Sequoyah Cabin Museum

Wednesday June 4, 2025                          Most Recent Posts:
KOA  Sallisaw, Oklahoma                   Spiro Mounds Archeological Center
                                                            Moving on to Oklahoma & Sequoyah NWR

This was my last day in Sallisaw and I planned to visit Sequoyah Cabin Museum so despite the fact that it was raining, I took my umbrella and set out.

I have always been fascinated by Sequoyah who created a syllabary of 86 symbols to represent the sounds of the Cherokee language.  He  enabled his people to read and write in their own language.  I could never get over my amazement that one man created his people’s written language.  He is referred to as a Native American polymath and neographer.  The latter is a word I didn’t know and means someone who creates new writing systems.  Apparently not many people know the word since google changed it to geographer when I tried to look it up.  Hillarious! 

Before going into the site, I noticed these two license plates in the parking lot.  I just love that these are sovereign Nations.   It’s about time.

Notice the welcome in Cherokee.

First stop:  Visitor Cabin (Visitor Center)

Sequoyah was born around 1770 near Knoxville Tennessee which was in the Cherokee Nation.  He built his cabin in 1829.    After his unexpected death in 1843, his widow Sallie sold the cabin and property to Cherokee George Blair in 1855.  Included in the sale was a pile of logs cut by Sequoyah .  George and his wife Nancy used them to add a room to the original cabin.  Blair died in 1887.  The Blair family remained the owners of the property until 1936 when they deeded the property to the state.  The state removed the Blair addition to return the cabin to its original size.  Its logs were used to build the visitor cabin in use today.

I loved that the Visitor’s Center was in a cabin made of logs over 150 years old.

It’s not a large site but is extremely well done and a great place to spend a morning and then have a picnic lunch IF it’s not raining.

Leaving the Visitor Cabin.

Next on the path was the heroic sized statue of Sequoyah dedicated on June 14, 1986.  It was sculpted by Oklahoma historic employee and noted western artist Fred Olds.  The inscription written in Cherokee translates as “ Lo Great Spirit Sequoyah conceives the Written Word in Cherokee”.

I wished someone had been around to give some perspective for its size.

I wish he’d been looking down at his writing.

The cabin Sequoyah built is housed inside a stone cover protective building constructed over it by the WPA in the 1930’s.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic places and was designated as a Literary landmark on December 21, 1965.  I have never seen anything like this.  A single building built over and around another building.

They also built a stone water tower, restrooms, and a rock wall surrounding the 10 acres.

Before going inside, I walked over to check out the water tower just beyond the cabin.

A windmill pumped well water into a wooden holding tank atop this stone structure.  This provided gravity flow water to all the buildings on the site during the 1930’s through the 1950’s.

I would love to see someone write this script with a pen. It’s really beautiful.  Like Calligraphy.

Sequoyah built this cabin in 1829 and lived in it, when he was not on his frequent travels,  until his death in 1843.

In addition to the house, as you can see on the walls in the picture below there is an absolute wealth of information about Sequoyah, his syllabary, the history and current lives of the Cherokee tribe.

Sequoyah was living in Willstown, Alabama , now Fort Payne,  when he developed the Cherokee syllabary. He completed the syllabary in 1821 after years of work.  He later moved to Arkansas in 1824 and then to Oklahoma in 1829 and built this cabin.

There are several versions of when Sequoyah began working on his syllabary but most say after seeing the “talking leaves” of the soldiers in the war of 1812 in which he served and seeing the advantages the power of the written word gave them, he wanted his people to be able to communicate in their own language and to preserve their own culture.   He had no formal education and was not literate in any language.

It took over 10 years as he attempted to create a character for each word and realized this would be too difficult.  He then created characters to represent syllables.  He finished it in 1821 and taught his daughter Ayoka to read and write in Cherokee.  They used it to communicate.  At one point they were charged with Witchcraft and brought before their town chief for trial.  A group of Cherokee acted as judges.  They separated Sequoyah and Ayoka and had them write messages to one another in syllabary.  These notes convinced the judges that this was speech not witchcraft.  Incredible.

Now everyone wanted to learn.  Within a year 90% of the people both in the Eastern Band, where Sequoyah went to teach them, and in Oklahoma could read and write the syllabary.  This rate of literacy was unheard of at the time and even today.  In 1824, The Cherokee Nation General Council rewarded Sequoyah with a silver metal and a literary pension for his work.  In 1825 the Cherokee Nation adopted the syllabary as the official writing system.

In 4 years all Cherokee Laws were printed in syllabary and in six years the Cherokee Nation built a constitutional government, establishing a Supreme Court  ten years prior to that of  the state of Georgia.  It’s constitution was printed in Cherokee.  In 1828, the Phoenix Constitution, a newspaper, was established and was the first Native American Newspaper and the first bi-lingual newspaper in the United States.  It eventually became the Cherokee Phoenix Newspaper which continues to serve the Cherokee people today. I am just in awe of what this man did for his people.

Attached to the back of the house was Sequoyah’s forge.  He was a blacksmith though I have no idea how he would have had time.

His death is very sad.  He had gone with a few companions to Mexico to locate communities of Cherokee who had moved further west and encourage them to return to the Nation.  He contracted a severe unknown illness and died in August of 1843 near San Fernando de las Rosas Mexico.  His burial site is unknown.  It is estimated that he was in his early 70’s.

Just prior to Sequoyah’s death, the Principal Chief, in 1941,  pushed to have the Cherokee language in local school and university curriculums.  He sent a copy of the syllabary to the university to create a typeset.  In the 1960’s a 4000 piece typeset was created to develop language materials.   

The 1975 Hermes Typewriter is seen below.

By 1984 there was a Cherokee font.   Later Unicode approved the syllabary for its code system which led in 2003 to Apple’s acceptance of the Cherokee font.  By 2010 the syllabary could be used on all Apple devices.  Soon Microsoft and Google followed and now the syllabary can be used on google search, gmail, android devices and microsoft windows.  AMAZING!  

Above is an Apple Iphone7 with text conversation in Cherokee  provided by Cherokee Language Program.  Translation:  
Hi, my name is Phoenix
Hi, my name is Skasdi
How are you?

I was almost overwhelmed at the voluminous amount of information in this small building.  All around the walls.  So really well done.   I assume a museum curator is to be thanked and seriously admired.

The rain had stopped by the time  I left the building to walk around the grounds.

Sequoyah and his family got water for household use from this spring.  Cherokee oral traditions say Sequoyah dug the spring and walled it with native stone to form a shallow well.  It was fed by a continuous flow of water.  Travelers on the nearby military road used it in the 19th century.   During the drought of the 1930’s ranchers used the spring to water livestock after many ponds, creeks and wells went dry.   In 1936-37 the WPA used water from this spring to mix mortar as they built the stone structures and double walled the rock fence surrounding the grounds.    This spring has been here for nearly 200 years.

Before leaving I took time to admire the nearly 90 year old rock walls.

As I left the grounds I stopped by the Visitor’s Cabin and  picked up this T-shirt which I think will look wonderful with my O’Keeffe hat and remind me of this incredible man.   As usual, bad selfie.

I also bought a copy of this postcard which shows the large number of Indian Tribes “removed” to Oklahoma Territory.   Not sure what No Man’s Land or Unassigned Land means but I hope these are now all Sovereign Nations within this state.

I’ve learned so much here including that there is much more to learn.  I wish I had one more day to go to the Cherokee Nation Capital in Tahlequah an hour north of here to visit the Cherokee National History Museum and other sites there. 

About the only thing Sequoyah never was, was chief of his people.  He didn’t want to be.  He was a warrior, a blacksmith, a silversmith, a teacher, a politician, an inventor and obviously a polymath.  Oh yes and a neographer.

                                  There are few people in history I admire more.

Spiro Mounds Archeological Center

Tuesday June 3, 2025                                             Most Recent Posts
KOA                                                 Moving on to Oklahoma and Sequoia NWR
Sallisaw, Oklahoma                                 The RV Museum and the Big Cave

I lived my childhood  in Ohio just north of the Serpent Mound which my school groups visited nearly annually.  I was always fascinated by this earthwork and especially the photos from above.  

Though the Adena People who originally built the Serpent Mound  (381 BCE-44 BCE) were much earlier in time than those of Spiro Mound.  Still, I was particularly interested in stopping here to visit this very famous mound builders site but I had no idea that it was under currently under renovation or that one day would not begin to do to learn about this place and its people.

First I met this Great tree.   Nice picnic spot.

Had someone take this to show the size of the tree which I did hug.

Inside, the Spiro Mounds Archeological visitor center was I hope just a mini version of its up coming self with one main room that appeared from the ceiling to be round with a glass skylight hole in the roof as in a tipi.   Under the skylight was a topo map and along the sides were tables with exhibits and very interesting looking books.  If there had been a chair available, preferably a rocker, I would have sat and sampled the books.  There was a hallway off of the main room with exhibits along the sides.

The book on Looting particularly caught my eye but more on that later.

The mural was wonderful!   The dancers are recreations based on depictions on engraved conch shells found at Spiro.  The scenes portray ceremonies where men danced out stories.  The scene represents the period 1200-1300 A.D.

This map shows the 4 trails, two paved and two gravel that go around the mounds.  Each is about half a  mile long.  Not sure why they didn’t indicate the Arkansas River on the map for reference.     Notice the Visitor Center at the bottom of the map on the right hand side.  The largest mound is Craig Mound.  It was the one looted.

Lots of information on the walls.  The room seen beyond this one has  wonderful information from giant folio books entitled Pre-Columbian Shell Engravings from the Craig Mound at Spiro.  There are multiple volumes on display that they amazingly allow you to page through.

I found the conch shell engravings fascinating in their detail.   I hope they will have some of the actual artifacts on display in the VC when they get the renovations done.  2027 they say.  Though I suspect what they will have are replicas.

I could have spent hours looking through these books and reading the information.  It’s a good thing they didn’t have anywhere to sit or I might have let time get totally away from me.

Taken from Volume 2  

Some of the designs were carved into pottery.

Taken from Volume 3

From Volume 6  The books were larger than they look in these pictures. They would take up most of the table top in Winnona’s dinette and it’s a good sized table.

This is a replica of a piece held in a museum.  This shell pendant would be a symbol of status, rank or religious power.  Often carved from lightning whelk shells, they would be polished carved and/or engraved.     I was frankly astounded at the artistry found here.

This is a canoe motif from a Spiro shell engraving shown on one of the indoor information boards.

I forced myself to head outside before it got hotter.   Starting out on the paved trail  I was able to see three separate groups of Archeologists working.

In this picture I looked back at the Visitor’s Center as I approached the of the archeologists.

The  groups working here are today from the University of Oklahoma.

I assume most of these are students but I don’t want to wander through the grasses to bother them.

In addition to the information in the Visitor’s Center, there were information boards along the paths telling you where you were in the community and what was done here along with drawings and a great deal more information.  Such as:

The people who lived here and built the Spiro Mounds were a Caddoan speaking people of the Mississippian culture which stretched from the central plains to the southeastern coast of the US.   They created the Spiro Mounds between 800 AD and 1450.  Their story is derived from early historic records, artifacts, and data recovered by archeologists as well as from traditions of their descendants the historic Wichita, Kichai and Caddo tribes.   Despite its vandalization,   more art and iconography has been found here than in any other prehistoric site in the United States.

The problem is that the sign boards are so deteriorated that now they are often difficult to impossible to read.   This one was best I saw.   I am really hoping that these are going to be updated or totally replaced with all this same information as part of the renovation but I couldn’t find anyone to assure me that was part of the project.   It’s a terrible shame if it isn’t.  At one point these were excellent.

Not sure how these guys got to have a truck but I didn’t disturb them either.

I learned later that the tipi set up is for sifting baskets which they fill with dirt and hope for treasure.  Sounds like fun doesn’t it?

The third group was right along the path so I did talk to them but it was clear they were busy.

Twelve mounds were built on this 150 acre site, Craig Mound, (a leaders’ burial mound) and the major one looted,  two temple mounds and nine house mounds. 

The mounds themselves were ceremonial and burial sites, with leaders' homes built on top of some.  When the leader died, their homes were burned and  covered with dirt.  Apparently after a time another leader might build there and thus the mounds grew in size.

Only the leaders lived in the Elite Area in the center of the Spiro Mounds.  This was the ceremonial center of the community, the general population, lived in a village surrounding the mounds, likely in dome-shaped houses with pole walls and thatched roofs.

The second most readable sign board shows the Elite City and to the right and below, Craig Mound.   Wish I’d asked why it’s named that.

It’s was hard now to imagine such a powerful nation here.  I found  many of Spiro’s 12 mounds difficult to discern.  Bumps on the landscape covered with trees and brush.  The largest population at Spiro Mounds was estimated to be around 10,000 people at its peak. The site was a major ceremonial center for the Mississippian culture and a hub for trade and religion, supporting this large population from approximately 800 to 1450 A.D.  You have to use your imagination. 

Though the mounds were difficult to pick out especially as it got hotter and I was less willing to investigate, I really enjoyed the wild flowers among the grasses and wondered how these areas were kept during the time of the Spiro people.   Were they mowed?  And if so how?   With paths through the lovely grasses as it is now.

The mowed paths were beautiful to walk.

The saddest story of Spiro Mound is its looting.  Between 1933 and 1935, a group of 6 local men, calling themselves the Pocola Mining Company, used shovels and picks to dig into the mounds.  They destroyed nearly 1/3 of Craig Mound.

  According to a 2021 article by the BBC, the looters found “Hundreds of engraved conch shells, thousands of pearl and shell beads, copper breast plates, large human effigy pipes and piles of brightly coloured blankets and robes.” Newspapers would later call the find an American "King Tut's tomb. Nothing like this had ever been discovered anywhere else in North America.”

Craig Mound 1914 before the looting.

The looters sold the artifacts they found to collectors throughout the world.  The destruction of over 400 burials caused Oklahoma in 1935 to be one of the first states in the nation to pass laws to protect prehistoric heritage.  A good thing but then after local law enforcement closed down the digs, the site was not monitored and the commercial diggers came back.  In August 1935 with three months left on their lease with the land owner, “they broke into the burial chamber and proceeded to plunder it. They removed thousands of objects, making no attempt to document the site or its holdings. Skeletons were tossed carelessly to the side, broken fragments of conch shells piled up like snow, and cedar poles used to build the chamber and carry the dead were burned as firewood.”  
                                                     What a horrible cultural crime.

Craig Mound more recently.  Date unknown.

Pocola Mining Company reported they found a prepared chamber inside the mound with a burial and thousands of artifacts.  They reported alters at the four cardinal points.  These people were never punished because they worked with the owner of the land and the laws were not enacted at that time.   What a crime!  And the Federal Law to protect all sites throughout the country was not enacted until 1979.  Nearly a century later, the incident remains the worst looting of an archeological site in US history.

I wondered where these artifacts ended up and found 65 public museums or university are known to have Spiro artifacts as well as hundreds of private groups and individual collectors.  Large collections sold by the Pocola Mining Company are held by The Smithsonian, the University of Arkansas Museum and the Houston Fine Arts and Natural History Museum.   The largest total collection is at at the University of Oklahoma’s Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.  Now on my bucket list.  

The Arkansas River was the key to the rise of the society of Spiro Mounds.  Not only did it provide an agricultural foundation but enabled extended trade and influence in all directions along major rivers as the maps show.  They were connected with other Mississippian cultures at Etowah, Moundville, Toltec and Cahokia among others.  More places to research and  add to my bucket list.  Spiro's treasures include engraved conch shells from the Florida Keys, copper breastplates from the Great Lakes and beads from the Gulf of California.

Great map for planning other trips to Mississippian Mound Builders sites

I stopped at the book table before leaving to get this picture of Looting Spiro Mounds which  I am now anxious to find and  read.   The decimation of the mounds makes me so angry and sad.

I’ll keep up with how the renovation is going and hopefully plan another trip to New Mexico when I can stop here again and see all that I missed.