SEQUOYA 1770 1843 AMERICAN INDIAN SCHOLAR SEQUOYA 1770 1843 AMERICAN INDIANS EDUCATION AMERICAN CULTURE SEQUOYA WAS BORN IN A SMALL CHEROKEE INDIAN VILLAGE IN PRESENT DAY TENNESSEE HE TRAINED AS A SILVERSMITH BEFORE JOINING THE U.S ARMY IN 1813 HE SERVED IN A CHEROKEE REGIMENT AND FOUGHT IN THE CREEK WAR UNDER GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON ABOUT 1809 SEQUOYA BEGAN DEVELOPING A WRITING SYSTEM FOR THE CHEROKEE LANGUAGE HE BELIEVED THAT HAVING A WRITTEN LANGUAGE WOULD LEAD TO GREATER FREEDOM FOR THE CHEROKEE THE PROJECT TO INVENT A CHEROKEE WRITING SYSTEM TOOK SEQUOYA ABOUT 12 YEARS TO COMPLETE USING CHARACTERS FROM GREEK ROMAN AND HEBREW ALPHABETS SEQUOYA DEVELOPED AN ALPHABET WITH 86 CHARACTERS THERE WAS ONE CHARACTER FOR EACH SYLLABLE IN THE CHEROKEE LANGUAGE SEQUOYA FINISHED HIS PROJECT IN 1821 BECOMING THE FIRST PERSON TO DEVELOP AN ENTIRE WRITING SYSTEM COMPLETELY ON HIS OWN THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE QUICKLY BECAME POPULAR WITH THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE SOON THE CHEROKEE HAD ADOPTED A WRITTEN CONSTITUTION AND WERE PUBLISHING THE CHEROKEE PHOENIX A NEWSPAPER IN THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE BY THE LATE 1820S THE CHEROKEE HAD A HIGH LITERACY RATE SEQUOYA LATER BECAME A LEADER OF THE CHEROKEE IN INDIAN TERRITORY
