Sequoia – may have been a Native American name

• name is thought to honor Cherokee leader George Gist (1770-1843), who was born to a German-American merchant father and a Cherokee mother and was known as Sequoyah, Sequoia or Sequioish
• he was the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet and written language, which he thought would help his people transmit more knowledge and maintain their independence
• Steven Endlicher, the German botanist who named the species for Western culture in 1847, was also a linguist and may have been aware of the creator of the Cherokee language

Species:

• Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood)