CHEROKEE ROCK By James A. Humphrey - Kirkus Review - Verdict Get It
Humphrey’s historical novel observes life from the Cherokee perspective.
The year is 1780. Enoli, a Cherokee of the Paint Clan, lives in a region that will become modern-day Georgia. He’s only 10 years old when his mother dies from smallpox, a disease that spreads quickly and against which traditional healing methods seem to have little effect. Enoli finds that he has a calling to be a healer; he can also communicate with a squirrel named Saloli. Making an enemy of the shaman Mohi, who attended to his mother in her final days, he comes under the tutelage of a more capable healer named Son of Stone Cloud. Enoli enters a five-year apprenticeship with Son of Stone Cloud, who teaches Enoli (who will later be called Dideyohvsgi once his apprenticeship is completed) a rudimentary type of inoculation against smallpox. Disease is not the only challenge the Cherokee and other native people face; they also face constant conflict with settlers who keep pushing westward. Despite peace agreements such as the Treaty of Hopewell, the violence is immense. The narrative moves briskly while establishing the tinderbox that is Enoli’s environment. Those who seek peace with the settlers wind up betrayed; those who seek war wind up killing innocent people and perpetuating more violence. The mixture of differing personalities and opinions on the Cherokee side helps to paint a nuanced picture. Straightforward prose moves the story along, but the characters tend to speak in simple dialogue that can make distinguishing one character from another difficult. (They tend to say plain things like “What do you think they’re doing?” and “What a disappointment!”) Nevertheless, the story keeps readers invested; the time and place depicted in the story is dangerous for all involved.
A studied look at the deadly challenges facing Indigenous people in 18th-century America.
CHEROKEE ROSE BY JAMES A. HUMPHREY ‧ Kirkus Review - Verdict Get It
An unflinching and often engaging look at a shameful time in American history.
This second novel in Humphrey’s historical series tells a story of the travails of a part-Cherokee family in the 19th century as they endure the Trail of Tears.
The author follows up Cherokee Rock(2023) with a story that starts in the spring of 1838. A formerly enslaved person, Benjamin Waters, is a cotton planter in northwest Georgia, where he lives with his Cherokee wife and their daughters, Bella, Ella, and Lisa. Life-shattering changes are just around the corner for them all; Indigenous groups, including Cherokee people, are being forced off their ancestral lands in the state, and the U.S. government has already begun sending many of them west. To make matters worse, the Waters farm is attacked by outsiders, resulting in a tragedy that leaves two of the daughters to fend for themselves. They’re soon put into an internment camp, where conditions are brutal. Ella and Lisa are eventually forced to make a journey to unknown lands by incompetent and cruel members of the U.S. Army, including an Army scout named Tesali who has very recent history with the family. The journey west, which will come to be known as the Trail of Tears, is complicated by numerous challenges. Humphrey’s story aptly portrays the tragic human side of this forced migration, as well as the occasional legal maneuverings associated with it. The Waters sisters undergo wretched treatment (at the internment camp, for instance, guards throw corn at the imprisoned people as if they’re feeding chickens); meanwhile, the book intriguingly informs readers of how the government used official acts, such as the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, to make such dehumanizing policies possible. The inclusion of the mysterious, cold-blooded Tesali in the story also makes for a page-turning read. Some of the dialogue tends to state the obvious, as when a ferry owner’s wife tells members of the Waters family, “You folks have endured hard travel.” Still, as the journey unfolds, the narrative moves briskly from scene to terrible scene.
An unflinching and often engaging look at a shameful time in American history.
Recommended: CHEROKEE REEL
Full Review: Book 3 in a historical fiction series exploring the Cherokee in the 19th century.
In Humphrey’s previous work, Cherokee Rose (2023), indigenous groups were forcibly relocated by the U.S. government to places west of the Mississippi. This installment begins in one of those places: Fort Smith, Arkansas. The novel centers on Lisa Waters, a half-Cherokee woman who journeyed west with her sisters. While one sister died en route and another was murdered early on, Lisa lives a prosperous life with her husband, a freedman and attorney named Ezra. Lisa and Ezra enjoy nice parties and engage in philanthropy, yet divisions exist within the Cherokee Nation. Not everyone within the nation supports Cherokee Party president John Ross, nor is there consensus on the legality of holding slaves. Some, like a man named Standhope Watie and his followers, are more than willing to resort to violence. Things only get more contentious with the outbreak of the Civil War. Some Cherokee side with the Union, some with the Confederacy. Lisa becomes a nurse for the North and Ezra an army captain. After Ezra is killed, Lisa begins living the life of a guerilla fighter. Even when the war ends, plenty of danger will still come her way in a land “decimated by years of battle.” Humphrey takes a lively look at the complexities of indigenous participation in the Civil War. From antebellum groups like the Knights of the Golden Circle to the federal government’s postwar treatment of tribes, plenty of important historical topics are dealt with here. Early in the novel, in particular, some crucial events, such as the murder trial of Standhope Watie, are light on details and can be confusing for those unfamiliar with the circumstances surrounding such episodes. Yet as the narrative progresses, the harsh realities of such a brutal period are easily understood.
A fast-paced portrayal of a lesser-known corner of U.S. Civil War history and its aftermath. – KIRKUS Review
​
​