The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-08
rs THE MYsrSRY soAvEDr

IS THE MYSTERY SoAvEDP
 A somewhat queer story, connecting the present with the past of more than three score years ago. recently appeared in The Cherokee q. T) Advocate. the main part of which follows:
 A farmer named Francher, in crossing snyasr hs %oppsSins % ssSUs es posu fsG% af human being who is supposed to have been killed by Indians about a century ago. The bones had been quite well pre- served but showed that they. had laid near the human remains were the irons of a flint lock rife. a pair of bullet moulds three bars of lead and Jefferson medal, with the date 1891 on it. When nation he was supposed to have gone south or west. With him he took an old lint lock rifle and was the proud posses sor of President Jefferson medal bear learned of the end, of sequoyah. where he sojourned, how long he lived, or how he passed to the great beyond. all is clouded in mystery. May not these Snyder be those of the noted and revered originator of the Cherokee alphabet?
 sequoyah. or George Guess. as some of our readers will remember. was a Chero- kee Indian. raised in Georgia, who gave to the world the only written language possessed by any Indian tribe on the continent. With little education and without any help he devised and perfect ed an alphabet composed of eighty-five characters. each representing sound in the Cherokee language. He has justly been called "the Indian Cadmus," for his alphabet was favorably received and adopted by his people. Many books, pamphlets and newspapers have been printed in it. and The Cherokee Advocate is now printed partly in English and partly in Cherokee.
 When the Indians were deported from Georgia in 1Sss Sequoyah went with them, or before them. In 1si3 hearing that there were several scattered bands of his people in Mexico he made journey there with the purpose of gathering them together and uniting them with others in Indian Territory. He was unsuccessful and being old, worn out and destitute, he was unable to return to his home. In- dian agent Butler, hearing of Sequoyahs condition made an appeal to the govern ment for funds to help the old man back ting 800 which was placed in the hRhds of another Cherokee named oo-noo!leh. who started to Mexico on his mission, but on the way he met a party of Chero- kees who told him that the old man died in July of that year 1sss) and was buried at San Fernandino.
 This Is the historical, or, rather, tradi- tional account of Sequoyah's end, but. there was always more or less of mystery about it. The Cherokees who gave the information to Oo-noo-leh doubtless heard 1t from the Mexicans, or from some of the sxpatriated members of the nation in Mexico, and it Is extremely doubtful if anything definite was ever known about the end of the talented Sequoyah. In connection with the reported find mem toned in the article copied above, we have seen letter from Miss Lucy Keys, of Woodley, in the Cherokee Nation, who declares that she is convinced that the remains found 'are those of the long, lost sequoyah."
 It would be singular if these remains should be proven those of one whose death has always been a mystery. Of course the impression of the alleged finder that the remains found are those of a man killed by Indians about a century ago" is not against the theory of Miss Keys, for farmer would not be an expert at determining the age of human remains
 unless they had been accompanied by
 something which would fix the date posi-
 lively. Neither Is there the mystery
 about sequoyah's latter days that the
 above copied extract from The Advocate
 would indicate. His life, up to his depart
 ure for Mexico in 1s4S, when he was SUD-
 posed to be nearly 75 years old, was well
 known to his contemporaries and to the
 government of the United States. Per.
 haps the last mystery connected with hin may now be settled