The following production, aside from its intrinsic merit, will, no doubt, be read with increased interest when it is known that the author is a “Cherokee Indian,” born in the woods—reared in the midst of the wildest scenery—and familiar with all that is thrilling, fearful, and tragical in a forest-life. His own experiences would seem to have well fitted him to portray in living colors the fearful scenes which are described in this book, connected as he was, from the age of seventeen up to twenty-three, with the tragical events which occurred so frequently in his own country, the rising of factions, the stormy controversies with the whites, the fall of distinguished chiefs, family feuds, individual retaliation and revenge, and all the consequences of that terrible civil commotion which followed the removal of the Cherokee Nation from the east to the west of the Mississippi, under the administration of Gen. Jackson. When a small boy, he saw his father (the celebrated chief and orator, known among the Indians by the name of “Sca-lee-los-kee”) stabbed to death by a band of assassins employed by a political faction, in the presence of his wife and children at his own home. While the bleeding corpse of his father was yet lying in the house, surrounded by his weeping family, the news came that his grand-father, a distinguished old war-chief, was also killed; and, fast upon this report, that others of his near relatives were slain. His mother, a white woman and a native of Connecticut, fled from the bloody precincts of the nation, with her children, and sought refuge in the United States. Her oldest son, “Yellow Bird,” after remaining several years among the whites, returned to his own country and asserted the rights of his family, which had been prostrated since the death of his father. He was intimately concerned for several years in the dangerous contentions which made the Cherokee Nation a place of blood; and, finally, not succeeding in overthrowing the murderers of his father and the oppressors of his country, who were then in power, and, having furnished them with a pretext for putting him out of the way by killing a prominent member of their party, he left his country once more and, in 1850, came to the State of California. So far, we know his history. Whether he will ever meet with success in his purposes with regard to his own people, we cannot say, but we hope that he will.
The perusal of this work will give those who are disposed to be curious an opportunity to estimate the character of Indian talent. The aboriginal race has produced great warriors, and powerful orators, but literary men—only a few.