Sequoyah

Sequoyah (c. 1770-1843) was a Cherokee silversmith who single-handedly created a written syllabary for the Cherokee language between roughly 1809 and 1821, becoming one of the very few individuals in recorded history known to have invented an effective writing system without already being literate in another one. His eighty-six character syllabary, each symbol representing a spoken syllable, could be learned by fluent Cherokee speakers within days, and it spread so rapidly after adoption by the Cherokee National Council in 1825 that the Cherokee Nation achieved a literacy rate exceeding that of surrounding white settler communities within a few years. The syllabary allowed publication of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper published by Native Americans in the United States, and it gave the Cherokee Nation a documentary and legal tool it used, ultimately without success, in its resistance to removal during the Trail of Tears.