Sequoyah or George Guess, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet,
removed to the country west of the Mississippi long anterior to the
treaty of 1835,[481] and was for several years one of the national
council of the Western Cherokees.
In the year 1843 he left his home for Mexico in quest of several
scattered bands of Cherokees who had wandered off to that distant
region, and whom it was his intention to collect together with a view
to inducing them to return and become again united with their friends
and kindred.
He did not meet with the success anticipated. Being quite aged, and
becoming worn out and destitute, he was unable without assistance
to make the return trip to his home. Agent Butler, learning of his
condition, reported the fact to the Indian Department[482] and asked
that sufficient funds be placed at his disposal for the purpose of
sending messengers to bring the old man back. Two hundred dollars
were authorized[483] to be expended for the purpose, and Oo-no-leh,
a Cherokee, was sent on the errand of mercy, but upon reaching Red
River he encountered a party of Cherokees from Mexico who advised him
that Guess had died in the preceding July, and that his remains were
interred at San Fernando.[484]