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The Big Tree of California Known as the ‘Big Tree’ to the indigenous people of California, the massive red barked tree was discovered by the white man in 1852. At that time, its naming by Lindley, an Englishman, as ‘Wellingtonia Gigantea’ aroused deep resentment among the Americans with whom England had been at war in 1812. They naturally preferred the name ‘Washingtonia’. It was a notable Austrian botanist Endlicher who established the genus Sequoia in 1847 when he named the Coastal Redwood ‘Sequoia sempervirens. It is believed he derived the name from that of the Cherokee Indian Sequoyah. Sequoyah was born in the Southern Appalachians. Whilst hunting as a young man, he had an accident that left him crippled. Without instruction or aid he produced his own bellows and tools and became a silversmith of renown. His reputation spread and the tribal elders came to seek his advice in Council. Many of the silver objects he sculpted survive today as treasures of the Cherokee. Over time, Sequoyah decided that the apparent superiority of the white man rested on his ability to read and write. Thought by most Indians to be sorcery, he understood that it was an ability that could be learnt. Every treaty made by Washington was broken and this treachery resulted in the loss of their land. Sequoyah became aware that the pen was mightier than the sword. Aged 49, he became a recluse and after twelve years had developed a Cherokee alphabet. It had eighty-five characters and it worked. Sequoia had achieved a means of communication that had taken other civilizations thousands of years to accomplish. The whole Cherokee nation was revolutionised into learning to read and write. Even directions and road signs appeared in Cherokee. The Cherokee became prosperous and the first American Indian newspaper, the ‘Cherokee Phoenix’ was published in 1828. It is still published today. It then became Sequoyah’s driving aim to produce a universal alphabet for all Indian tribes to which end he travelled extensively. In 1829, gold was discovered in their area. It was the end of peace. The treaties were disregarded and the Cherokee driven out to beyond the Mississippi by President Jackson where warfare ensued between the Cherokee and the indigenous tribes of the region. The Cherokee nation now live in peace in a white man’s land but their alphabet has been replaced with ours. The name Sequoyah however will live forever linked to one of the world’s greatest trees. Acknowledgements: The Dendrologist, Henry
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