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The Cherokee Struggle to Maintain Identity in the 17th and 18th Centuries
With the arrival of Europeans in North America, the Cherokee were profoundly affected. This book thoroughly discusses their history during the Colonial and Revolutionary War eras. Starting with the French and Indian War, the Cherokee were allied with the British, relying on them for goods like poorly made muskets. The alliance proved unequal, with the British refusing aid--even as settlers made incursions into Cherokee lands--while requiring them to fight on the British side against the French and rebellious Americans. At the same time, the Cherokee were moving away from their traditions, and leadership disagreements caused their nation to become fragmented. All of this resulted in the loss of Cherokee ancestral lands.
436 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 24, 2015
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About the author
William R. Reynolds Jr.
2 books6 followersI am a retired engineering manager since 2005. I have worked on my genealogy for almost 40 years. I started writing because of my 7X great-granduncle Andrew Pickens. He was one of three brigadier generals in the South Carolina State militia during the latter part of the American Revolution. His brother, my 7X great-grandfather, Captain Joseph Pickens was killed in the war in 1781. The other three Brig. Gens. have had consistently current bios available to the public while Andrew Pickens' bios were out of print.
I then decided to write about the same period from the Cherokee point of view. Notorious Chickamauga Cherokee Chief Doublehead was my 7X great-grandfather. The Cherokee were British allies; however, the British consistently left them in a lurch. I very good independent literary review was issued by The Midwest Book Review under Library Bookwatch: February 2015. The genre is The Native American Studies Shelf. The review may be found on www.midwestbookreview.com identity 26684. Some excerpts are:
"...Informed and informative...is a work of considerable scholarship and thoroughly 'reader friendly' from beginning to end...is an invaluable and significant work of impressive scholarship...critically important and strongly recommended addition to academic library Native American Studies reference collections..."
I then decided to write about the same period from the Cherokee point of view. Notorious Chickamauga Cherokee Chief Doublehead was my 7X great-grandfather. The Cherokee were British allies; however, the British consistently left them in a lurch. I very good independent literary review was issued by The Midwest Book Review under Library Bookwatch: February 2015. The genre is The Native American Studies Shelf. The review may be found on www.midwestbookreview.com identity 26684. Some excerpts are:
"...Informed and informative...is a work of considerable scholarship and thoroughly 'reader friendly' from beginning to end...is an invaluable and significant work of impressive scholarship...critically important and strongly recommended addition to academic library Native American Studies reference collections..."
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 10, 2016
This is a commendable reference work on the Cherokees and their place in American history, before and after their European contact as early as the initial Spanish explorations. Reynolds offers finely detailed, chronological description and contextual analysis of the Cherokee experiences in their relationships with other Native Americans and their ill-fated alliance with British forces prior to the American Revolution. The dreadful hardships and degrading outcome of the long diaspora known as The Trail of Tears is treated honestly. Reynolds has created a useful complement to our understanding of the relationships among Native Americans and Europeans, and the careless injustices perpetrated by white men. There are conscientious appendices, bibliography and an index.
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http://richardsubber.com/
March 5, 2015
The book is an extraordinarily detailed account of the history of the Native American tribe the Cherokee from first contact with Europeans to their expulsion from their tribal homeland region in the 1830s. The Cherokee inhabited an area ranging through the present-day states of Georgia, Alabama, South and North Carolina, and Tennessee with their greatest concentration along the northern Georgia-eastern Tennessee border. They were an inland tribe mostly in area of lower (not lowest) part of Appalachia. Their first meeting with Europeans was with the Spaniard DeSoto coming out of the Florida panhandle. In the mid 1600s, the tribe encountered English pioneers spreading out from the short-lived and mysteriously vanished Jamestown settlement.
The course of Cherokee history over this time follows the familiar course of nearly all other Native American tribes from initial encounter with Europeans through exploitation, often warfare, aborted assimilation if this was even attempted, and eventual severe degradation of the native culture or consignment of it to a reservation. The Cherokee were eventually uprooted from their ancestral lands in the trek known as the Trail of Tears ordered by president Andrew Jackson in the latter 1830s, destination Indian Territory in what later became Oklahoma.
Reynolds packs extraordinary detail into the book, so much so that this becomes its distinguishing characteristic. After an introductory historical and anthropological overview, the content becomes mostly a chronological series of colorful and dramatic vignettes with primary individuals named, locations laid out, specific action described, outcome, and effect on the standing and future of the Cherokee in their ongoing contest with the white settlers, military, and government. This all goes to develop the theme of how the Cherokee tried to maintain their identity. Although this is a modern way of putting it. Contemporary historical studies of this type ordinarily put it as Native American or other ethnic or minority groups trying to maintain their culture. Yet one readily knows what Reynolds means. This is not a book of psychoanalysis.
Besides the title which reveals some inexperience with current practice and with concept, Reynolds’ writing at moments displays writing inexperience which is probably connected. For instance, the author writes, “exacerbated the situation with goon tactics.” While the reader understands what he means, surely there is a better word than the common, vague “goon.” A couple of lines later he writes, “The methodology was obvious.” “Methodology” is not really the right word for systematic predations, betrayals, and atrocities (by the Americans as referred to here). Such jarring questionable uses of words however do not diminish Reynolds’ strengths in portraying the course and ultimate defeat of the Cherokee trying to contend with an overwhelmingly more powerful presence of Europeans including Spaniards, Scots, Irish, English, and others bent on conquering the wilderness and settling the land.
Reynolds is a descendent of a Cherokee chief and also of a brother of General Andrew Pickens, who had a central role in relations with the Cherokee and other Southeastern Native American tribes in the latter 1700s. Interest in his own genealogy led him to write this historical work.
The course of Cherokee history over this time follows the familiar course of nearly all other Native American tribes from initial encounter with Europeans through exploitation, often warfare, aborted assimilation if this was even attempted, and eventual severe degradation of the native culture or consignment of it to a reservation. The Cherokee were eventually uprooted from their ancestral lands in the trek known as the Trail of Tears ordered by president Andrew Jackson in the latter 1830s, destination Indian Territory in what later became Oklahoma.
Reynolds packs extraordinary detail into the book, so much so that this becomes its distinguishing characteristic. After an introductory historical and anthropological overview, the content becomes mostly a chronological series of colorful and dramatic vignettes with primary individuals named, locations laid out, specific action described, outcome, and effect on the standing and future of the Cherokee in their ongoing contest with the white settlers, military, and government. This all goes to develop the theme of how the Cherokee tried to maintain their identity. Although this is a modern way of putting it. Contemporary historical studies of this type ordinarily put it as Native American or other ethnic or minority groups trying to maintain their culture. Yet one readily knows what Reynolds means. This is not a book of psychoanalysis.
Besides the title which reveals some inexperience with current practice and with concept, Reynolds’ writing at moments displays writing inexperience which is probably connected. For instance, the author writes, “exacerbated the situation with goon tactics.” While the reader understands what he means, surely there is a better word than the common, vague “goon.” A couple of lines later he writes, “The methodology was obvious.” “Methodology” is not really the right word for systematic predations, betrayals, and atrocities (by the Americans as referred to here). Such jarring questionable uses of words however do not diminish Reynolds’ strengths in portraying the course and ultimate defeat of the Cherokee trying to contend with an overwhelmingly more powerful presence of Europeans including Spaniards, Scots, Irish, English, and others bent on conquering the wilderness and settling the land.
Reynolds is a descendent of a Cherokee chief and also of a brother of General Andrew Pickens, who had a central role in relations with the Cherokee and other Southeastern Native American tribes in the latter 1700s. Interest in his own genealogy led him to write this historical work.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews