Cherokee History and the Spirit Family

This Cherokee history from the mid-1700s to the early 1900s is grounded on my great-great grandmother Annie Spirit’s life from 1826 to 1910, and the lives of her ancestors, aunts and uncles, siblings, children and grandchildren. Illustrated with maps, paintings and photographs and supported by original documents, it tracks the rise and fall of the Cherokee Nation and the Spirit family. It shows the resilience of the Cherokee people in never giving up on their destiny, drawing on contemporary sources for details about what they faced during each generation.

The boundaries of their territory shrank until they lost their entire remaining homeland in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina in 1838. After the devastation of the Trail of Tears they created a thriving new nation in the west, featuring an elected democratic government and a commitment to public education. Drawing on claims filed in 1842 by members of Annie’s family, it is possible to paint a clear picture of their rich lives. After surviving the internecine horrors of the Civil War, they continued to control their destiny until the U.S. decided to take over their government in the 1890s. Cherokees created the Male and Female Seminaries as the pinnacle of their education system. Their dream ended in the early 1900s when their government, courts, schools and press were abolished, and the State of Oklahoma was established in 1907.