Cherokee Women in Charge: Female Power and Leadership in Native American Tribes of Eastern North America | Historical Study on Indigenous Governance & Women's Roles

“Cherokee Women in Charge: Female Power and Leadership in American Indian Nations of Eastern North America” is an ideal book to learn the history of the United States from a fresh and innovative viewpoint.Impeccably researched and gracefully written—the author manages to make a scholarly work engaging and readable. She takes big subjects like “The Labor of Cherokee Women,” or “Cherokee Women: Preservers of Heritage, History and Language” and provides specific examples through researched individual lives to make her point.The reader comes away with a new appreciation, admiration, and more than a little envy of the equality and respect that Cherokee society gave their women before the arrival of Europeans. The writing is even-handed and factual, despite many opportunities to vilify European invaders.From the origin story to battle-ready warriors, Cherokee women were never considered “less than.” As author writes, the Cherokee believed in a gender-free God, and their origin story relates that human male and female were created simultaneously. “Cherokee Women were not derived from Man. Women were not secondary, or an afterthought. The first woman was not a temptress or deceiver. She was not cursed. To be a Cherokee woman is a powerful blessing.”The voice of author Karen Coody Cooper rings true and carries on the bravery of her Cherokee ancestry; proud and never afraid to express her own opinions.Rachel Berenson Perry