[Looking at why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.]

Who is the most noted Cherokee man in history?

Intriguingly, who was his father and where was he born remain questions. The culture did little to aid in tracking.

The Cherokee people, as most Native Americans, at the time of the American Revolution were a matrilineal, polygamous society. The women chose who would father their children and she could divorce freely. Consequently, choice men often had multiple mates. Realistically, this lifestyle was very similar to deer in nature, with which they were familiar. The practice propagated the elite genes.

In the matrilineal society, the mother’s oldest brother was more involved with raising her children than the father, who was a different clan. The women owned the property and dwellings. Land was a gift of the Creator, and no one could own it. Leadership positions were usually subject to the approval of the matriarchs. Because of the inheritance, men seldom married Europeans, since the children would not be citizens to the Nation.

This system set up a clash of cultures. Although totally acceptable and expected in the Native American society, their ladies were sometimes charged with impropriety, by pseudo-moral officials, and were fined for having children outside a government sanctioned marriage. Then life went on. Yes, my far-back grandmothers received harassment. The counter side is these type legal interventions, even in 1730, allow us to trace lineage, where there were no tribal written records.

As we look back, accepted norms and practices must be evaluated in the framework of that time and society.

Arrogant ignorance tries to inject current concepts on history.

The culture determined the destiny of Sequoyah. Numerous stories and speculation surround his possible father and his relationship, but he was not involved in the boy’s upbringing. Sequoyah used the English name George Gist, while later generations spelled their family name as Guess. His father is attributed to a colonial officer, Colonel Nathaniel Gist in a dalliance with Cherokee maid, Wur-Teh Watts, who had four mates.

History is well-aware of the Trail of Tears, but the story begins long before then. Early European settlers over-populated along the Atlantic coast, moving further inland. The encroachment continued to take the Native Americans’ homeland and lives, forcing survivors further west. By 1790, the Cherokee Nation was largely forced from North Carolina, westward across the Appalachian Mountains into what would become Tennessee.

The region was under French control until 1763, when the British were victors in the French and Indian War. Many of the smaller, nearly decimated tribes, such as Cheraw and Catawba, assimilated with the Cherokee in the forced migrations. This relocation included several branches of my Native American maternal family tree.

Sequoyah was born shortly afterward, about 1770, apparently at Tuskegee, Munroe, now Tennessee. Tennessee became a state in 1796. Again, the Native people were forced out. Sequoyah’s clan moved south to Alabama territory, but a large contingent moved south and west across the Mississippi to No Man’s Land in the new Louisiana Purchase. Some continued across the Sabine into Mexico, which later became Texas. Trying to find this group of cousins led to Sequoyah’s death in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico about August 1843.

His clan was in Willstown (Fort Payne), Alabama before 1808. Then, Sequoyah’s uncle and mentor, his mother’s brother, Principal Chief of Chickamauga Cherokee, Young Tassel (John) Watts left his eagle feathers forever.

George (Sequoyah) Gist volunteered to fight during the War of 1812 in Alabama, against the Baton Rouge (Red Stick) Creek nation. He was under the arrogant, abrasive, Indian-fighter Andrew Jackson. Sequoyah had a limp in later life, apparently from a war injury, since the problem likely would have prevented his war service.

He was fur-trader, a skill learned from his mother. He became a talented silversmith in high demand and a blacksmith.

Sequoyah could not read any language and did not know any alphabet. By 1809, before the war, he contemplated the ‘talking leaves’, or written pages, of the European Americans, and realized the power that reading and writing gave to these interlopers. His analysis, intuition, and creativity made him realize he could create a written system for his people.

Sequoyah developed the language, but his friend Rev. Samuel Worcester, the grandfather of Alice Robertson, spread its use. That is another intriguing story.

With no training, teachers, or technology, Sequoyah changed the Native world, not just his tribe. Do not allow lack of formal training to hinder you.

Think about the clash of cultures. What is your dream that you have yet to fulfil? You still can.

Excerpts from our books:

Where Indians, Outlaws & Oilmen Were Real, ISBN: 9781658834643.

No Man’s Land Pioneers, Louisiana’s Wild, Wild West, ISBN: 9781694632128.