Deconstructing the Cherokee Nation

"Boulware imaginatively shows how clan, town, and regional loyalties defined Cherokee society deep into the eighteenth century. During these decades the Cherokees were hardly a singular identity, as local communities and geopolitical divisions structured society and only hesitatingly allowed for a national community to emerge."--Andrew K. Frank, Florida State University

"By exploring how village and regional affiliations shaped Cherokee life, Boulware illuminates the multilayered and dynamic nature of nationhood and Native self-definition. His nuanced analysis should lead all Native studies scholars to reconsider the persistent power of localism in Indian country."--Christina Snyder, Indiana University

This significant contribution to Cherokee studies examines the tribe's life during the eighteenth century, up to the Removal. By revealing town loyalties and regional alliances, Tyler Boulware uncovers a persistent identification hierarchy among the colonial Cherokee.

Boulware aims to fill the gap in Cherokee historical studies by addressing two significant aspects of Cherokee identity: town and region. Though other factors mattered, these were arguably the most recognizable markers by which Cherokee peoples structured group identity and influenced their interactions with outside groups during the colonial era.

This volume focuses on the understudied importance of social and political ties that gradually connected villages and regions and slowly weakened the localism that dominated in earlier decades. It highlights the importance of borderland interactions to Cherokee political behavior and provides a nuanced investigation of the issue of Native American identity, bringing geographic relevance and distinctions to the topic.

Tyler Boulware is assistant professor of history at West Virginia University.