The Cherokee Nation A History.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.
• Position: Book review

The Cherokee Nation A History BY ROBERT J. CONLEY UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS 2005, 265 PAGES, $24.95

Ordinarily, one does not think of the U.S. as having within its borders a number of other nations. Yet, the fact is, it does, and these are Indian nations, of which the Cherokee, with 240,000 registered members, is the second largest. (The Navajo is the largest.) The political reality of these as nations originally was an "accommodation," but it stuck. Present-day Americans ought to know about their fellow Native American citizens and this book provides that kind of knowledge.

The author is well qualified to teach readers, as he is a member of the Cherokee tribe as well as an accomplished author of 34 novels. He begins with myths and legends of the tribe's origins, evaluating the historical truth of each. No one is quite sure what those origins are, but one theory is that, after coming over the Bering Strait, they migrated to the southern tip of South America, making their way back to settle in the Southeast section of the U.S. As with many Indian tribes, they are matrilinear and, like many, see themselves as a kind of Chosen People--in their language, "the real people." They mostly were farmers, hunters, and parttime warriors.

Their culture underwent many changes throughout history. Some of these were caused by their interface with the Spanish and French, as well as conflict with the early colonists. Another was a result of the "Trail of Tears," in which they forcibly were relocated in the West to an area designated as Indian Territory by Pres. Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Policy. This unjust action was protested by prominent persons such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Clay, but to no avail. (Later, the Navajo had their own Trail of Tears, known to them as "The Long Walk." They were "rounded up by Kit Carson and sent to ... New Mexico.")

As a group, the Cherokee tended to imitate the white men's ways, earning the description of a "civilized tribe" Since their attitude toward women was fairly liberal, they were teased as a "petticoat tribe" Indeed, a woman, Wilma...