For more than a dozen years, he worked to create written Cherokee, even after his papers were burned by his wife and his tribe considered killing him for witchcraft. In 1821, he finally unveiled the syllabary which encoded the Cherokee language into 85 symbols, each one standing for a syllable.

He taught the system to his nine-year-old daughter and they demonstrated it to the village elders. Sequoyah stood on one side of the village square and his daughter at the other, out of earshot. The elders instructed Sequoyah to write a phrase of their choosing, then carried his “talking leaves” to his daughter. To the surprise of the elders, she repeated his written instructions. Within months, thousands of Cherokee became literate in their own language. By 1928, the Cherokee Phoenix was printed in English and Cherokee. It was the first Indian newspaper ever published.

Sequoyah taught his syllabary and encouraged its use among the far-flung members of his tribe. He died in Mexico while attempting to contact fellow Cherokees who had moved to avoid the advancing whites.

Sequoia’s achievements earned awards by the Cherokee Nation, the U.S. Congress, and various states. There are monuments, parks, and schools named for him in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, and other states. One of the political districts in the Cherokee Nation was named after him (and survives as Sequoyah County in Oklahoma). The soaring Sequoia redwood trees in California were named for him, and his statue sits in the National Capitol.