A sweeping new history reveals how the Cherokees became a nation as they navigated a century and a half of intertribal conflicts and colonial expansion that threatened their way of life.

For more than 150 years between their first encounters with the English in the 1670s and forced removal along the Trail of Tears, the Cherokees negotiated mounting pressures. As their world was convulsed by the spread of European diseases, competition for guns, furs, and deerskins, and imperial powers’ unrelenting pursuit of “savage” allies, Cherokee communities responded by creating new solidarities. At the dawn of the eighteenth century, the idea of unity among the widely dispersed Cherokees would scarcely have occurred to their leaders. A century later, chiefs would declare unequivocally that they stood for the whole Cherokee nation.

Steps toward national unity were partially a response to the exigencies of war. But while armed conflict was frequent, David Narrett shows that the bonds of Cherokee peoplehood were forged primarily through efforts to maintain peace and secure their livelihoods. The Cherokees—both men and women—were remarkably skillful diplomats who practiced peacemaking as a distinctive spiritual art in which adversaries would reconcile through a mutual and symbolic forgetting of wrongs inflicted on one another. Pragmatic and purposeful, Cherokees adeptly managed relationships with colonials and Indigenous rivals, seeking to preserve their independence and living space and to maximize advantages from trade.

Rich in detail and insight, and told through captivating personal stories, The Cherokees offers a portrait of the perseverance that built a nation. Amid an onslaught of struggle and change, the Cherokees became a people who survived against all odds.

"Draws attention to a people’s vigorous, creative, and long-standing agency in affirming a sense of collective identity…an informed, astute investigation of Cherokee survivance." - Kirkus Reviews

"An enjoyable, enlightening, and captivating portrait of the Cherokee and how they faced the adversity and onslaught of struggle and change that threatened their very existence…Narrett’s is military and diplomatic history of the highest quality. It is also American history." - New York Journal of Books

"Monumental…Narrett has written the definitive history of an incremental genocide; it makes grim but important reading." - Open Letters Review

"David Narrett's The Cherokees is a master class in historical analysis. This deeply researched book draws readers into the world of the Cherokee people as they fight to not only survive but thrive. Destined to become an instant classic, The Cherokees is a must-read." - Gregory Smithers, author of Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America

"Rich with personal stories and deep historical insight, this book reveals the Cherokee people’s remarkable ability to adapt and endure." - Do South