Sequoyah was born in the Cherokee village of Tuskegee, Tennessee around 1770. Called The Lame One because he walked with a limp, Sequoyah became a blacksmith and silversmith. Then he enlisted in the War of 1812, and as he observed the white soldiers reading and writing letters home, he became obsessed with their "talking leaves". Determined to create a writing system for the Cherokee language, he persisted through many atempts and failures before he finally evolved the 86-character syllabary that does, indeed, capture the Cherokee language in "talking leaves". His accomplishment has assured Sequoyah a place in the history of mans great achievement.