My all too rare conversations with Tom Belt on Cherokee history and culture and language are always delightful and very informative. Mike Miller and Paulette Thomas worked on logistics and in collecting and documenting the illustrations, an often thankless job, but I do thank them.ĭelores Sumner and her staff at the Special Collections Room in the John Vaughan Library, Northeastern State University, were a great help and, as always, are much appreciated. Ray Fogelson, Rennard Strickland, Theda Purdue, Dan Littleﬁeld, David Scott, Richard Allen, Wyman Kirk, John Ross, Duane King.

The following people all graciously read the manuscript and provided comments and suggestions. For those who want to know more about Cherokee heritage and history, Conley offers additional reading lists at the end of each chapter. Following the history is a listing of the Principal Chiefs of the Cherokees with a brief biography of each and separate listings of the chiefs of the Eastern Cherokees and the Western Cherokees. He traces their forced migrations west, relates their participations on both sides of the Civil War and the wars of the twentieth century, and concludes with an examination of Cherokee life today.Ĭonley provides analyses for general readers of all ages to learn the significance of tribal lore and Cherokee tribal law.

He then explores their relations with neighboring Indian groups and European missionaries and settlers.

Robert Conley begins his survey with Cherokee origin myths and legends. The first history of the Cherokees to appear in over four decades, this is also the first to be endorsed by the tribe and the first to be written by a Cherokee. For those who want to know more about Cherokee heritage and history, Conley offers additional reading lists at the end of each chapter.The Cherokee Nation is one of the largest and most important of all the American Indian tribes. The Cherokee Nation is one of the largest and most important of all the American Indian tribes.

Cherokee by Robert J. Conley