'Blood Moon' Traces Feud Between Cherokee Chiefs, And How It Shapes The Tribe Today
A new history of the Cherokee nation dispels all stereotypes of historical writing as dull or dry. Author John Sedgwick‘s vivid “Blood Moon” looks at the tribe’s history through the lens of a dramatic feud between two powerful Cherokee chiefs, whose decisions around the Trail of Tears and the Civil War had repercussions still felt today.
Here & Now‘s Eric Westervelt (@Ericnpr) talks with Sedgwick about the book.
Book Excerpt: ‘Blood Moon’
By John Sedgwick
This is the last big surprise of the Civil War: It was fought not just by the whites of the North and South, and by the blacks who mostly came in after Emancipation. It was also fought by Indians,I as many as 30,000 of them, from the Seneca and Shawnee of the Northeast to the Creeks and Seminoles in the Southwest, nineteen tribes altogether. They fought at Second Bull Run, Antietam, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg in the East. But most of their battles were fought west of the Mississippi, beyond the range of the eastern newspapers that covered the war.
While the Indians were
