George F. Scheer

A school of historians has grown up whose output is mostly the collection of representative contemporary accounts of the subject they are investigating. To me, this school has Henry Steel Commager's "The Blue and the Grey" as its touchstone. George Scheer and Hugh Rankin's effort is shorter, but it does convey the high points reasonably well. The usual mindset of this period is to convey an impression that the "Rebels" are Good and the British were bad!. My mind has often been teased by the show more concept that "The War of Independence" was a civil war, rather than a righteous uprising. "Rebels and Redcoats" has not much in it for a mind looking for material from that point of view. Pity. show less

Thirteen tales James Mooney collected with the assistance of Will West Long, himself a Cherokee, from the "aged and respected storytellers of the tribe" and published in 1900 as "The Myths of the Cherokee."

These tales are as authentic an account of Cherokee culture and thought as we are like to be able to get in the absence of information about the early Cherokee people.

These would be good for short, bed-time or camping reading.
Titles are:
The First Fire
How the Groundhog Lost his Tail
The show more Rabbit and the Possum Seek a Wife
How the Terrapin Beat the Rabbit
How the Turkey Got His Beard
The Rabbit and the Tar Wolf
Why the Mole Lives Underground
How the Deer Got His Horns
Why the Deer's Teeth ARe Blunt
How the Redbird Got His Color
Why the Terrapin's Shell is Scarred
How the Rabbit Stole the Otter's Coat
Why the Possum's Tail is Bare show less

Some history about the Cherokee starts about this catalog of animal myths of the Cherokee nation. Written for children, but suitable for any age really.