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10:08:00 PM EDT
Feeling Sad
Book Review: Forests of The Night
My camera is back from the shop:::::Kas doing her little happy dance, which looks a lot like a plump Snoopy dancing:::now as soon as I can find all the bits and pieces to hook it up to the computer I will have pictures for you!
Today I slept in--until two o'clock. I was, as they say in the hills, plumb tuckered out. Sometimes I need to catch up on my sleep. Fortunately Dave was off work and awake so I could sleep. There are times I wonder if it is my diabetes making me feel so exhausted all the time. I swear I feel tired all the way to my bones.
I just finished reading a very enjoyable library book called "Forests of the Night" by James W. Hall.
It is set in Cherokee, NC, where the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation has its reservation, and , coincidentally, where we went on our vacation in March.
The story starts with the very touching and heroic tale of Tsali, the Cherokee man who resisted having his home stolen from him during the "removal" of the Trail of Tears Era. After some Federal soldiers were killed when they tried to drive his family from their home,Tsali and his children hid in the mountains. Tsali had never killed another human being, but as they drove his family from their home a soldier stabbed his wife in the back with a bayonet. Tsali killed the soldier with an axe. They fled to the mountains and evaded capture by the whites. An all out search was called. After quite a while, a Cherokee man appeared with an message from the Cherokee elders. They told Tsali that if he would surrender his life--and the lives of his sons and daughters--to the United States government, President Jackson said that the rest of the Cherokees would be allowed to stay on their own property.
Tsali surrendered, for the good of his people, and watched as the United States government firing squad shot his sons and daughters to death. Then he was executed.
This is a true story.
The fictional part of the book picks up in modern time. I enjoyed it a great deal. The book resists making a lot of stereotypes, and has some thrilling parts in it that makes itdoubly enjoyable.
Bookreporter.com - FORESTS OF THE NIGHT by James W. Hall
"Police detective Charlotte Monroe arrives home from a grueling day of tests devised to ascertain her special skills at reading faces and body language, and finds her husband and daughter deep in conversation in the kitchen with a stranger. He looks vaguely familiar, and when she recognizes him as Number Eight on the FBI's most wanted list, she slips into her home office to alert the authorities. While she is on the phone, the man, Jacob Bright Sky Panther, abruptly leaves, and Charlotte soon discovers that her teenaged daughter Gracey has gone missing. The SWAT team is called, the chase is on, and Hall's singular skill at interweaving a dense, complicated plot into a very readable thriller has the reader turning pages...."
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My family is Cherokee, members of the Oklahoma Nation. My father was so interested in Tsali and often used his name as passwords for his computer. The book would certainly be of interest to him, and I am so sorry he's not among us to read it now. I must read it in his stead! Thanks for sharing this review! Lisa
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When people talk about genocide, often Hitler is trotted out as a prime example. Funny how the history books and our government has glossed over our own history and another prime example of genocide.
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((((Osiyo and Osda Sunalei)))))....My grandmother was from the eastern band of Cherokees in North Carolina.....in fact much of my family remains there still.....I know of this story and yes it is a true story......many do not know of the many bad and unjustice things that happened to my people......In fact Andrew Jackson was a terrible man.....who lied and even killed many Cheorkee People....and other Native Americans, sold their scalps (Men, woman, and even children) also made his horses reigns out of the skins of Indian People......these are just a few things Im sure many people even today do not know about.....and to think I have to see his face on the front of a 20 dollar bill......(sad) dohiya my friend
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PS....It is good to read about the true history of Native American indian people......too bad in the schools history books it is still even today the truth is still hidden. -
This sounds like a fine book.
4/21/05 5:25 PM