This fourth section or part of my research on Sequoyah’s parentage talks about what others researchers have written. My favorite book on the topic is as I have said many times, is C. W. “Dub” West’s “The Mysteries of Sequoyah”. Therefore, I will begin this section with excerpts from Dub’s book.
I know the title of these reports
is The “Paternity” of Sequoyah, his mother’s lineage is up for question as
well. Dub writes a paragraph about Sequoyah’s mother. He says;
“Most authorities indicate that Sequoyah’s
mother was “a Cherokee woman” with inferrences that she was a full blood.
Captain John Stuart makes that definite statement . . .” It should be noted that she is also called a
full blood on the website of the Cherokee Nation.
West
continues; “Jack Kilpatrick says she was
of royal blood, of the family of Matoy and the legendary warrior king Oconostota.
Alice Marriot gives her name the Cherokee of Wut-tee of the Paint Clan whose
brothers were Tah-lo-lee-ska and Tah-ya-ta-hee. Ethan Allen Hitchcock quotes a
Mr. Payne who lived near Sequoyah as saying that Sequoyah’s grandfather on his
mother’s side was part Shawnee. James Mooney gives his mother as being a mixed-blood
Cherokee woman. Traveler Bird indicates that she was a full blood. John B.
Davis states that she belonged to the Paint Clan and that her brother was a
Chief in Echota. This is substantiated by McKinney and Hall”
I know these two brothers, Tahloleeska
and Tahyatahee, were chiefs of the Old Settlers once in Indian Territory. Were
they also chiefs in the Old Cherokee Nation in Echota?
Continuing; “It is a consensus of opinion that Sequoyah’s mother raised him as a
widow, and that she operated a “trading house”. Davis says she never remarried.”
I can’t help but recall that the Nathaniel
Gist I descend from ran “Gist’s Station” and there was a “Gist’s Station’s Camp”
located in Southern Kentucky upon Indian lands in 1775. Indian hunters passed
through that area all the time. They would have traded goods for furs on a
regular basis, just like Sequoyah’s mother did later.
Concerning one of the suspected
brothers of Sequoyah, West adds; “Kilpatrick
says that Tahchee or Chief Dutch was Sequoyah’s half-brother. A number of
historians give Tahchee’s father as Skyugo, a noted Cherokee chief and that he
was born at Turkeytown on the Coosa River. Carolyn Thomas Foreman tells us that
Tahchee and his mother migrated to Arkansas with an Uncle. If this is true, it
is improbable that Sequoyah and Tahchee had the same mother.” I also have a
reference that tells Tahchee’s clan, and it was not the same as Sequoyah’s, so
they couldn’t have been brothers on his mother’s side. It is known that Tahchee
and Sequoyah were close in Arkansas, and in Indian Territory. Perhaps they were
just good friends.
Thus we also have mysteries about
Sequoyah’s brother and his mother. If she was full blood Indian, she WAS NOT A “WATTS”!
Many people call her “Wurteh Watts”. But the Cherokee language has no words that
are supposed to end in the “consonant” sound, so Wu-te makes more sense. Even on
the Cherokee Nation website she is called Wu-te-he. If you look at Sequoyah’s syllabary,
we know each symbol represents a syllable. Look at each one, and see how many
end in a consonant!
West adds one more bit about Sequoyah's mother. He adds; “According to John B.
Davis, it is supposed that his mother died sometime near the beginning of the
19th century, and that he probably married and moved to Will’s
Valley about that time. Davis and Foster also state that Sequoyah took over his
mother’s trading business and went on several long trips, bringing back furs
that he had received in exchange for trade goods.
Sequoyah's Syllabary
Vowels sounds are in "columns", consonant sounds in rows. There are six Cherokee vowels as opposed to 5 in English. Five are the same. The sixth written as "v" is pronounced like the "u" in "us" or "uncle". As you can see, every one of them ends in the "vowel" sound. Beyond this I know nothing of the Syllabary. Find a Cherokee speaker who understands the syllabary for more information about it.Sequoyah’s Father
Statuary Hall in Congress allows
two statues of famous state residents per state. Oklahoma’s two statues are of
Will Rogers, and Sequoyah. On the resolution to accept his statue, it describes
his father; “A German trader by the name
of George Gist, who dealt in contraband articles, and who abandoned his wife
before Sequoyah was born.” Per West; “Mooney
says that is generally conceded that his father was George Gist. McKinney and
Hall, Foster, Starr, and Phillips also subscribe to the George Gist theory.” Many
of the early researchers thought this German trader was Sequoyah’s father. A
major problem with this theory is that there exists no historical documentation
that this man ever existed, outside of Phillip's account.
Grant Foreman is the man who brought
forth the idea that Nathaniel Gist was Sequoyah’s father. Per West, Foreman
said; “Major Gist Blair, who was . . . a
descendant of Nathaniel Gist, stated that Sequoyah was a son of Nathaniel Gist.
“In the bureau of American Ethnology a letter written by John Mason
Brown of the Louisville bar, who was a descendant of Nathaniel Gist, stated
that Sequoyah visited the Gist descendants on his way to or from Washington in
1828. On this occasion, he was looking for his white kin.”
When I read this, I can’t help
but think that it is possible that Sequoyah knew his father’s name, and that it
was “Nathaniel Gist”. He researched it, and found the descendants of a man
named Nathaniel Gist. However, there was another Nathaniel Gist who had passed
away long before. If this is a true story, what if he discovered the descendant
of one of the Nathaniel Gist’s, but he descended from the other?
Jack Kilpatrick wrote that he
didn’t think George Gist or Nathaniel Gist was Sequoyah’s father. He thought
Sequoyah might be full blood Cherokee.
When was Sequoyah Born?
Again, Dub West’s works have proven
to be a God-send. He gives us a pretty good idea as to just when Sequoyah was
born. Let me start by saying that some people have given his date of birth as
about 1760. But think about it. Records of his military service exist. He did serve in
the Creek War 1813-1814. If he was born in 1760, he would have been 53 years
old. He had a lameness in his leg most all his life. Do you really think a 53
year-old partially crippled old man would have served in a war fighting against
twenty year old young Creek Red Stick Warriors? He wouldn’t have stood a
chance. Others place his time of birth closer to 1777. That would have made him
closer to 35 or 36 years old at the time of this war. Which age makes more
sense? He made a trip to Mexico in 1843, where he died. If he was born in 1760,
he would have been 83 years when he started this 500 mile journey, sometimes on
horseback, and sometimes walking. If he were instead born about 1777, he would
have been about 66 years old when making this journey. Which age makes more
sense?
Some of these dates are hard to
swallow. Henderson, Mooney and Goodpasture give his date of birth as around
1760. Had he been born in 1760, he would have been too old to serve in the Creek
War, and it would mean an 83 year old man would have tried to walk from Eastern
Oklahoma to South of the Rio Grande in Northern Mexican. It’s not reasonable.
These guys just made educated
guesses. Kilpatrick puts his birth between 1760 and 1770. Hughes says he was born
sometime between 1764 and 1775.
Now we get to dates that make
more sense. Starr and Phillips say he was born about 1770. Stuart who met him
in 1837 said he was about 60, placing his birth about 1777. Jeremiah Evarts who
met him in Washington D. C. while signing the 1828 treaty said he was about 50
years old. This makes his date of birth about 1778. Marriott gave his birth
date as about the same time as our country, which would be the late 1770’s.
Henry T, Malone stated his birth as 1775. These dates make sense. From 1775 to
just before 1780 are the time frames when OUR Nathaniel Gist had his trading
business up and running.
Again, I am just offering up
evidence. I am not claiming proof of anything.
Harper's Magazine's 1870 Article Examined
Excerpt’s from Grant Foreman’s "Sequoyah"
Harper's Magazine's 1870 Article Examined
In 1885 George Everett Foster
copywrited a book, “Sequoyah, American Cadmus . . .” In it he proclaimed the father
of Sequoyah was a German trader named George Gist. But he wasn’t the first. In an 1870 article
from “Harpers Monthly Magazine”, written by W. A. Phillips.
What do we know about W. A. Phillips? Foster reports the following (p. 26) in “Sequoyah, The American Cadmus”; . . . W. A. Phillips, who portrayed an extended account of Sequoyah for “Harper’s Magazine”, and who was acquainted with the family, and who even had one of Sequoyah’s sons in his regiment during the Civil War, says; “The deserted mother called her babe Se-quo-yah. His fellow clansmen, as he grew up, called him gave him an English name, that of his father, or something like it, and in English he is usually spoken of as George Guess . . .” So we know Phillips was an officer in the Union Army, and that he personally knew some of Sequoyah’s descendants. We also know he thought Sequoyah’s father was named George Guess, “or something like it”.
Phillips account is the original story about Sequoyah’s father. It is often discounted today as a work of fiction. But we must consider it if we are honest researchers with open minds. Here are a few comments about the 1870 Magazine article.
What do we know about W. A. Phillips? Foster reports the following (p. 26) in “Sequoyah, The American Cadmus”; . . . W. A. Phillips, who portrayed an extended account of Sequoyah for “Harper’s Magazine”, and who was acquainted with the family, and who even had one of Sequoyah’s sons in his regiment during the Civil War, says; “The deserted mother called her babe Se-quo-yah. His fellow clansmen, as he grew up, called him gave him an English name, that of his father, or something like it, and in English he is usually spoken of as George Guess . . .” So we know Phillips was an officer in the Union Army, and that he personally knew some of Sequoyah’s descendants. We also know he thought Sequoyah’s father was named George Guess, “or something like it”.
Phillips account is the original story about Sequoyah’s father. It is often discounted today as a work of fiction. But we must consider it if we are honest researchers with open minds. Here are a few comments about the 1870 Magazine article.
P 542 – In the year 1768, a German Peddler named George Gist, left the
settlement of Ebeneezer on the lower Savannah, and entered the Cherokee Nation
by the northern Mountains of Georgia . . .
Our Dutch friend Gist, was, strictly speaking, a contrabandist. He had
too little money or influence to buy a license . . .
Somehow or other he managed to persuade a Cherokee girl to become his
wife . . . her family had no pretention to chieftaincy, but were prominent and
influential . . . some of her brothers were afterwards members of the council .
. . in common with many of the Cherokees of even that early date, she had some
English blood in her veins . . .
Of George Gist’s married life, we have little recorded. It was of very
short duration.
The author goes on to say that
she had a son of this union, Sequoyah. Sequoyah’s father left them, never to
return. His mother raised cattle. Sequoyah had no father image to teach him how
to hunt or go to war.
p. 544 -- Then the writer says; “She contrived to get a petty stock of
goods, and traded with her countrymen. She taught Sequoyah to be a good judge
of furs. He would go on expeditions with the hunters, and select such skins as
he wanted for his mother.”
The author says that Sequoyah
asked half-breed Charles Hicks how to spell his name how to spell his name, and
he wrote George Guess rather that George Gist.
The author states; “Between 1809 and 1821, [the latter of]
which was his 52nd year . . .” Thus by this article he was born
in 1769. He states that these are the years used by Sequoyah to develop his
Sylibary. The next part is an
interesting read; “The rude hieroglyphics
or pictographs of the Indians were essentially different from all written
language. These were rude representations of events, the symbols being chiefly
the totemic devices of the tribes; a few general designs for war, death, travel,
or other common incidents, and strokes for numerals, represented days or events
as they were perpendicular or horizontal. Even the wampum belts were little
more than helps to memory . . . The meagre record could only be read by the
initiated . . . for the Indians only intrusted their history and religion to
their best and ablest men.” . . .
p. 547 “Some narrow-minded ecclesiastics, because Gist would not go
through the routine of a Christian profession after the fashion they
prescribed, have not scrupled to intimidate that he as a Pagan."
The article ends with him making
a trip to Mexico where he died. However rather that saying he was looking for a
band of Cherokee that had gone to Mexico as do other accounts of this journey, the
author says Cherokee was looking at languages of other Indian languages, and
seeking commonalities between them.
The article is an interesting
read. Unfortunately, he never cites the source of
his information. Others have since, looked for this mysterious “George Gist”, a
German trader, said to have been Sequoyah’s father, and there is no record of him in any
historical document. From the fact that we know Phillips was a Union Officer during the Civil War who served in Indian Territory, we can assume that much of the information he obtained about Sequoyah was during this time, and might have come from his descendants or others that had personally known Sequoyah.
Excerpt’s from Grant Foreman’s "Sequoyah"
Quotes from the book are
Italicized. My comments on those quotes aren’t. Historically there have been
two main contenders for the father of Sequoyah. One was a German peddler/trader
probably named George Gist. George Everett Foster subscribed to this belief. Shortly I
will go over his book, “Sequoyah, The American Cadmus and Modern Moses, A
Complete Biography of the Greatest of Redmen”, © 1885, George E. Foster,
Milford, N. H. The other was Nathaniel Gist, a well known figure in American
history. Grant Foreman was a subscriber to the theory that Nathaniel Gist was
Sequoyah’s father. The next section covers excerpts from his book, “Sequoyah”, ©
1938 University of Oklahoma Press.
This implies Sequoyah’s wife Sally was born about 1789. If they married in 1815, she would have been @ 26 years old at the time.
Page 3 – He was born in the Cherokee village of Tuskegee, in Tennessee
near Fort Loudon, on the Tennessee River, about five miles from the sacred town
of Echota.
Page 4 – Foreman mentions – the affidavit of Sequoyah’s widow Sally, to
whom he married in 1815, and who, in 1855 at the age of 66, invoked a record of
her dead husband’s service in support of her claim for bounty land, authorized
by a recent act of Congress.This implies Sequoyah’s wife Sally was born about 1789. If they married in 1815, she would have been @ 26 years old at the time.
Page 4 – In the next year, 1816, Sequoyah is found at the Chickasaw
Council House, and there, under the English name of George Guess, on September
14th, joined with 14 other Cherokees in agreeing to a so-called
treaty with Andrew Jackson and others, by which they were induced to yield to
the United States a large part of their country.
That treaty can be found here. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/che0133.htm
Page 5 – The Cherokee treaty of 1817 provided for the emigration to
Arkansas of such members of the tribe as desired to remove west, and to join
with a thousand of their countrymen who had had previously located there. In
February 1818, the Cherokee agent started 19 flatboats down the Tennessee River
loaded with Cherokee emigrants bound for unknown country on the Arkansas River.
I’d like to know who captained
those flat boats. Remember a friend of our mixed-blood John Gist/Guess was
Jason Cloud, a flat boat captain. But he wasn’t a young man, anymore. Mixed
blood John Brown could also have captained a flat boat.
Recall the record left by Sequoyah’s
grand-daughter in the last section, where she said he went west alone, leaving
his family behind. When did his family cross the Mississippi?
Page 7 -- . . . before 1821 he again returned to the Cherokee Nation
[East] . . . Sequoyah again, in 1822, departed for Arkansas . . .
Page 40 – John Alexander, a merchant of Philadelphia on a business trip
in January 1840, while travelling the Military Road from Fort Gibson to Fort
Smith, stopped along the way to visit Guess . . . his diary . . . yields the following
. . . He has had five wives and twenty children . . . ten dead and ten alive .
. .
Who were those wives and
children?
Page 42 – The following are some passages written by [John Howard] Payne; . . .
Payne was a White man and spoke
no Cherokee at all. Since Sequoyah spoke no English, they could not communicate
without an interpreter.
Page 43 – Mr. Ross came and remained with us.
Page 44 – . . . Before long, poor I seemed entirely forgotten
by the rest of the audience. First one quarter of an hour, then another, and
then another, and no translation came. . . . After interminable conversation
between Guess and the interpreter altogether in Cherokee, Payne was told the Old
man was not interrupted for fear of breaking the thread of recollections.
Page 44 – Within a year of Payne’s visit, General Ethan Allen
Hitchcock, a distinguished Army officer, came to the Cherokee Nation on a tour
of investigation. Here he met and observed Sequoyah . . . in his diary and in a
letter to the Secretary of War he wrote his impressions and information
imparted to him by Chief John Ross and other Cherokee.
Page 45 -- [Speaking of Sequoyah] Mr. Ross told me last night that he
is of mixed blood. That General Taylor of Cincinnati told him in Washington
City some years ago that a Virginian, a Mr. Gist had been sent among the Cherokees
on some mission where he remained for some time and expressed his belief that
the Cherokee Guess was the son of Mr. Gist.
Now this is an interesting story.
John Ross expressed his belief that Nathaniel Gist was the father of Sequoyah
based on a story he’d heard from General Taylor of Cincinnati. What story was
that? I have found it online at http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v015/v015p003.htm
A valuable sidelight is thrown upon the problem dealt with in this
paper by the narration of Gen. James Taylor, of Kentucky, found in the Draper
Collection:
"When I was moving out to Kentucky in the spring of '93 I left my
company some distance before we reached Redstone (now Brownsville). I
understood Col. Gist had arrived with a large number of slaves and was encamped
about a half mile above the creek from which the old fort had taken its name. I
called on Col. Gist at his encampment. I found him sitting under his markee
which, no doubt, had protected him and his brother officers from the storms of
many a cold and dreary night. He was a venerable looking man, I should think
near 60 years of age; stout-framed and about six feet high and of a dark
complexion. It was the first time I had seen him, but, on making myself known
to him, he informed me he was well acquainted with my father and had served, I
think, in the Virginia legislature or in the state convention together, and
perhaps in both.
"While I was with him a good looking youth, who appeared to me
about 16 or 17 years of age, come to the market and was invited in. He was
dressed in home-spun clothes, quite neat and was a fine, tall, well-looking
youth. He appeared to wish to say something to the Colonel. At length he
inquired if he had any business with him or wanted to say anything to him; and
the colonel inquired his name. 'My name is Gist, sir,' said the young lad. 'Aye,'
said the colonel, 'and who is your father?' 'Why, sir,' says he, 'I am told you
are my father.' 'Ah, indeed,' says the colonel, 'and who is your mother?
Betsy—Oh, very likely it may be so then; I was well acquainted with a girl of
that name some years ago when I commanded Redstone fort. The young man appeared
somewhat embarrassed and the colonel appeared somewhat stumped, and I concluded
to take my leave as it might be more agreeable to have their conference alone
on that delicate subject.
So based on General James Taylor’s
story, Chief John Ross believes that Sequoyah is a son to the famous Nathaniel
Gist. There are two readily available flaws with this. ONE is that everyone who
knew Sequoyah said spoke no English. This sixteen or seventeen-year-old youth apparently
spoke fluent English. The second flaw is that this boys mother is named “Betsy”.
NOWHERE is Sequoyah’s mother called “Betsy”.
Page 46 – Mr. Payne says that Gist’s grandfather on his mother’s side
was part Shawnee and that his father was a White man, so that he had very
little Cherokee blood in him. He tells me he is in precisely the same
situation.
Page 75 – Thinking of Sequoyah and his achievements the mind is
bewildered in trying to conceive the background that produced this miracle.
While it is agreed that his mother was an Indian woman of the Cherokee tribe,
conflicting theories of the paternity of Sequoyah have flowed from the pens of
many writers.
The most convincing testimony on this point made contemporaneously with
the living Sequoyah was the previously quoted statement made by General Ethan
Allen Hitchcock while he was in the Cherokee Nation in 1841. Like many others
he was curious about the parentage of this remarkable man. He wrote in his
diary what he heard on the point from the lips of Chief John Ross.
So one of the most compelling
arguments Grant finds saying Nathaniel Gist was Sequoyah’s father was the story
General Ethan Allen Hitchcock tells him. And that story was a story General
James Taylor had told Chief John Ross while he was in Washington DC. And I have
repeated that story above of a boy who spoke perfect English whose mother was
named Betsy. They are saying this boy was Sequoyah. Sequoyah as a boy spoke no
English and his mother was named Wu-te-he, not Betsy. I ALWAYS tell people when
studying genealogy, you HAVE to map a name to a location to a date. These three
HAVE to match. This boy’s name is NOT given, and his mother has the wrong name.
We are missing two of the three variables we need. We can NOT coclude that this
boy was Sequoyah.
Page 76 – The arguments that have been adduced relating to this subject
are too extended to be set out here but they are sufficient in the mind of the
author to establish that the father of Sequoyah could not have been the German
clod whose existence even is not established, but must have been Nathaniel
Gist, progenitor of many other distinguished Americans.
Page 77 – In the Bureau of American Ethnology in Washington is a letter
written by John Mason Brown of the Louisville Bar, a descendant of Nathaniel
Gist, who stated that Sequoyah had visited the Gist descendants in Kentucky,
probably to or from Washington in 1828; on this occasion he was looking for his
White kin. Major Gist Blair told the Author that when he was a youth about 1878
he went to Kentucky to see some of the Gratz relatives, and there learned of
the accepted fact that Sequoyah was the accepted son of Nathaniel Gist.
This, if true, compelling
evidence that Sequoyah thought his father was named “Nathaniel Gist”. But Brown
also said some things that make is work questionable.
In another article published in “Chronicles
of Oklahoma”, we see excerpts of Brown’s statements;
"Only one other man—Nathaniel Gist—has ever been suggested as the father
of Sequoya, and his claim has not received serious consideration on account of
the manner in which it was presented. The story as told by John Mason Brown is
that Nathaniel Gist was captured by the Cherokees at Braddock’s defeat in 1755,
and remained a prisoner with them for six years, during which time he became
the father of Sequoya. On his return to civilization he married a white woman
in Virginia by whom he had other children, and afterwards removed to Kentucky,
where Sequoya, then a Baptist preacher, frequently visited him, and was always
recognized by the family as his son. In reply to this claim Mooney points out
that the Cherokees were allies of the British during the war in which
Braddock’s defeat occurred; and that Sequoya, so far from being a Baptist
preacher, was not even a Christian. For these positive errors, and some other improbabilities
in Brown’s story, he classes it as one of those genealogical myths built on a
chance similarity of name.
So there are holes in the theory
that the well-known Nathaniel Gist was Sequoyah’s father. The actual father of
Sequoyah has not been proven.
Sequoyah,
American Cadmus, by George Everett Foster
In 1885 George Everett Foster
copywrited a book, “Sequoyah, American Cadmus . . .” In it he proclaimed the
father of Sequoyah was a German trader named George Gist.
In the preface to Foster’s
book, he says, speaking of Sequoyah; “A
love of research finally induced me to collect from all possible sources the
leading events of his life.” Since he spoke of sources, I an anxious to discover
them. A couple of pages later, Foster gives us a clue as to the sources he
used; “I am also under obligations to the
writings of Dodges, Drake, Schoolcraft, W. A. Phillips, C. C. Jones, Ramsey and
others.” Had Foster lived today, he would have known that he must list ALL
his references, and properly map each comment in his book to a citation he
discovered in writing his discourse. Unfortunately, they didn’t do that a
hundred and thirty-two years ago, when he wrote it. And the people he might
have talked to are no longer with us. And just who was “Ramsey”? He just list’s
a surname as a source. Who were “the others”? I must be critical of lack of
providing primary sources. But as Isaac Newton said long ago, he saw further
because he stood on the shoulders of giants, meaning previous researchers
provided a foundation for his research. It was people like Foster who opened
the door for others to take an interest in Sequoyah. If we couldn’t see the shortcomings
of previous generations we wouldn’t know that we can do better, but we do, and
we do so because of them. What does Foster tell us of Sequoyah? Let us see.
He reached out to many people
who congratulated him on his desire to write about Sequoyah’s life. Many were
missionaries. They said they’d help in any way they could. But since Sequoyah
was never a convert to Christianity, there is little they could tell Foster
some forty plus years after Sequoyah’s death. One of these congratulatory
messages stands out above the others. It says; “From W. P. Boudinot, Executive Secretary, I shall take great pleasure
in giving you what information I can in relation to your subject at the
direction of Principle Chief, D. W. Bushyhead. Sequoyah’s invention made him a
hero with his people and he now occupies among the Cherokees, by far the
highest place among the celebrities of the Red Race. It is well that the
American public should, if possible, be given a correct idea of Indian life,
which varies of curse, in different localities.” So it is possible that he
obtained some of his information from the Cherokee.
But most of the
congratulatory comments came from Missionary sources. Here is a sad commentary
on how they thought of American Indians; “Reverend
Timothy Hill, Supt. of Presbyterian Missions in the Indian Territory, writes; I
am glad that your attention is called to Sequoyah, for he is one of the most
remarkable men of the present century.” . . . after praising Sequoyah, Rev. Hill reverts to
the inevitable conclusions of the thinking of the day; “As matters are now, the Cherokee language itself must, in the nature
of things, soon give place to the English, and Sequoyah’s alphabet and Sequoyah’s
people will no longer be separated from the great mass of the American people, but
blend into one, and thus fade away.” When the bulk of your information is
derived from sources such as this, how reliable is that information? But I am
not just discussing Foster’s work. The general attitude of ALL Americans of
earlier era’s was similar. They’ll speak of genocide as the inevitable end of
things, and not even realize that this Christian faith they profess to believe
in should oppose that inevitable end.
What does Foster say?
In the first chapter of his
book Foster talks of the founding of Georgia by Oglethorpe in the 1730s. He
tells of German immigrants from Salzburg. Because of religions wars in Europe
between Lutherans and Catholics, many Germans immigrated to the newly
established colony of Georgia, and founded a community called Ebeneezer. A son
was born to a family in that community and his name was George Gist. Foster
comments, “by some authorities called “GisB”.
With my keyboard and the fonts I presently have installed, I can not accurately
create the letter from the German alphabet. I have asked people who speak
German, and was told this letter makes a “long s sound”, or “sssss”. This makes
it sound as though other people told him this story about a young German boy.
In the book, there are times when he calls him a Dutch boy. Salzburg is in
Austria, but they also speak German and all Germanic peoples are sometimes
called “Deutsch”. Immediately I think of a man often called Sequoyah’s half-brother,
known as Datsi, Tatsi, Captain William Dutch, and Tahchee. I noticed a record
of him that said he was NOT of the same clan as Sequoyah – meaning they had
different mothers. In a book about the Moravian missionaries near
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I noticed a comment saying the Indians called
these settlers “Datsi” meaning Dutch, or German. Were Sequoyah and Captain Dutch
half-brothers on their father’s side? I have no idea! It is a far-fetched idea!
But as a researcher, I have to mention the possibility. I’d be a poor
researcher if I didn’t.
Foster tells pretty much the
same story as is told in Harper’s Magazine in 1870, fifteen years earlier. He
does add a little something however. Foster says on page 20; “But Gist soon wearied of Indian life, . . .
and one night suddenly gathered his effects and he went away. He never
returned, nor is there any record that he was ever heard of more.” Foster
mentions that Gist went to live among the Cherokee in 1768, just as did the
account in Harper’s Magazine. But Foster says that one day he just left, and no
one ever heard of him after that. A lone white man alone wondering through the
Cherokee Nation? Not a wise choice of action. If this is a true story, well he
was probably killed. Oh but there was a Nathaniel Gist killed in 1780. Hmmm . .
.
Per Foster, Sequoyah was born
in 1770. In an interesting note, on page 26, he added; “Authorities differ on the naming of Sequoyah. Reverend C. C. Torrey,
for many years a missionary among the Cherokees, in a personal letter writes
us, that it was not given until after the invention of the alphabet, and had
reference to “guessing it out”. But W. A. Phillips, who prepared an extended
account of Sequoyah for Harper’s Magazine, and who was acquainted with the
family, and even had one of Sequoyah’s son’s in his regiment during the Civil War,
says; “The deserted mother called her baby boy Sequoyah. His fellow clansmen,
as he grew up, gave him an English name, that of his father, or something like
it.” But why would Cherokee boys call him by an English name? I have a hard time with that.
The middle of the book are a
lot of stories and such and it is an interesting read -- some of it has nothing
to do with Sequoyah. He talks about some Cherokee history, and talks much about
Sequoyah every once in a while, but sheds little light as to his paternity
after this point in the book.
Has Foster convinced me
Sequoyah’s father was a German peddler named George Gist? No. But I’m not
convinced that his father was named Nathaniel Gist, either, and I have talked of both
the men named Nathaniel Gist, both the famous one, and my own ancestor.
Evidence exists for all three, but there is proof for none of them. I think my ancestor is just as likely as the other two. This is all I've ever said, and all I intended to imply.
Early on in "Part 1" I said I thought this project would take a year or more. well, it took three weeks. :). Once started, I couldn't put it down. And I might still tweak it, a little oil here, a little paint there. But for the most part -- I'm done.
Early on in "Part 1" I said I thought this project would take a year or more. well, it took three weeks. :). Once started, I couldn't put it down. And I might still tweak it, a little oil here, a little paint there. But for the most part -- I'm done.
I am a researcher too, and this might help answer your question. Sequoyah’s mother’s full name was Wurteh Elizabeth (Watts) Benge ... https://www.myheritage.com/names/wurteh_watts
ReplyDeletehttps://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Elizabeth_Watts_(46)
https://www.ancestry.com.au/genealogy/records/anna-benge-24-22512jb?geo_a=r&geo_s=au&geo_t=au&geo_v=2.0.0&o_iid=41020&o_lid=41020&o_sch=Web+Property
Also, read the comment of a direct descendant named Kimberly here ...
https://thejamesscrolls.blogspot.com/2009/03/indian-trail-from-amatoya-moytoy-to-my.html?showComment=1485276522496&m=1#c7613185331575946409
NO IT WASN'T!! She was Wu-Te-He, PERIOD. No Cherokee word ends in a vowel sound. She was full blood, meaning she wasn't a Watts! Records have a Cherokee surnamed Watts and state him as her cousin. BAD genealogists therefore concluded she was mixed blood, too. EVERY record written by a Cherokee mentioning her says she was a full blood.
Deletehttps://vancehawkins.blogspot.com/2017/06/who-were-sequoyahs-mothers-people-after.html
DeleteShe was NOT known as "Elizabeth". The Nathaniel Gist in Russell County, Virginia was MY DIRECT ancestor, proven by DNA testing. He was first cousin to the man suspected of being Sequoyah's father. He died on Oct 8, 1780 at Kings Mountain. He and his brother Richard each had sons named "Nathaniel". Nathaniel b. 1736's father was ALSO named Nathaniel, b. 1707. Nathaniel b. 1707 had a brother named Christopher Gist. THIS Christopher ALSO had a son named Nathaniel. It was Christopher's son named Nathaniel who is sometimes cited as Sequoyah's father, but this is NOT proven. Christopher died of Small Pox in 1759 and this epidemic also killed half of the Catawba Nation at that time. So many people get these diffferent Nathaniel Gist's all mixed up. You cite sources that have done that and they are not accurate. I have read every book, LITERALLY, written about Sequoyah -- and I can not claim him as my ancestor. I can say we are probably related to him, but probably do NOT descend from him.
Delete