Namesake honors
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
Sequoyah ( ; , , or , , ; 1770 – August 1843), also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native American polymath and neographer of the Cherokee Nation.
In 1821, Sequoyah completed his Cherokee syllabary, enabling reading and writing in the Cherokee language. One of the first North American Indigenous groups to gain a written language, the Cherokee Nation officially adopted the syllabary in 1825, helping to unify a forcibly divided nation with new ways of communication and a sense of independence. Within a quarter-century, the Cherokee Nation had reached a literacy rate of almost 100%, surpassing that of surrounding European-American settlers.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Sequoyah” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.