"The Only Independent Cherokee Newspaper"
"The Original On-line Independent Cherokee Newspaper"
Copyright © 1992-1999 All Worldwide Rights Reserved
The Cherokee Observer, Inc.
 

BOOKS RECOMMENDED

FOR READING

This list is only to get you started, and by no means all-inclusive.
Check with your local library or book store to obtain a copy.
 

BOOKS ABOUT CHEROKEES

CHEROKEE TREE By Paul B. Thomas
        Thomas traces his Cherokee Family Tree back to the Beloved Cherokee Woman, Nancy Ward.  The book contains family stories passed down, geneology charts, many illustrations and historical information. Call (918) 825-1161 for ordering information.
FIRE AND THE SPIRITS Cherokee Law from Clan to Court By Rennard Strickland.  ISBN: ?  Volume 133 in The Civilization of the American Indian Series. 
        This book traces the emergence of the Cherokee system of laws from the ancient spirit decrees to the fusion of tribal law ways with Anglo-American law. The Cherokees enacated their first written law in 1808 in Georgia.  Strickland provides a brief review of Cherokee history and explains the circumstances surrounding the stages of development of the legal system. Excerpts from editorials in the Cherokee Phoenix, Cherokee Advocate, letters and tribal documents and a series of charts explaining the Complex Cherokee spirit sytemt of crimes and the punishments meted out for them are included.
James Mooney's HISTORY, MYTHS, AND SACRED FORMULAS OF THE CHEROKEES ISBN:  0-914875-19-1
        This book contains the full texts of Myths of the Cherokee and The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees by James Mooney as originally published by the Bureau of American Ethonology in 1900 and 1891, respectively. The biographical introduction, James Mooney and the Eastern Cherokees was written in 1992 by Geoerge Eillison. Contains map and several illustrations.
HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS AND THEIR LEGENDS AND FOLK LORE By Emmet Starr.   ISBN: 0527857009
THE CHEROKEES By Grace Steele Woodward  Library of Congress Card Number 63-8986.
        Steele starts out by taking a look at Cherokees today, then covers the history of the Cherokee from contact with the Spaniards in 1540 through recnstruction and Statehood.  The book includes several maps and many illustrations.
THE INTRUDERS The Illegal Residents of the Cherokee Nation 1866-1907 By Nancy Hope Sober.
        Sober's book is a narrative account of intrusion by noncitizens upon the land of the Cherokee tribe in the Indian Territory west of the Missippi River.  Chapters included are:  Privileges and Problems of Tribal Citizenship; Intrusion by White Settlers; Intrusion by Blacks, Interference by the Federal Government, and more.  Includes several maps, illustrations, and intruder lists.
THE UNITED KEETOOWAH BAND of Cherokee Indian in Oklahoma By Georgia Rae Leeds.  ISBN:  0-8204-2720-9
        Leeds provides an interesting history of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, 65% of whose members are full-blooded Indians.  The UKB asserts that it predates the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma are represent the real Cherokees. Leeds presents background history up to the present time.  Many illustrations and legal documents are included.
WEAVING NEW WORLDS Cherokee Women and Their Basketry By Sarah H. Hill ISBN:  0-8078-2345-7(Cloth-alk.paper) ISBN:  0-8078-4650-3(pbk-alk.paper)
        Over the course of three centuries, Cherokees developed four major basketry traditions based on rivercane, whiteoak, honeysuckle, and maple.  Hill explores how the addition of each new material occured in the context of lived experience, ecological processes, social conditions, economic circumstances, and historical eras.  Included are the interesting stories of Cherokee baskets and the women who weave them and many illustrations.
 

BOOKS ABOUT CHEROKEE GENEOLOGY

CHEROKEE ROOTS Volume1:  EasternCherokeeRolls By Bob Blankenship ISBN: 0-963774-1-8
        Includes: 1817 Reservation Rolls; 1817-1835 Emigration Roll; 1835 Henderson Roll; 1848 Mullay Roll; 1852 Silar Roll; 1883 Hester Roll; 1908 Churchhill Roll; 1909 Guion Miller East;  1924 Baker Roll and enrollment procedures of Eastern Band. Can call (704) 497-9709 for ordering information.
CHEROKEE ROOTS Volume 2:  Western Cherokee Rolls By Bob Blankenship ISBN:  0-9633774-2-6
        Includes: 1851 Old Settler Roll; 1852 Drennen Roll by Family Name; 18096-1914 Combination Dawes and Guion Miller Rolls and enrollment procedur of the Cherokee Nation.
 

BOOKS ABOUT NATIVE AMERICANS

AND STILL THE WATERS RUN The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes By Angie Debo.  ISBN:  0-0691-04615-8(hardcover); ISBN:  0-691-00578-8(paperback)
        Debo's classic work tells the true tragic story of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles.  Debo describes the perilous gift of American citizenship given in 1907, and documents the orgy of exploitation that followed. Within a generation the Indians were stripped of their holdings, and were rescued from starvation only through public charity.
INDIAN GIVERS By Jack Weatherford. ISBN:  0-449-90496-2
        Weatherford traces the crucial contributions made by Indians to our federal system of               government, our democractic institutions, modern medicine, agriculture, architecture, and ecology. Some 60% of the foods eaten in the world today were first harvested by the Indians of the Americans.
NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS Southeastern Legends: Tales from the Natchez, Caddo, Biloxi, Chickasaw, and other Nations. Complied and edited by George E. Lankford. ISBN: 0-87483-038-9
        Lankford dedicates this book to the memore of the ancient inhabitants of the Southeast.  Includes 131 Southeastern Native American Legends including several Cherokee legends.
NATIVE ROOTS By Jack Weatherford.  ISBN: 0-449-90713-9
        Weatherford shows how Europeans grafted their civilization onto the deep and nourshing roots of Native American customs and beliefs.  Our place names, our farmingg techniques, our crafts, the very blood that flows in our veins-all derive from American Indians in ways that we consistently faile to see.  Without understanding Native Americans, we will never know who we are today in America.
THE RIGHTS OF INDIANS AND TRIBES The Basic ACLU Guide to Indian and Tribal Rights By Stephen L. Pevar.  ISBN:  0-8093-1768-0
        This American Civil Liberties Union Handbook sets forth your rights under the present las and offers suggestion on how they can be protected. The guide offers no assurances that your rights will be respected.  The guide is in a question and answer format covering many issues and includes appendixes containing several laws and acts.
 
 

BOOKS BY CHEROKEES

A HUNDRED MILES OF BAD ROAD By Dwight W. Birdwell and Keith William Nolan. ISBN:  0-89141-628-5
The story of nineteen year-old Cherokee Dwight W. Birdwell's experience in VietNam as a honorable Native American warrior in the position of an armored Cavalryman.  Birdwell was awarded two silver stars for his heroic actions.