The Athenaeum Study Club met Jan. 25 with Peggy Keck reviewing the book “Cherokee Cavaliers.”
“Cherokee Cavaliers” is a compilation of 200 letters chronicling more than 40 years of history in the old Cherokee Nation. The 40 years, (1832- 1872), from removal through the Civil War to Reconstruction, spanned by these letters were extremely important and especially turbulent for the Cherokee Nation. The letters were the correspondence of the Ridge-Watie-Boudinot families, which were the minority leaders in the Nation and the group known as the “Treaty Party.” The lives and thoughts of John Rollin Ridge, who followed the Gold Rush to California; Stand Watie, Confederate general in the Civil War; and E. C. Boudinot the Cherokee delegate to the Confederate Congress are presented in sequence with annotations providing insights into the political, social and personal dynamics pervading the many Cherokees and other Indian groups.
The love of the Nation and each individual family is a recurring subject in the many communications between this highly respected and remarkable family. From enduring the removal from their homeland to the assigned land, the Civil War battles, and the intertribal disputes, the “Treaty Party” Cherokees were a prosperous, productive and progressive people who contributed to this intriguing phase of Oklahoma and Indian history.
