American Betrayal

Description

Though the tragedy of the Trail of Tears is widely recognized today| the pervasive effects of the tribe’s uprooting have never been examined in detail.
Despite the Cherokees’ efforts to assimilate with the dominant white culture–running their own newspaper| ratifying a constitution based on that of the United States–they were never able to integrate fully with white men in the New World.
In “An American Betrayal|” Daniel Blake Smith’s vivid prose brings to life a host of memorable characters: the veteran Indian-fighter Andrew Jackson| who adopted a young Indian boy into his home; Chief John Ross| only one-eighth Cherokee| who commanded the loyalty of most Cherokees because of his relentless effort to remain on their native soil; most dramatically| the dissenters in Cherokee country–especially Elias Boudinot and John Ridge| gifted young men who were educated in a New England academy but whose marriages to local white girls erupted in racial epithets| effigy burnings| and the closing of the school.
Smith| an award-winning historian| offers an eye-opening view of why neither assimilation nor Cherokee independence could succeed in Jacksonian America.