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Summary
Summary
A sixth-generation North Carolinian, highly-acclaimed author John Ehle grew up on former Cherokee hunting grounds. His experience as an accomplished novelist, combined with his extensive, meticulous research, culminates in this moving tragedy rich with historical detail.
The Cherokee are a proud, ancient civilization. For hundreds of years they believed themselves to be the "Principle People" residing at the center of the earth. But by the 18th century, some of their leaders believed it was necessary to adapt to European ways in order to survive. Those chiefs sealed the fate of their tribes in 1875 when they signed a treaty relinquishing their land east of the Mississippi in return for promises of wealth and better land. The U.S. government used the treaty to justify the eviction of the Cherokee nation in an exodus that the Cherokee will forever remember as the "trail where they cried." The heroism and nobility of the Cherokee shine through this intricate story of American politics, ambition, and greed.
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Author Notes
John Ehle was born on December 13, 1925. During World War II, he was an infantry rifleman. From 1962 to 1964, he was the special assistant to North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford. He helped establish the North Carolina Governors School, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, the North Carolina Film Commission, the North Carolina Institute of Outdoor Drama, and the North Carolina School of Arts.
He was an author who championed Appalachian literature. He wrote 11 novels including The Land Breakers, The Free Men, The Road, and The Widow's Trial. The Winter People and The Journey of August King were made into films. He received several awards including the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for North Carolina fiction, the North Carolina Award for Literature, the Thomas Wolfe Prize, and the Lillian Smith Award for Southern Fiction. He also wrote six works of nonfiction. He died on March 24, 2018 at the age of 92.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Kirkus Review
A meticulously researched but not wholly satisfactory history of the Cherokees from 1770 to 1838, when 12,000 Indians were forced to move to Oklahoma in a march known as The Trail of Tears. Novelist Ehle (The Winter People, 1982; Last One Home, 1984; etc.) grew up in North Carolina on what was once Cherokee land, and the bond he feels with the area's past informs his work with passion--if not seamless coherence. That passion drove Ehle to amass an astounding amount of primary material--letters, documents, folklore, etc.--and to wield it with sociological assessments and odd bits of fictionalization into this account. Nonetheless, there's an unfinished feel here: most striking is Ehle's failure to provide an overview of the Cherokee nation before the whites' arrival--the first significant character introduced is Ridge, a Cherokee with Scottish blood. Moreover, further characters and incidents are often mentioned with no explanation, a problem sometimes remedied in later pages and sometimes not. Even so, though, the gallery of little-known, historical figures--mixed bloods who tried to improve the Cherokee fate: the noble Major Ridge, the brilliant Elias Boudinet, the hardheaded John Ross; Sequoyah, the first to create a written Indian language--glows, and some rarities (e.g., the letters of a young US soldier assigned to the removal of the Indians) impart a poignant intimacy. Although Ehle never quite weaves a tight tapestry from his multithreaded skein of raw information, his is certainly the most thorough Cherokee history to date--and it makes up in emotional impact what it lacks in narrative rigor. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Among the many tales of history and the white man's encounters with the American Indian, none is as bitter or shameful as the removal of more than 18,000 Cherokee from their eastern homelands. In this well-documented work, Ehle discusses the history of the Cherokee nation, and he presents a sympathetic and emotional account of the development of the Cherokee political, social, and religious structure. The various factors, political and social, leading up to the 1838 migration and the ensuing murder of some 4,000 Cherokee tribesmen are also described. Newspaper stories, personal recollections, and diary entries are used to help recount pertinent facts and events. Highly recommended for public library ethnographic collections. Notes, bibliography; to be indexed. JMM.
Library Journal Review
One of the many ironies of U.S. government policy toward Indians in the early 1800s is that it persisted in removing to the West those who had most successfully adapted to European values. As whites encroached on Cherokee land, many Native leaders responded by educating their children, learning English, and developing plantations. Such a leader was Ridge, who had fought with Andrew Jackson against the British. As he and other Cherokee leaders grappled with the issue of moving, the land-hungry Georgia legislatiors, with the aid of Jackson, succeeded in ousting the Cherokee from their land, forcing them to make the arduous journey West on the infamous ``Trail of Tears.'' Popular history for public libraries. Mary B. Davis, Museum of American Indian Lib., New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
