Ned Christie's War

I finished this book about a week before the trip began, so since then my memory and impression of it have been severely altered by the enormous influx of knowledge over the past two weeks. But here's what I can say...

This read was by no means strenuous and I did in fact enjoy reading it more than either of the other two, but if I had to pick one of our three books to get rid of, it would be this ones no questions asked. I base that simply on a matter of utility.

That having been said, it was good to have a Cherokee-authored novel on the reading list. It fulfilled a different genre and presented culture and history in a way that made you look for it and make inferences rather than be spoon fed lists of information.

My opinion would be to give a little more direction in reading this novel, and perhaps include the option of omitting reading chapters 14-19 as they are pretty much storyline continuum of people continuously attacking Ned's fort. For example: Chp. 13- What is Ned Christie's problem with Rusk? Chp. 12- What group within the Cherokee's is Ned a part of and what are their beliefs? (A: Nighthawks)... Most importantly the question of- What is the greater historical issue going on right now and how does that relate to contemporary Cherokee political issues today? (US govt. passage of Dawes Act).
All of it is crucial now, but reading the book beforehand with virtually no knowledge to connect anything to, I read over a bunch of crucial aspects of Cherokee culture without realizing it at all. It probably would have been best to wait to read it until about now.