Cherokee Odyssey: The Journey from Sovereign to "Civilized"

by Michael P. Morris

Overview

This study examines the period between 1730 to 1790, which saw the Cherokee people travel the path from a sovereign people allied with the British to a dependent nation signed by treaty to the American Civilization program with US government. The author analyzes how, in between, the Cherokees fought two wars—one with the British military and one with the Continental Army. A group of Cherokee peace and military chiefs navigated the journey for the Cherokees in trying to handle both wars. Ultimately, a break-away group of young Cherokees, led by Dragging Canoe, led his Chickamauga Cherokees away from their traditional leaders and into the battlefield with the Americans. Sadly, all Cherokees paid the price for the actions of these young warriors. The Cherokees survived these ordeals and continue on as a people today just like the rivers that continue to flow through their lands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666914085
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	12/07/2022
Series:	New Studies in Southern History
Pages:	206
Product dimensions:	6.23(w) x 9.37(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Michael Morris is associate professor at the College of Coastal Georgia.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Anglo-Cherokee War: The Past is Prologue

Chapter 2: After the Treaty of Easton: Cherokee Diplomacy against a coming Storm

Chapter 3: Cherokee Diplomacy amid the ashes of Fort Loudoun

Chapter 4: Snowball in the Sun: Dragging Canoe and the Spirit of 1776

Chapter 5: “The Great God of Nature has not created us to be your slaves.”

Editorial Reviews

In Cherokee Odyssey, Michael P. Morris provides a concise but detailed description of the Cherokees in the eighteenth century that is accessible to readers who may not be familiar with the intricacies of scholarly research on the Native South... [Morris] consolidates current scholarship on eighteenth-century Cherokee interactions with Anglo-Americans into a tight, understandable narrative centered on how they struggled to maintain their independence... [Morris’s] book meets the target audience for the publisher’s New Studies in Southern History and its goal to focus on the distinct and diverse history of the South as being both embodied within and separate from the American experience. Morris’s monograph is best suited for non-scholars interested in southern studies and Native American history due to its readability and straight forward presentation.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online

Cherokee Odyssey is indispensable to understanding the forces that created and propelled Dragging Canoe’s late-eighteenth-century Cherokee revitalization movement, as well the legacy it left behind. At every turn of the page, Morris provides deep insights into Cherokee diplomacy, military history, and culture. Cherokee Odyssey offers a carefully reconstructed and deeply insightful exploration of Cherokee history. In this long-overdue book, Morris reveals how Cherokee leaders exercised agency, repeatedly making difficult choices in an effort to negotiate with colonizers as allies, not as subjects, in an attempt to preserve the Cherokee way of life.

Daniel J. Tortora