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.