Cherokee Rose - 1737 to 1830 (The Trail of Tears)
A serious, culturally rich historical novel that follows one Cherokee woman’s fight for family, identity, and justice during one of America’s most violent chapters. Still, as the journey unfolds, the narrative moves briskly from scene to terrible scene. Kirkus Reviews - "Get It" rating!
CHEROKEE ROSE SYNOPSIS
In 1838, a once proud and powerful tribe culturally disintegrates and transitions to the white man’s ways. Challenged by these turbulent times, Ella Waters (18), the daughter of a Freedman and a Cherokee in Georgia, with her slave and childhood friend Ezra (27), witness her parents’ murder, unseen by its hired assassin warrior, Tesali (29). The rational, idealistic young woman assumes family leadership and adopts her native heritage as she probates her estate in progressive Bennett Steel’s court, which frees her slaves. Collected by order of General Winfield Scott for deportation to Oklahoma Territory, the matriarch, her sisters Bella (16) and Lisa (14) unite in a holding camp under horrific, inhumane treatment and conditions with her father’s old friend and shaman, Dideyohvsgi (62.) For the self-defensive murder of a tormentor, State militia collectors managed by Profiteer Hiram Colly, direct her parent’s executioner to bullwhip her beloved Bella until dead. Transferred to U.S. Army control without Ezra, now free and mentored by the Judge who plans relocation to the territory over a water route, Ella vows to discover and establish a new life and home.
Included in the first detachment bound for Indian Territory led by her father’s and sister’s murderer/executioner turned scout and the white profiteer, she suffers starvation, pestilence, bigotry, and prejudice during the forced removal. River crossings by ferry drown many and almost include her clan, but Tesali, the scout, prevents that catastrophe. On the frigid northern route to Oklahoma during a record harsh winter, her parent’s murderer also prevents Ella’s abduction by white slavers who mistake her for prime product. A lengthy encampment on the bank of the ice-bound Mississippi challenges their food supply and Ella’s self-confidence. She nears an emotional break and sinks into alcoholism. In a drunken haze, she self-challenges her culture and religious beliefs as she searches her soul for integrity and direction. Occasional encounters with whites show people are not equal. Ella discovers that cruelty and hatred combine in the white culture with compassion and empathy. A freak accident rescues Ella and her clan. It removes them from the icy trails and provides a life-saving Conestoga for their protection. The wagon incident, mid-trip, discloses Ella Waters to Tesali as the daughter of the freedman he murdered. After that moment, wrenching fear complicates Ella’s intense search for identity. Unsatisfied, the morally heroic woman empathizes with her personal and her people’s pitiful plight. She establishes a healing wagon alternative to the Army’s primitive white man’s medicine and earns the moniker “Cherokee Rose” from her grateful fellow deportees. Her new status earns Ella and Lisa a warm welcome at a tavern near their destination. Its owner hosts Lisa for a taste of normality, only to give Ella and her sister a reality check when their fellow starving Indians eat the garbage left from the celebration. Arrival in the Territory offers hope, provisions, and reunification with Ezra who now studies law and clerks for Judge Steel’s court in Fort Smith. The fledging attorney travels to Ella’s land allotment and helps his old friends build their homestead. With the help of her clan and a runaway slave, Ella plants a corn crop and creates a fresh life. A dark storm cloud of locusts descends and devours her farm, and Tesali slave-captures and returns her worker. Devastated by her crop’s destruction and the retaliation execution of her abducted friend, Ella resigns her heritage and leads her family to jump their reservation.
During the escape, the greatest wise father in the tribe, Sequoyah, counsels and advises Ella that her people and the whites confront separate civil wars, and he encourages them to seek a secure life in their ancestral homeland. They attempt a riverboat return, but Colly, now a law enforcement officer, captures and returns the territorial escapees to custody in a Fort Smith internment camp. Judge Steel and his inexperienced attorney protégé, Ezra, press the first Habeas Corpus action on behalf of an Indian. Tesali, imprisoned for political murder, escapes confinement and Marshal Colly attempts capture. Ella settles their standoff, which proves the profiteer sponsored her father’s killing. With disjointed misgivings, she witnesses Tesali’s hanging and his mystical flight to the Upper World. The following contentious Waters trial explores nineteen-century native mores, questions tribal conversion to the white man’s spirituality and sets national precedents for Cherokee rights. Ella wins her case and celebrates freedom from government oppression as hostile whites socially attack and nationwide newspapers exalt her victory. Liberated, Ella the Cherokee vows a return to her ancestral home as her Freedman’s half faces an uncertain future.
HISTORICAL SETTING
Following the 1830 Indian Removal Act and the disputed 1835 Treaty of New Echota — signed by the minority "Treaty Party" of Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot without the authority of Principal Chief John Ross — President Martin Van Buren ordered enforcement in May 1838. General Winfield Scott led roughly 7,000 troops and state militia who rounded up more than 16,000 Cherokees at bayonet point from Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama, driving them into 31 removal forts and then into 11 larger internment camps concentrated in eastern Tennessee near Ross's Landing, the Cherokee Agency at Charleston, and Gunter's Landing.
Held through the summer of 1838 in crowded, drought-stricken stockades, hundreds died of dysentery, measles, and exposure before the march even began. After Chief Ross secured permission to conduct removal themselves, 17 detachments traveled roughly 800–1,200 miles overland and by water through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas between fall 1838 and March 1839. Missionary physician Elizur Butler estimated more than 4,000 Cherokees — nearly one-fifth of the nation, including Ross's wife Quatie — perished on the "trail where they cried."
In Indian Territory, survivors clashed with the Old Settlers already there. On June 22, 1839, Ross partisans invoked the Cherokee "Blood Law" and assassinated Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Boudinot; Stand Watie escaped. The July 12, 1839 Act of Union reunited the factions as one Cherokee Nation, followed by a new constitution that September.
CHEROKEE ROSE BY JAMES A. HUMPHREY ‧ Kirkus Review - Verdict Get It
An unflinching and often engaging look at a shameful time in American history.
This second novel in Humphrey’s historical series tells a story of the travails of a part-Cherokee family in the 19th century as they endure the Trail of Tears.
The author follows up Cherokee Rock(2023) with a story that starts in the spring of 1838. A formerly enslaved person, Benjamin Waters, is a cotton planter in northwest Georgia, where he lives with his Cherokee wife and their daughters, Bella, Ella, and Lisa. Life-shattering changes are just around the corner for them all; Indigenous groups, including Cherokee people, are being forced off their ancestral lands in the state, and the U.S. government has already begun sending many of them west.
To make matters worse, the Waters farm is attacked by outsiders, resulting in a tragedy that leaves two of the daughters to fend for themselves. They’re soon put into an internment camp, where conditions are brutal. Ella and Lisa are eventually forced to make a journey to unknown lands by incompetent and cruel members of the U.S. Army, including an Army scout named Tesali who has very recent history with the family.
The journey west, which will come to be known as the Trail of Tears, is complicated by numerous challenges. Humphrey’s story aptly portrays the tragic human side of this forced migration, as well as the occasional legal maneuverings associated with it. The Waters sisters undergo wretched treatment (at the internment camp, for instance, guards throw corn at the imprisoned people as if they’re feeding chickens); meanwhile, the book intriguingly informs readers of how the government used official acts, such as the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, to make such dehumanizing policies possible.
The inclusion of the mysterious, cold-blooded Tesali in the story also makes for a page-turning read. Some of the dialogue tends to state the obvious, as when a ferry owner’s wife tells members of the Waters family, “You folks have endured hard travel.” Still, as the journey unfolds, the narrative moves briskly from scene to terrible scene.
TRUE VOICE REVIEW - Texas Author's Magazine
Cherokee Rose by James A. Humphrey is a historically grounded novel of Cherokee removal, racial injustice, family survival, and legal identity. Set in 1838, the story follows Ella Waters, a young half-Cherokee woman whose family farm becomes the center of violence, greed, and political displacement. After a devastating attack, Ella is forced into adulthood quickly, carrying grief, responsibility, and the burden of protecting what remains of her family.
The novel’s strongest appeal lies in its cultural and historical detail. Humphrey incorporates Cherokee language, ceremony, and worldview while also confronting slavery, anti-Black racism, land theft, and the contradictions of American law. Ella is a strong central figure, and her relationship with Ezra gives the story emotional and moral complexity.
This is not a gentle historical novel. It includes graphic violence, racial slurs, murder, implied sexual violence, mutilation, and sustained trauma. The prose is often dense and explanatory, which may slow the pace for readers looking for a more streamlined adventure. Still, readers who value serious historical fiction with
educational purpose and cultural specificity will find Cherokee Rose substantial and memorable.
CHARACTER HIGHLIGHTS
ELLA WATERS Daughter of Benjamin Waters in Book One, Ella leads her family group with courage, spunk and dignity as she battles alcoholism, racism, injustice and the inhuman condition of the forced removal.
BELLA WATERS Second daughter of Benjamin, this Waters woman pays the ultimate price of being Cherokee.
LISA WATERS Third daughter and survivor of Book One who leads the family in Book Three.
TESALI Mysterious Cherokee warrior that haunts our hero Ella throughout her trials.
EZRA WATERS Freedman attorney who champions Ella's cause.
HIRAM COLLY Corrupt White lawman in charge of Ella's detachment on the forced removal.
