Few places are more beautiful than the natural surroundings of the Qualla Boundry where the Eastern Band of Cherokees [with an “s” please! – they are people, not animals!] have their ancestral home, and few people are more attractive, yet the cover of this book is arguably the ugliest I’ve ever encountered. I seriously doubt if I can ever sell a single copy! Anyway, this is an important economic history of the Eastern Band in the twentieth century. One of the strengths of this book is that it puts developments in Cherokee in the context of economic development in the South and in other Native American communities. The author, Christopher Arris Oakley, teaches History at East Carolina University. This is his third book on North Carolina Indians.
Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2018. 265 pages with and Index, Bibliography, Notes and photos. Hardback with pictorial cover