The abuse of power by unscrupulous priests leads the Cherokee to the brink of death, and soon the Cherokee begin a revolt against those who had formed the very center of their lives.
Robert J. Conley was a Cherokee author and enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, a federally recognized tribe of American Indians. In 2007, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.
Conley intersperses the narrative with traditional Cherokee tales, which bothered me in the first book because I was into the story, but now I'm used to it and I like that the reader is exposed to a more thorough understanding of Cherokee culture. Although this is shelved in adult (and in Westerns, even though technically it's an Eastern) I think it would be good for young adult audiences as well. There's very little cursing and no explicit sex, and less violence than The Hunger Games.