The Cherokees, by similarity of language, have been determined to be a branch of the great Iroquoian family of Indians. They are believed to have emigrated to the Southern Appalachians about the Thirteenth Century. They found the country occupied by various branches of the Muscogee or Creek people, who inhabited the Tennessee River valley to upper East Tennessee and North Carolina; and the headwaters of Tugaloo and Chattahoochie Rivers in Georgia and South Carolina.The Muscogee or Creek Indians are believed to have emigrated from Mexico to the mouth of the Mississippi about the year 1200 AD. The word Muscogee means Mexco-ulgae, Mexican People.Intermittent warfare, lasting through several centuries, was waged for possession of the mountainous country. Eventually, the Creeks, Kusatees, and Uchees, all of Muscogee blood, were forced to the southward. The Shawnees, who occupied Middle Tennessee, were forced northward into Ohio. The Cherokees, by right of conquest, claimed all the mountainous section now embraced in East Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and North Georgia. They claimed in addition as their hunting grounds, Middle Tennessee and Kentucky. De Soto, who traversed the Cherokee country in 1540, found them in substantially the same location as during the English period of settlement. The Cherokees had dealings with Virginia as early as 1689. Their principal affairs, however, were handled by the English through the Colony of South Carolina, and it is from the South Carolina records that we get the first mention of Cherokee chiefs. De Soto visited numerous Cherokee towns, but failed in every instance to mention the name of the chief. The original Cherokee settlement was the old town Kituwah, at the junction of Ocona Lufty and Tuckasegee Rivers. The tribe was from the earliest times divided into seven clans, and a few of the town-names indicate that each clan may have originally occupied a separate village. The seven clans were, Ani-gatugewa, Kituwah People; Ani-kawi, Deer People; Ani-waya, Wolf People; Ani-Sahani, Blue Paint People; Ani-wadi, Red Paint People; Ani-Tsiskwa, Bird People; and Ani-Gilahi, Long Hair People.

Irving, the nephew of Washington Irving, travelled west with Henry Ellsworth to make treaties with the Pawnees in 1833, a trip which formed the basis for his best known work, INDIAN SKETCHES (1835), and this book which, because of its narrative format rather than its attention to detail, is labeled as fiction.

Sauk Indian chief Black Hawk tells his life story from his childhood to fighting the Black Hawk War and finally living in peace with the white man.

A retelling of the Black Hawk War that brings into focus the forces struggling for control over the American frontier. Until 1822, the Sauk Nation occupied one of North America's largest and most prosperous Indian settlements, the envy of white Americans who had already begun to encroach upon the rich Indian land. When the inevitable conflicts turned violent, the Sauks were forced into exile, banished forever from the east side of the Mississippi River. Black Hawk and his followers rose up in the spring of 1832 and defiantly crossed the Mississippi from Iowa to Illinois to reclaim their ancestral home. Though the war lasted only three months, no other violent encounter between white America and native peoples embodies so clearly the essence of the Republic's inner conflict between its belief in freedom and human rights and its insatiable appetite for new territory.--From publisher description.

AN ELITE FIGHTING FORCE UNLIKE THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN . . . Scouring the darkest corners of the Highlands and Western Isles, Robert the Bruce handpicks ten warriors to help him in his quest to free Scotland from English rule. They are the best of the best, chosen for their superior skills in each discipline of warfare. And to lead his secret Highland Guard, Bruce chooses the greatest warrior of all. The ultimate Highland warlord and a swordsman without equal, Tor MacLeod has no intention of being drawn into Scotland’s war against the English. Dedicated to his clan, the fiercely independent chief answers to no one—especially not to his alluring new bride, bartered to him in a bid to secure his command of the deadliest fighting force the world has ever seen. The treacherous chit who made her way to Tor’s bed may have won his hand, but she will never claim his heart. Although her husband’s reputation is as fierce as his manner, Christina Fraser believes that something softer hides beneath his brutal shell. But the only warmth she feels is in their bed, in glorious moments of white-hot desire that disappear with the dawn. When Christina’s reckless bid to win her husband’s love goes awry and thrusts them into danger on the eve of war, Tor will face his ultimate battle: to save his wife and to open his heart—before it’s too late.