The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-20
sEouoYAHs SKELETON

? D. Fancher, real estate and mining property dealer of Snyder, was in Law ton recently and made it a point to tell a reporter of his discovery of an Indian l skeleton near his mining claim last De- 1 cember The discovery was made pub l lic at that time. Mir. Fancher said: Late one evening. as I was coming | in from my work rabbit ran in front of me and disappeared in the crevices of some rocks that had been piled on | the side of a small hill. I followed the | rabbit and in removing the rocks to get at it found the skeleton and the other things have yet in my possession. and no little money will buy them. Among them is silver medal, four inches in 1 diameter, perfectly round, composed of two pieces of solid silver clamped to- gether on the circumference, on one side of which is inscribed in raised form a tomahawk and pipe with their handles crossed, beneath them two clasped hands representing the army and navy | of the United States, on one of which was an American eagle and on the 1 other three buttons to which the strips 1 of color wereattached; beneath them are the words Peace and Friendship; {; on the other side of the medal were the words, arranged around the border like the inscription on dollar, Tn Jeffer- son, President of the United States, A. D. 1S01,' and in the certer of the medal
 was engraven the picture of Jefferson.
 Among the other things I found were a fiintlock rife. seven flints, three baTds of lead (hand-made), bullet molds. and bullet ladels, a frying pan
 buckle, an ax or tomahawk, an old- fashioned English hoe, and some mug sets of copper.
 From all the Investigations I have made am inclined to the opinion that the dead man was none other than Se- quoyah, the chief of the Cherokees,- to whom was given this silver medal by the Government for the purpose of forming an alphabet for the Cherokee language. It is a known fact that on- 1 ly two of these medals were in existence and that one of them was in the pos session of Sequoyah.
 Since making this find a book has
 been sent me from England, giving a
 biography of Sequoyah. Tn this book it is stated that he came into the Wichita Mountains in 1887, and there died, and nothing more was known of him. This biography states that he was crippled in the left leg. This skeleton I found shows that the left leg had been af-
 fected, and was probably shorter than the other. There were three other men who started out with him from St. Louis that year, and they lost their horses in the Wichita Mountains. What became of the other men is unknown. According to this book, Seeuoyah's name in English was George Guess or l Geist.
 Mrs. Keys, who lives at vinita, I. T.. I is a sister of Sequoyah, and her state- nents to me bear out the biography as contained in the book. She says that
 he was born in Georgia, and was fifty-
 i've years of age at the time of his death. He was only quarterbred Chero- kee, but was chief of a tribe. His home was at Tahlequah, I. T. In looking over
 the medal which showed her, she dis
 covered. Sequoyah's picture dimly en- graven just beneath the cross formed by the tomahawk and the pipe. She is | positive that the remains are his, and has made me large offers for the things have in my possession, but it will
 take $500 to get them. Kansas City l Journal.