Good History of Cherokee Nation

This is a good history of the Cherokee Indian Nation from about the mid 1700's until just after the Civil War. It basically follows the Ridge family line starting with "Major" Ridge. This book is just not about the Trail of Tears. That is not covered until last quarter of the book. This book does give good detail of how the removal came to be and all the ones that were involved in it. It is very good on that standpoint. This should be required studies for all. It is a very bad period of our history that came at the same time the slave issue was being debated very much. It is hard to understand what people were thinking then but it was a very different time and hopefully we have progressed some in America. The reasons I only give it four stars is that much is quoted at length in this book. Much of it could have been summed up in a more concise way to make it more easily understandable. Some of it could have been left out too. Also I think more could have been devoted to the trail. The author seemed to start on good path with it but sort of broke it off suddenly. But still a very good book if you want to gain a good understanding of this terrible episode in American history.

###

