Losing St. Christopher: Book Two of the Cherokee Series.
(Cherokee Trilogy: Volume Two). David
Michael Harding. Q&CY Books. June 2014. 352 pp. ISBN#: 9780985728526.
This
second book of the Cherokee Series opens with a disturbing premise. It seems that Albert Speer, a Hitler
henchman, got his idea of ethnic cleansing from early white settlers in
American history, those who were determined to get rid of the American Indian
race no matter what the cost. It’s not
for this reviewer to deny or agree with this horrific reality, but it is for
the reader to follow the notion in this novel.
Educated, so-called Christians are eager to have Cherokee men and women
become educated, actually take part in the spread of Christianity among the
Cherokee nation, but there the positive mission ends!
Chancellor
is the son of well-known, respected leaders of the Cherokee nation. His mother dies tragically but makes
Chancellor promise to get an education among the white men. He does so with much vigor and agrees to go
along with all he is asked to do, although he finds it impossible to reconcile
Christian principles of the “three in One God” with what he knows of the One
Spirit God his Cherokee nation has believed and followed for many, many years. He is unable to share his skills in medicine,
learned at the knees of his mother as they scouted nature to find herbs and
plants of curative value, because white men cannot pray to the Spirit as they
should while they administer this medicine.
Ironically, it is this medicine that works many times when white
doctors’ remedies are fruitless and actually cause harm rather than healing.
Tensions
loom large when Cherokee mission students begin to marry and date white
women. Prejudice is large with death
threats, tarring and feathering, and other repulsive practices, meant to
frighten the young Cherokee men into submission and obedience, which basically
means to “stick to your own kind.” Monterey is a young woman with whom
Chancellor has fallen in love; however, they must separate for a while.
Meanwhile
Totsuhwa, Chancellor’s father, has survived his personal, spiritual crisis and
travels to New Ocheta to meet his son. Both have matured with age and knowledge
of the white man’s ruses, Chancellor in particular unjustly accused after a maritime
altercation. On and the story goes, with
one injustice after another told in a very real way, without drama and yet
carrying the weight of slowly increasing defeat, all the way to the momentous
last journey. The spirit of these
incredible warriors is stronger than the travesties forced upon them by white
men. Unique to this depiction is the
process of how the Cherokee learned to read and write the white man’s language,
which inspired them to create their own alphabet based on sounds and eventually
allowed them to create a newspaper in which they strengthened the union of
their people, a strategy quickly squelched again by the white man.
Losing St. Christopher… is a solid, fascinating read that
depicts the degradation of the Cherokee nation, evidenced by the experiences of
Totsuhwa, Chancellor and his family, and other notable Cherokee men. While many are guilty, the author gives
credit to those who refused to take part in the extermination of an Indian
tribe and gave respect and honor where it was due.
Daniel
Michael Harding has crafted a series that deserves to be required reading in
classrooms throughout the United States.
Although it is fiction, it is clearly well-researched, carefully written
historical fiction of the highest quality, a revelation of truths beyond
comprehension that need to be understood and preserved as a permanent part of
American history. Finely written, David Michael Harding!
