MOONEY] SEQUOYA AND HIS ALPHABET 109 



removed to Kentucky, where Sequoya, then a Baptist i)r('achor, fre- 

 quently visited him and was always recognized by the family as his son.' 



Aside from the fact that the Cherokee acted as allies of the Enji'lish 

 during the war in which Braddock's defeat occurred, and that Se(ju()ya, 

 so far from being a preacher, was not even a Christian, the story con- 

 tains other elements of improbability and appears to be one of those 

 genealogical myths built upon a chance similarity of name. On the 

 other hand, it is certain that Sequoya was born before the date; that 

 Phillips allows. On his mother's side he was of good family in the 

 tribe, his uncle being a chief in Echota." According to personal infor- 

 mation of James Watford, who knew him well, being his second cousin, 

 Setjuoya was probably born a))out the year 1760, and lived as a boy 

 with his mother at Tuskegee town in Tennes.see, just outside of old 

 Fort Loudon. It is quite possible that his white father may have been 

 a soldier of the garrison, one of those lovers for whom the Cherokee 

 women risked their lives during the siege.'' What became of the 

 father is not known, but the mother lived alone with her son. 



The only incident of his boyhood that has come down to us is his 

 presence at Echota during the visit of the Iroquois peace delegation, 

 about the year 1770.' His early years were spent amid the stormy 

 alarms of the Revolution, and as he grew to manhood he devel- 

 oped a considerable mechanical ingenuity, especially in silver work- 

 ing. Like most of his tribe he was also a hunter and fur tradm-. 

 Having nearly reached middle age before the tirst mi.ssion was estab- 

 lished in the Nation, he never attended school and in all his life never 

 learned to speak, read, or write the English language. Neither did 

 he ever abandon his native religion, although from frequent visits to 

 the Moravian mission he became imbued with a friendly feeling 

 toward the new civilization. Of an essentially conteuiplative disposi- 

 tion, he was led 1)\' a chance conversation in ISOU to reflect upon the 

 ability of the white men to communicate thought by means of writing, 

 with the result that he s(>t about devising a similar system for his own 

 people. By a hunting accitlent, which rendered him a crippk' for life, 

 he was fortunately atforded more leisure for study. The preseiu-e of 

 his name, George Cniess, appended to a treaty of 1816, indicates that 

 he was already of some promiiuMice in the Nation, even before the per- 

 fection of his great invcMition. After years of patient and unremitting 

 labor in the face of ridicule. diset)uragement, and i-ept':it('(i failure, he 

 flnali}' evolved the Cherokee syllabary and in 1S21 submitted it to a 

 public test by the leading men of the Nation. By this time, in con- 

 sequence of repeated cessions, the Cherokee had lieen dispossessinl of 

 the country about Echota, and Sequoya was now living at Wilistown, 



'Manuscript letters by Johu Mason Brown, January 17. 18, 22, and February 4, 1889, in archives o£ 



the Bureau of American Kthnology. 

 - McKeniiey and Hall, Indian Tribes, i, p. 15, 1S58. 

 'See page 43. * See number 8y, "The Iroqu^tis wars." 



