Summary: Francis Flavin, historian at the U.S. Department of the Interior, discusses a portrait of Sequoyah by Henry Inman. Sequoyah, the son of a Cherokee chief's daughter and a fur trader from Virginia, was a warrior and hunter and, some say, a silversmith. For twelve years he worked to devise a method of writing for the Cherokee language. His syllabary of eighty-five symbols, representing vowel and consonant sounds, was approved by the Cherokee chiefs in 1821, and the simple utilitarian system made possible a rapid spread of literacy throughout the Cherokee nation. Medicine men set down ceremonies for healing, divination, war, and traditional ball games; missionaries translated hymns and the New Testament into the native language; and in 1828 the Cherokee Phoenix, a weekly bilingual newspaper, began publication at New Echota, Georgia. This portrait of Sequoyah by artist Henry Inman, is on display in the "American Origins" exhibition on the museum's first floor. Recorded at NPG, November 11, 2008. Image info: Sequoyah / Henry Inman, c. 1830 / Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
