Blood Moon

February 15, 2018
"To the Cherokee, balance was everything": a broad-ranging history of a political rivalry that upset the Cherokee world for more than a century across the face of North America.Veteran journalist and author Sedgwick (War of Two: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Duel that Stunned the Nation, 2015, etc.) dispels any notion that the Native American world was either monolithic or pacific. In the absence of other powers, tribes and alliances of tribes fought for land and influence, and in their presence, they became blunt-force instruments. During the events that led to the War of 1812, for example, Andrew Jackson was successful in co-opting the Cherokee nation to fight the Red Sticks, Creek Indians who had aligned with Tecumseh's pan-Indian rebellion. Of one leader, Sedgwick writes, "to The Ridge and other enlightened Cherokee, America was their future. Any identification with their fellow Indians was long past." Given the rank of major, which he would use as part of his name thenceforth, The Ridge advanced the career of a Scottish-sired young man named John Ross, a non-Cherokee speaking member of the nation, who quickly positioned himself as a rival. Both became rich and politically powerful through trade with the Americans, but the Cherokee were poorly repaid for remaining loyal to the young United States: They were effectively given the choice of moving as a nation to Oklahoma or living as Americans in their southeastern homeland. On that question, Ross and Ridge divided again. "Stay or go left no room for compromise," writes the author. "No words from John Ross or any of the Ridges could ever bridge the gap." That division persisted: Followers of both parties would contend on issues thereafter, from joining the Confederacy during the Civil War (Gen. Stand Watie, the Confederate cavalry legend, was a follower of Ridge's) to questions of national sovereignty after the war.A vigorous, well-written book that distills a complex history to a clash between two men without oversimplifying.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 5, 2018
In this richly textured slice of Native American history, journalist Sedgwick (War of Two) delves into the decades-long conflicts that divided the Cherokee Nation and eventually led factions to fight on both sides of the Civil War. At the center sit two Cherokee leaders, friends turned bitter rivals. He Who Walks on Mountains, known as the Ridge, and John Ross—both of mixed Cherokee and Scottish ancestry—first crossed paths while fighting under Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812. Fourteen years later, the two men served, respectively, as the principal chief and first counselor of a thriving tribe whose government had a constitution and legislative and judiciary branches.“Then,” Sedgwick notes, “gold was found in Cherokee Georgia, and that ruined everything.” By the early 1830s, the Cherokee were forced to leave Georgia on the Trail of Tears. Sedgwick recounts the growing hostility between Ross, whose followers wanted to fight the order, and the Ridge, whose followers considered removal inevitable and wanted to make sure they got the best deal possible, through the Civil War. Though Sedgwick doesn’t break new ground with primary sources, and his storytelling suffers from some language that treats members of the tribe as an exotic monolith (“The Cherokee have always been an inspired, resilient people, close to the earth, and, with it, to the eternal”), he has mined the best contemporary scholarship to craft a narrative riven with human drama. Illus. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House.

March 15, 2018

When Europeans arrived in North America, the Cherokee Nation occupied a vast territory in the southern Appalachians, where they prospered from the land's abundant resources. Native tribes were profoundly affected by conflicts between both British and French forces. After the American Revolution, the Cherokee adopted many European customs, but this did not save them from the U.S. government policy of removal in the 1830s. Sedgwick (War of Two) chronicles the history of the Cherokee by focusing on the lives of two men: Chief John Ross (1790-1866) and lawmaker Major Ridge (1771-1839). Once friends, the men disagreed over the issue of removal. Major Ridge and his followers signed the treaty providing for removal, while Ross and his supporters opposed it. These were turbulent years for the Cherokee. Despite their adoption of Anglicized business values and constitutional laws, and even owning slaves, they were forcibly removed in what is known as the Trail of Tears, which remains a divisive subject in tribal history. VERDICT Sedgwick's journalistic writing style allows for an informative book that will appeal to general readers, while also providing much-needed historical research. Libraries will want to add this volume to their U.S. history and Native American history collections.--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community Coll., Mt. Carmel

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.