Because of the simplicity of Sequoyah's alphabet system, many Tsalagi became literate in a short time. In 1827, the Cherokee Phoenix - Tsa La Gi lehisanunhi - was established. Funded by the Cherokee Council, this first Native American newspaper was published in New Echota, Georgia. Elias Boudinot was the first editor and Reverend Samuel Worcester, a missionary, was director. On February 21, 1828, the first issue of the paper was printed. In time, other works including the Holy Bible would be printed in Sequoyah's syllabary.
Sequoyah moved westward shortly after the publication of the Phoenix. He lived first in Arkansas and then in Oklahoma. Sequoyah was already residing in Oklahoma when Chief John Ross led the Tsalagi to the territory on the infamous Trail of Tears.
In 1842, Sequoyah was no longer a young man. Although his age cannot be exactly determined, he was probably in his mid-sixties. He set out to find a band of Tsalagi who had left traditional tribal homelands in the southeastern United States to reunite them with their nation. Sequoyah discovered them living in Mexico, but the strain of the journey was too much. In 1843, Sequoyah died in Mexico in the service of the Tsalagi people.
When Sequoyah created the Tsalagi alphabet, he settled once and for all the old issue of the intellectual capacity of Native Americans. Not only did he create a writing system from scratch, he created one that was at once so simple and utilitarian that virtually an entire nation became literate in slightly more than a year. Sequoyah was a warrior and a statesman, but above that, he was a thinker. It is only just that numerous elementary and high schools across the nation are named in honor of this brilliant Tsalagi leader.
(borrowed from http://members.tripod.com/~RFester/tsala...
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