Sequoyah and His Talking Leaves

Indians were long fascinated by the “talking leaves” of the white settlers which allowed them to communicate across vast distances.  In 1821, Sequoyah, known also by the English name of George Guess or Gist, gave to the Cherokees their own talking leaves.  Completely self-taught, a silver-smith by trade, he devised an 86 letter alphabet representing each syllable in the Cherokee language.  Within a few years, the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Indian newspaper,  was being published using Sequoyah’s alphabet.  Sequoyah, through perseverance, overcame initial resistance, and his alphabet was adopted by the various branches of the Cherokee people and rescued the Cherokee language from the oblivion that awaited so many Indian tongues.