Garrison demonstrates throughout this book that the common understandings of the removal of southern Indians from their native homelands and the ensuing forced march along the Trail of Tears are often overly simplistic and shortsighted. Garrison demonstrates, through several southerns state cases, that the south often misrepresented controlling law, gave merit to false and grossly racist "scientific" evidence, randomly selected federal statutes, and relied upon legal and social philosphies that had been abandoned by the Supreme Court and the legal community at large. All this lends credit to Garrison's notion that "for some southern leaders" the state's rights interpretation of the Constitution was "more tactical rhetoric than heartfelt ideology."
Garrison explores the history of the Cherokee's notion of such concepts as "autonomy" and "sovereignty" and demonstrates how they differed from those of the European thinkers of the day and the tragic consequences this clash of ideals led to. Furthermore, he reaches far back into history to discuss such philosophers as Thomas Aquinas, Franciscus de Victoria, and Emmerich Vattel and lays out the effect that their teachings and doctrines had on the debate of Cherokee sovereignty.
While Garrison makes a conscience and commenable effort to focus the book away from such "towering figures" as Andrew Jackson and John Ross, he does spend considerable time on John Marshall's presence in this epoch of history. This attention is not misplaced. Garrison dispays Marshall as a man who was falable, naive, strong-willed, patriotic, compassionate, and above all - human.
While the book lends itself to numerous follow-up inquiries, it is without question an invaluable book that makes a clear and complelling case: that "the law is often not what the U.S. Supreme Court declares it to be, but what the American public accepts of institutional power deems to enforce."

The focus of many historians discussing the removal of the Southeast Native Americans has been on the tragic human costs of the ordeal. Dr. Tim Garrison has found an original approach, detailing the intricate legal history and intellectual influences that provided the rationalization for the removal policy. In The Legal Ideology of Removal, Garrison tells the disastrous story of how stereotypical misconceptions, cultural dissonance, afterthoughts in dicta and an overarching federal/state power struggle fed Southern courts in their efforts to satisfy the land-hungry desires of the masses in the American Southeast. In addition to providing a valuable perspective on the development of Native American history, the book details an important chapter in United States legal history, describing the evolution towards and the fall-out from an unprecedented challenge to the Supreme Court's authority that came when southern courts failed to recognize a critical yet unpopular decision, Worcester v. Georgia. Finally, Garrison's work shows how unsubstantiated rhetoric and the whims of politics can be infused into the critically important decisions of the supposedly independent and impartial judiciary.

Garrison displays a complex array of skills, as he navigates a traditional historical account, the intellectual origins of sovereignty and stereotypes as well as detailed legal interpretations. Particularly valuable is the account of the evolution of John Marshall's opinions. The Legal Ideology of Removal shows us the most courageous exercises of power, as Marshall's very human march into Worcester was, as well as the "degradation" of others who displayed, as Garrison wrote, "feckless abdications to racial prejudice and the unfermented popular will." Not only is Garrison's work significant to the telling of Cherokee removal, it is an adept illustration of dynamics of power derivation, of the vital relationship between the institutions of a nation and the people they purport to both serve and lead.

This is a very comprehensive study of Anglo-Cherokee relations from the late 17th cent'y to the end of the American Revolution. The most valuable aspect is how Hatley draws or teases the Cherokee perspective out of the available source material. In this, Dividing Paths is a model for seeing BOTH sides of conflict in colonial America, not just the English settlers' side. Although the initial chapter or two seem to be a little too heavily laden with academic jargon, the author hits his stride soon thereafter in what is a very readable book. My biggest criticism is that he fails to take in to account North Carolina's role in Cherokee relations, in which NC & SC were competitors. This is a significant oversight, but the book is "strong" nonetheless.

Professor Strickland's book is an extremely thorough and engaging history of the Cherokee nation, and particularly a description and analysis of Cherokee law. This scholarship describes the legal aspects of modernization in a very specific setting, and is fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in Cherokee culture, or in comparative law.

Jack and Anna Kilpatrick do a wonderful job translating selected folktales of the Cherokee nation. This book is broken down into several user friendly sections and also includes a breif section on the Storytellers and biographical information on some of the contributors. The tales are very easy to read and there does not seem to be much lost in translation. There is a great selection throughout this book, including animal, humor, and historical stories. A very good read and a great educational tool. This book is an eye-opening experience into the ways and beliefs of a people who were, and are, a very important part of our American Nation.

This is a wonderful legend. This book is about a young Cherokee boy, who learns about Awi-U-Sdi (Little Deer) from his grandfather. He learns how Little Deer helps hunters and how to honor him. It is a wonderful story for all children. Children can learn a wonderful legend of the Cherokee. I highly recommend this book for children of all ages.

Sometimes you just want to cry. Sometimes you are just plaindisgusted. Sometimes you're just ashamed.

That's how I often feltwhile reading "Nancy Swimmer: A Story of the Cherokee Nation". I either wanted to cry, shake my head in disgust or turned red-faced over what some Anglo-Saxons did to the Cherokee Nation. Dee Brown described what happened to the plains Native Americans in "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" but Clyde Bolton, through the fictional story of Nancy Swimmer, tells us the little known story of what happened to the Cherokees in North Georgia in the early nineteenth century-a precursor of events that would happen to the Sioux, the Cheyenne, the Shoshone, the Nez Percé, the Apache, the Navaho, and other Native Americans later in the nineteenth century.

The humiliation of the Cherokees and the outright thievery of their land also happened to the other southeastern tribes-the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Seminoles. However, those humiliations do not make the story of the Cherokees any less poignant or disturbing.

Even though disturbing, I found the book also enlightening, especially if you're like me and do not know much about the southeastern tribes and their tribulations. Americans know, or think they know, a lot about the plains tribes ( the Sioux, Shoshone, etc.), and the eastern tribes (the Iroquois, Delaware and Shawnee, among others) because of movies or books like the Cooper's Leatherstocking tales, Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" or Costner's movie, "Dancing with Wolves". However, the plight of the southeastern Indians is often overlooked and Bolton does a good job, in a historical novel, of describing their travails without making history fiction.

We get to know Nancy Swimmer as a child, a married teenager, and a young women, which is only a portion of Nancy's life of ninety-eight years but probably the most eventful. During this time, the United States reneges on its treaties -sound familiar--and removes the Cherokees from North Georgia because-guess what, the Georgians want it and there's gold in them thar (sic) Cherokee hills. Who said that ethnic cleansing was new?

How this ethnic cleansing occurs is the most disgusting part of the book. Old Hickory, also known as President Andrew Jackson and Chicken Snake (at least by Nancy's father), contrives with the state of Georgia to expel the Cherokees, ignore the U.S. Supreme Court under Marshall, and steal the Cherokee's land. Old Hickory, I mean Chicken Snake, has gone down considerably in my estimation after reading Nancy's narrative of how he (the snake that he was) double crosses his erstwhile allies-the Cherokees. See, the Cherokees helped Chicken Snake defeat the Creeks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in Alabama in 1814-just before Chicken Snake (or General Jackson if you prefer) defeated, as Johnny Horton sang, "the bloody British in the town of New Orleans". These shenanigans left me totally disgusted. What happened to the rule of law? Well, as they say, the rules depend on who's making them. I wonder if the War Crimes tribunal could try Old Hickory posthumously for war crimes.

But the story is more than a story of the ethnic cleansing. It's also a story about a young, flawed Cherokee woman. Interestingly, the narrator, Nancy, is not perfect. Matter of fact, she is stubborn, contrary, and self-centered. Many times I was disgusted at Nancy. At times she was hypocritical, adulterous, and intolerant. However, that makes the book more believable. Instead of a story from a heroine narrator, the story comes from a flawed human honest enough to present her own flaws. In other words, the story is more believable because its told through the eyes of someone obviously honest.

I found the story of the Cherokee nation during one of the most traumatic times in its history a good read even though I found it a slow starter. Now that's not to say, I would have not done some things differently. For example, I would have probably moved part of the epilogue to the preface because that move would have informed me that Nancy was the author of nine books. That move would have made me more comfortable with the language she used in writing her story. I had some problems with her style of writing. Specifically, I kept wondering where Nancy learned how to write as well as she did. In the early nineteenth century I'm not sure you would have found that many women, or men, on America's frontier (yes, Georgia was once the frontier), that could write as well as Nancy did. Now, I would have expected such writing from someone who was from nineteenth century New England or who was rich but not from someone living in the hills of North Georgia. I, also, would have made more use of Poppy, Nancy's great, great, granddaughter-possibly as a narrator, although that would have necessitated a change in point of view in various chapters. In addition, the grammar and diction of the Cherokees often seemed unnatural-a little too educated, especially for those without any formal education. In his defense, Bolton got the grammar and diction of the Georgia rednecks right. In addition, Bolton's copy editor missed a incongruity when in one scene a female slave read her master's missive to Nancy-probably not so, in early nineteenth century Georgia anyway.

My last comment does make me wonder about the art of copy editing. I just read Larry McMurtry's Comanche Moon where he referred to Birmingham, Alabama as a city in the 1850s (the town was established in the 1870s). McMurtry also had Texas Rangers using repeating rifles: repeaters were not invented until the Civil War.

My editorial comments about "Nancy Swimmer: A Story of the Cherokee Nation" are all quibbles, however, in relation to the story as a whole. I enjoyed the book although the ending thoroughly disgusted me. Hopefully, you'll be thoroughly disgusted too-not with the book but with America's treatment of the Cherokee.

What a shame that this gem of a book never received the undeserved attention bestowed upon Larry McMurty's & Diana Ossana'a monstrosity (that shall go un-named here). Conley's account of Ned Christie's experience with white man's law tells the story of a thoughtful and respected Cherokee leader who made the best of an impossible situation by letting his enemies "know that they had been in a fight."

Nickajack is a short book ,but in terms of the themes it addresses it is one of the "biggest "books to come my way in a very long time.
A western ,set for the most part in Oklahoma ,in the new Cherokee National lands its central character is the eponymous Nickajack ,who is on trial for murder .The charge is political,the result of deep divisions within the new nation settled on its new terrotory.
The state is riven by factionalism ,the contending parties being those forced into exile ,along the bitter "Trail of Tears"by fraudulent,cynical treaties ,and anothrer party that has embraced the exile from their homeland,if not willingly then in a tradition of "realpolitik".It is a conflict that has seen murder done .
Nickajack-an apolitical man with a deep sense of family-is unjustly accused of murder ,and much of the novel unfolds in the form of his reflections as he listens to the evidence unfold in the courtroom

The book is the tale of a dualistic tragedy -for the man himself,and for his tribe .In plain but heartrending prose the author lays bare the corruption of the system of government that gave rise to the genocide of the USA's traetment of its minority groups ,and the human tragedy that lies at the heart of all such actions.

The ending is heartbreaking ,but you will not forget a major novel by a major -if ridiculously neglected -writer.
Read it--please !

Your heart goes out to eleven year old Annie when you read this book. Forced to leave the only home she has ever known to live with a slave owning uncle, this half Cherokee girl is forced to deal with new faces, a new home and a world of predjudice she never suspected was there. But the greatest challenge of all is yet to come, Annie must face the exploitation and toture that the "Indian Removal of 1883" brings to her own people. Annie must find a way to honor both sides of her heritage while still being true to her own beliefs and values. This novel exposes truths about the cruelties that these Native Americans where exposed to while comending the courage and soul of one little girl.

I found this book to be quite interesting and informative. It discusses not only the trails themselves but their history. The physical descriptions of the trails are excellent, however I would have liked to see more detailed maps. It is a wonderful book to use as a reference.