On Dec. 27, 1980, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 19-cent stamp honoring Sequoyah, inventor of the Cherokee syllabary. Official first day of issue ceremonies were held Tahlequah, Oklahoma (which was once served as capital of the Western Cherokee Nation). [Click here to view first day covers of the Sequoyah stamp.]The stamp was part of the Postal Services "Great Americans" series of definitive stamps. Other Georgians honored in that series are Abraham Baldwin, Margaret Mitchell, and Richard Russell.

Sequoyah, who also had the white name of George Guess (though he could speak no English), is believed to have been born around 1773 in the portion of the Cherokee Nation that fell in Georgia. He devised a set of written characters and symbols that could be used to represent spoken syllables in the Cherokee language. His syllabary made possible a written constitution and newspaper -- the Cherokee Phoenix -- for the Cherokees before their forced removal to Oklahoma in 1838 in what was known as the Trail of Tears. Realizing that removal was inevitable, Sequoyah joined a group of Cherokees that migrated to Arkansas in 1822. Sequoyah died near San Fernando, Mexico in 1843.

Go to Georgia on Stamps page

Go to Cherokee Indians page