07/31/2026
Written of This Place
Friday, July 31
This week we return with words attributed to Sequoyah, spoken of the work that would give written form to the Cherokee language.
“If our people think I am making a fool of myself, you may tell them that what I am doing will not make fools of them. They did not cause me to begin, and they shall not cause me to stop.”
Attributed to Sequoyah in John P. Brown’s Old Frontiers
The precise origin of these words is uncertain. They come to us through a later historical account rather than a surviving statement written or recorded directly by Sequoyah. Tennessee History for Kids notes that John P. Brown’s Old Frontiers attributes the quotation to him. While it cannot be treated with complete certainty, it reflects the resistance Sequoyah faced during the years he worked to create the Cherokee syllabary.
Sequoyah began with the understanding that marks placed upon a page could carry speech. His effort was doubted, and at one point his early work was destroyed. Still, he continued. By 1821, the syllabary had made it possible for Cherokee speakers to read and write their own language through a system created from within the Cherokee world.
The words attributed to him hold close to that persistence. His work was not undertaken because others approved of it, and their doubt would not decide whether it continued. What may have appeared foolish from the outside became one of the most consequential intellectual achievements connected to the Overhill.
Sequoyah was born at Tuskegee, a Cherokee town that once stood near the Little Tennessee River in what is now Monroe County. The town lies beneath the waters of Tellico Reservoir, but his life and work remain closely tied to this landscape.
On Sunday, August 2, the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore will observe Sequoyah Remembrance Day. Sequoyah died in August 1843, although the exact date of his death is not known. The museum has chosen the first Sunday in August as a day to remember his life and the written language he gave his people.
The museum will offer free admission from noon until 4 p.m., with printing press and blacksmithing demonstrations and other activities.
Sequoyah Remembrance Day
Sunday, August 2, 2026
12:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Sequoyah Birthplace Museum
576 Highway 360
Vonore, Tennessee
Event information: https://www.facebook.com/share/1GQUg8am9c/
Source information: Tennessee History for Kids, “Sequoyah,” from the In Search Of history tour.
Image Credit:“Se-Quo-Yah,” hand-colored lithograph by J. T. Bowen, after Charles Bird King. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Public domain.
