Sequoyah never stopped trying to bring his people together. In 1842, he heard that one band of Cherokee people had ended up in northern Mexico. He was determined to bring them back together with the rest of the nation. Even though he was not well, he made the long trip down through Texas accompanied by Tessee and six or seven other Cherokees. He died somewhere south of the Mexican town of San Cranto and was buried in an unmarked grave.

Sequoyah’s life ended, but the legacy of his syllabary and the pride it inspired in his Cherokee people still lives on. Although English is today the primary language of the Cherokee Nation, Sequoyah’s syllabary is still preserved and taught to each new generation. As long as there are Cherokee people, I have been told, Sequoyah’s talking leaves will continue to speak.

Sequoyah’s
Cherokee Syllabary

CHEROKEE WORDS:

Ah-hey: an exclamation

Ani-tsa-guhi: the bears, Bear People

Ani-tsa-la-gi: real Cherokee

Ani-yonega: white people

Ani-yunwiya: “Principal People,” the traditional Cherokee name for themselves

A-tsu-ta: my son

Awi Usdi: the little white deer, the leader of the animals

Chunkey: game played with a rolled stone and poles

Echota: the Peace Town that was the former capital of the Cherokee Nation

Edoda: father

Etsi: mother

Gah-gay-you-ee: I love you

Gi-li: dog

Ha-ha: no

Ha-wa: you’re right, a word of agreement

Losi: Lucy

Madi: Maddie

Meli: Mary

O-gi-na-li: my friend

O-gi-naw-lee: Are you home?

O-s-da-du: it is okay, it is fine

Osgutan-uhi: pine tree

Osiyo and Siyo : hello

Sa-lo-li: squirrel

Sauh: snorting sound made by the deer

Taskigee (Also spelled Tahs-kee-gee) : important Cherokee town on the Little Tennessee River that was burned by the white people

Tla: dismissive exclamation

Tlah-huh: no

Tsa-la-gi: the name that became Cherokee, probably from a Choctaw word meaning “cave dwellers”

Tsi-s-qua: bird

Tsi-yu: tulip poplar tree

Tsu-la: fox

Ukten: a water monster

U-le-la-nu-go: “Amazing Grace” (the hymn)

Une’-lahun’-ne: the sun

U-u (or v-v): yes

Wado: thank you

Wado agi etsi: thank you, my mother

Wa-heh: an exclamation

We-sa: cat

Ye-la-si-di: knife

FURTHER READING

“The Cherokees revere the memory of Sequoyah as the greatest Cherokee that ever lived. . . .” That is how Jack F. and Anna G. Kilpatrick expressed it in their collection of folktales of the Oklahoma Cherokee, Friends of Thunder.