Cherokee Sister:The Collected Writings of Catharine Brown, 1818-1823

Description

Catharine Brown (1800?-1823) became Brainerd Mission School’s first Cherokee convert to Christianity| a missionary teacher| and the first Native American woman whose own writings saw extensive publication in her lifetime.
After her death from tuberculosis at age twenty-three| the missionary organization that had educated and later employed Brown commissioned a posthumous biography| Memoir of Catharine Brown| which enjoyed widespread contemporary popularity and praise.
In the following decade| her writings| along with those of other educated Cherokees| became highly politicized and were used in debates about the removal of the Cherokees and other tribes to Indian Territory.
Although she was once viewed by literary critics as a docile and dominated victim of missionaries who represented the tragic fate of Indians who abandoned their identities| Brown is now being reconsidered as a figure of enduring Cherokee revitalization| survival| adaptability| and leadership.
In Cherokee Sister Theresa Strouth Gaul collects all of Brown’s writings| consisting of letters and a diary| some appearing in print for the first time| as well as Brown’s biography and a drama and poems about her.
This edition of Brown’s collected works and related materials firmly establishes her place in early nineteenth-century culture and her influence on American perceptions of Native Americans.
Theresa Strouth Gaul is a professor of English at Texas Christian University.
She is the editor of To Marry an Indian: The Marriage of Harriett Gold and Elias Boudinot in Letters| 1823-1839 and a coeditor of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers.