Most people have heard of Sequoyah. He was arguably one of the most famous Cherokee. He created a Cherokee alphabet in 1821, allowing the Cherokee language to be recorded and setting the stage for Cherokees to begin to be able to read in their own language.
While working with the 1869 Cherokee West Census, I came across 4 families with that or a version of that surname.
- Spirit Sequoh
- Thomas Sequoh
- John Sequohi
Recognizing the name, it made me wonder if this was the original Sequoyah.
The original Sequoyah was born to a Cherokee mother, a member of the Red Paint Clan, in the village of Tuskegee sometime between 1760 and 1776. The identity of his father has never been clear, but some sources say that it was Nathaniel Gist. Sequoyah took the English name of George Guess also recorded as George Gist, so that is certainly possible. Other various sources said his father was a Scotchman, a fur trader and a half breed.
In 1825, Sequoah walked to the Cherokee lands in Arkansas and Oklahoma, setting up a silvershop there, as we was a silversmith. In 1828 he accompanied a delegation to Washington DC to negotiate for land in the planned Indian Territory.
Sequoah died between 1843 and 1845 on a trip to Mexico seeking the Cherokee who had settled the during the Indian Removal in the 1830s. Sequoah dreamed of a reunited Cherokee Nation.
So the people with that surname in 1869 could not have been the original Sequoah. Sequoah did have children, at least 7, and had at least three wives and perhaps as many as 5. He may have been polygamous as polygamy was accepted in the Cherokee Nation at the time.
Of the Sequoyah families living in Indian Territory in 1869, the families had 9 male children listed. It would be very interesting to see if any of Sequoyah’s descendants, if any are known, or the descendants of these 1869 Sequoyah families, were they to DNA test, would match the Gist family. If so, it would confirm the father of Sequoyah and that these families were his descendants.