Cherokee [Images of America] by M. Anna Fariello

I suspect that if a life-long resident of Cherokee, North Carolina, and a member of the Eastern Band of the Cherokees did a picture book about Cherokee, the chapters would reflect the communities of the Eastern Band – Big Cove, Big Y, Birdtown, Paint Town, and Wolftown. Such a book would include pictures of important community institutions like The Boys Club – which retains its historical name though it now serves girls as well as boys - and Cherokee High School, and the Immersion School where students speak only the Cherokee language, the Cherokee One Feather newspaper, and the Casino where many residents work and that financially supports the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. In contrast this real book of historical photographs with captions makes no effort to capture contemporary life in Cherokee, North Carolina. Although the second chapter concerns “Family Life,” even the chapter on “Work and School” emphasizes pictures of crafts makers. The “Community Traditions” chapter again puts the emphasis on public events designed to attract tourists, as do the rest of the chapters. Despite what it lacks in focus on Cherokee as a community, it does combine 20^th Century pictures that give some historical perspective to Cherokee as a community that caters to tourists. As a tourist who has visited Cherokee since the 1940s and a one-time nearby resident whose children attended school with Cherokee kids, I did enjoy looking through the pictures. The author, M. Anna Fariello, is retired from working at Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library, and has published three books on Cherokee crafts.

Charleston, South Carolina: Acadia Publishing, 2018. 127 pages with black-amd-white historical photographs on every page. 6.5” X 9.25” trade paperback