1 Dollar 'Native American Dollar' Sequoyah of the Cherokee Nation

The 2017 Native American Dollar honors Sequoyah, the Cherokee silversmith who single-handedly created a written syllabary for the Cherokee language between roughly 1809 and 1821 — one of the only known instances in recorded history of a person with no prior literacy inventing a complete writing system independently. Within a decade of its introduction, Cherokee literacy rates reportedly surpassed those of surrounding white settler communities. The syllabary is still in use.