an indigenous history of migration, resettlement, and identity /
First Statement of Responsibility
Gregory D. Smithers
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
358 pages :
Other Physical Details
illustrations, maps ;
Dimensions
25 cm
SERIES
Series Title
The Lamar series in Western history
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-345) and index
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Origins. The origins of the Cherokee Diaspora ; Colonialism, Christianity, and Cherokee identity ; Removal, reunion, and diaspora ; Uncertain futures -- Diaspora. War, division, and refugees ; The "refugee business" ; Cherokee freedmen ; Diasporic horizons
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
The Cherokee are one of the largest Native American tribes in the United States, with more than three hundred thousand people across the country claiming tribal membership and nearly one million people internationally professing to have at least one Cherokee Indian ancestor. In this revealing history of Cherokee migration and resettlement, Gregory Smithers uncovers the origins of the Cherokee Diaspora and explores how communities and individuals have negotiated their Cherokee identities, even when geographically removed from the Cherokee Nation headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Beginning in the eighteenth century, the author transports the reader back in time to tell the poignant story of the Cherokee people migrating throughout North America, including their forced exile along the infamous Trail of Tears (1838-39). Smithers tells a remarkable story of courage, cultural innovation, and resilience, exploring the importance of migration and removal, land and tradition, culture and language in defining what it has meant to be Cherokee for a widely scattered people