Sequoyah: Writing Down a Language

Sequoyah Writes Down a Language

1Sequoyah was a Cherokee man who was born in the late 1700s in what is now the state of Tennessee. As a young man, he worked as a silversmith. He made jewelry and other objects out of silver. Sequoyah spoke the Cherokee language, but at that time, there was no way to write it down.

2Sequoyah noticed that some settlers could share ideas by making marks on paper. Someone far away could look at the marks and understand the message. Sequoyah wanted the Cherokee people to be able to do this, too. He decided to create a way to write their language.

3At first, Sequoyah tried to make a different picture for every word. He soon saw that this plan would not work. There were far too many words, and no one could remember thousands of pictures. So he changed his plan. He listened carefully to the sounds that make up Cherokee words. Then he made one symbol for each syllable, or small sound part, in the language.

4The work took Sequoyah many years. In the early 1820s, he shared his finished system with Cherokee leaders. Because each symbol stood for a sound that people already knew, the system was easy to learn. Many people learned to read it quickly. Within a few years, thousands of Cherokee people could read and write in their own language.

5The Cherokee people began to use the new writing in many ways. They wrote letters to family members who lived far away. They printed books, and they started a newspaper with pages in both Cherokee and English. Today, people still use Sequoyah's writing system to read, write, and teach the Cherokee language.