Historical Sketch of the Cherokee

by James Mooney

Overview

When James Mooney lived with and studied the Cherokee between 1887 and 1900, they were the largest and most important Indian tribe in the United States. His dispassionate account of their history from the time of their first contact with whites until the end of the nineteenth century is more than a sequence of battles won and lost, treaties signed and broken, towns destroyed and people massacred. There is humanity along with inhumanity in the relations between the Cherokee and other groups, Indian and non-Indian; there is fortitude and persistence balanced with disillusionment and frustration. In these respects, the history of the Cherokee epitomizes the experience of most Native Americans. The Cherokee Nation ceased to exist as a political entity seven years after the initial study was done, when Oklahoma became a state.In the introduction to the original publication of this history in 1900, James Mooney commented that "there is change indeed in dress and outward seeming, but the heart of the Indian is still his own." This history was originally included in the 19th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology.It was republished under the auspices of the National Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, at the request of the Governing Body of the Cherokee Nation, in 1975, with new introductory material and supplementary illustrations from the archives. The volume has a foreword from W.W. Keeler, chief of the Cherokee Nation, and an introduction by Richard Mack Bettis, president of the Tulsa Tsa-La-Gi-Ya Cherokee Community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780202308173
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	09/30/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

James Mooney's main interest of study was the Cherokee people. Many say that Mooney wrote the most accurate accounts of the Cherokee culture and history. He spent years living with the Cherokee people in North Carolina, and was able to gain their acceptance and trust, which allowed him to write more firsthand accounts. This made his work more reliable and very accurate.Mooney was a member of the first generation of professional anthropologists; he left behind a wealth of ethnographical and historical data.

Table of Contents

The Traditionary Period; The Period of Spanish Exploration—1540–?; The Colonial and Revolutionary Period—1654–1784; Relations with the United States from the first treaty to the removal—1785–1838; The Removal—1838–39; The Arkansas Band—1817–1838; The Cherokee Nation in the West—1840–1900; The Eastern Band; III—Notes to the Historical Sketch

Editorial Reviews

-[Historical Sketch of the Cherokee is] regarded as sound, scholarly work... [on a] leading Indian tribe and... esteemed as [a] basic source... on Cherokee history.-

--Arrell Morgan Gibson, The Journal of Southern History

-The illustrious James Mooney prepared his -Historical Sketch of the Cherokee- as an extended introduction to his -Myths of the Cherokee,- which together formed part 1 of the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1900). It is probable that Mooney saw the two pieces as interrelated, since not only are historical narratives included in the -Myths,- but also a wealth of historical and ethnological data are buried in extensive footnotes; the full volume also contains a Cherokee-English and English-Cherokee word list invaluable to the ethnohistorian researching historical personages, tribal synonymy, town and place names... Mooney's -Historical Sketch- can stand by itself and even after 75 years still provides the best capsule history of the Cherokees now available... Mooney possessed an extraordinary command of the documentary sources available in his day, a capacity to utilize the ethno-ethnohistory provided by his informants, a sound grasp of Cherokee ethnography and language based on intensive and empathetic fieldwork, plus an infectious enthusiasm that pervades his vigorous prose.-

--Raymond D. Fogelson, Ethnohistory

Review of two books:

-Charles Royce's and James Mooney's books are reprinted from the original Bureau of American Ethnology works, which respectively appeared in the Fifth and Nineteenth Annual Reports... Both works are classics in the field. Royce provides a detailed chronology of the treaties between the government and the Cherokees between 1785 and 1868. Mooney, who lived with the Cherokees between 1887 and 1900, boldly sketches the principal lines of their complex history from pre-European times to 1900. Since Royce and Mooney produced those reports, much has been written on the Cherokees, their neighbors, their achievements, and their conquest and survival. All the later writers have built on the clarity and perception of those two great historians.-

--Karl H. Schlesier, American Anthropologist

"[Historical Sketch of the Cherokee is] regarded as sound, scholarly work... [on a] leading Indian tribe and... esteemed as [a] basic source... on Cherokee history."

--Arrell Morgan Gibson, The Journal of Southern History

"The illustrious James Mooney prepared his "Historical Sketch of the Cherokee" as an extended introduction to his "Myths of the Cherokee," which together formed part 1 of the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1900). It is probable that Mooney saw the two pieces as interrelated, since not only are historical narratives included in the "Myths," but also a wealth of historical and ethnological data are buried in extensive footnotes; the full volume also contains a Cherokee-English and English-Cherokee word list invaluable to the ethnohistorian researching historical personages, tribal synonymy, town and place names... Mooney's "Historical Sketch" can stand by itself and even after 75 years still provides the best capsule history of the Cherokees now available... Mooney possessed an extraordinary command of the documentary sources available in his day, a capacity to utilize the ethno-ethnohistory provided by his informants, a sound grasp of Cherokee ethnography and language based on intensive and empathetic fieldwork, plus an infectious enthusiasm that pervades his vigorous prose."

--Raymond D. Fogelson, Ethnohistory

Review of two books:

"Charles Royce's and James Mooney's books are reprinted from the original Bureau of American Ethnology works, which respectively appeared in the Fifth and Nineteenth Annual Reports... Both works are classics in the field. Royce provides a detailed chronology of the treaties between the government and the Cherokees between 1785 and 1868. Mooney, who lived with the Cherokees between 1887 and 1900, boldly sketches the principal lines of their complex history from pre-European times to 1900. Since Royce and Mooney produced those reports, much has been written on the Cherokees, their neighbors, their achievements, and their conquest and survival. All the later writers have built on the clarity and perception of those two great historians."

--Karl H. Schlesier, American Anthropologist

"[Historical Sketch of the Cherokee is] regarded as sound, scholarly work... [on a] leading Indian tribe and... esteemed as [a] basic source... on Cherokee history."

--Arrell Morgan Gibson, The Journal of Southern History

"The illustrious James Mooney prepared his "Historical Sketch of the Cherokee" as an extended introduction to his "Myths of the Cherokee," which together formed part 1 of the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1900). It is probable that Mooney saw the two pieces as interrelated, since not only are historical narratives included in the "Myths," but also a wealth of historical and ethnological data are buried in extensive footnotes; the full volume also contains a Cherokee-English and English-Cherokee word list invaluable to the ethnohistorian researching historical personages, tribal synonymy, town and place names... Mooney's "Historical Sketch" can stand by itself and even after 75 years still provides the best capsule history of the Cherokees now available... Mooney possessed an extraordinary command of the documentary sources available in his day, a capacity to utilize the ethno-ethnohistory provided by his informants, a sound grasp of Cherokee ethnography and language based on intensive and empathetic fieldwork, plus an infectious enthusiasm that pervades his vigorous prose."

--Raymond D. Fogelson, Ethnohistory

Review of two books:

"Charles Royce's and James Mooney's books are reprinted from the original Bureau of American Ethnology works, which respectively appeared in the Fifth and Nineteenth Annual Reports... Both works are classics in the field. Royce provides a detailed chronology of the treaties between the government and the Cherokees between 1785 and 1868. Mooney, who lived with the Cherokees between 1887 and 1900, boldly sketches the principal lines of their complex history from pre-European times to 1900. Since Royce and Mooney produced those reports, much has been written on the Cherokees, their neighbors, their achievements, and their conquest and survival. All the later writers have built on the clarity and perception of those two great historians."

--Karl H. Schlesier, American Anthropologist

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