Charles Rhodamer
The guest speaker for the April meeting of the Judge David Campbell DAR chapter meeting was Charles Rhodamer, manager and director the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. Mr. Rhodamer spoke about Sequoyah’s development of a writing system using symbols for the sounds of each syllable in the Cherokee language.
This written form of communication is called a syllabary. Sequoyah identified 86 separate sound and created a symbol to represent each sound. Thus, to read the written Cherokee word, one simply puts the syllables together to sound out the word. It is the only language of its type. Perhaps, the most amazing fact is that Sequoyah did not have a formal education and was not exposed to written language prior to developing the syllabary.
Mr. Rhodamer also spoke about Sequoyah's life. Born in an Indian village which is now under Tellico Lake near Vonore, Tn., the best guess of when Sequoyah was born is 1776. His father was a fur trader of European dissent. Sequoyah means ‘pig’s foot,’ although his given name was George Gish. The Cherokee name was given either because of a birth defect or after an injury that caused a life-long limp. He was raised in the traditional Cherokee life by his mother since his father most likely never returned to see his son. Sequoyah later did visit his English family's home, but after his father’s death.
The Sequoia Birthday Place Museum is in Vonore on U.S. 411 and tells the history of the Cherokees through murals and displays which depict family life, customs, beliefs, and the sadness of the Trail of Tears when they were forced to go to Oklahoma in the 1830s. For more information on the museum, visit www.sequoyahmuseum.org/. The gift shop at the museum caries an assortment of books about Sequoyah’s life.