BLOG...The Cherokee and The Slave

Here is the link to the Hidden Gems podcast, a collection of narrated short stories (thehiddengemspodcast.com.)

One of the short stories on the podcast is my Christmas story HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS STILL SING. It's the first chapter of my short family novella GABRIEL'S FAVORITE ANGEL. Here is a direct link to the story on The Hidden Gems Podcast website. 

Hark! The Herald Angels Still Sing Podcast

I hope you enjoy it, and thank you for listening.


You may also read the entire e-Book, Gabriel's Favorite Angel, here on Amazon.com.

My Friend ANN HAMPTON has allowed me to share an announcement and link to her important book A TO Z BIBLE GUIDE ON LIFE.  This is her introduction.

The world seems to be going crazy. Everywhere you look people are either angry, depressed or have no hope. There is so much hatred and violence that we want to stay inside and hide under the covers.

Rather than giving up, we should turn to the one source that could give us relief, The Bible. From A to Z, this book covers the main issues that trouble one's soul and how God's word can be a source of relief.

When you learn to live by his word rather than man's word or Satan's lies, things will open up and your life will change. My prayer is that this book will be an inspiration to you as well.

You can use this as a group or individual bible study by purchasing the workbook.

If you or someone you know is having a hard time trying to make sense of what is happening in the world today, check out Ann's new book A TO Z BIBLE GUIDE ON LIFE.

A to Z Bible...

EAGLE HUNTER, the Cherokee is the name of the leading character in my historical novel, The Cherokee and the Slave. When I came up with that fictitious name I didn’t know that professional hunters in Western Mongolia practice a form of falconry using trained golden eagles!  In the Bayan-Olgii Province there are an estimated 250 Kazakhs who hunt with eagles today.  Eagle hunters hunt red foxes and hares during the annual Golden Eagle Festival of Mongolia, held during the cold winter months when it is easier to see the gold colored foxes against the snow. 

Each eagle hunter starts training his eagle when it is young to develop trust and dependency. The eagle hunters and their trained birds hunt from horseback.

Archaeologists trace falconry in Central Asia back as far as the first or second millennium BC.

The Eagle Hunter of my historical novel is one of the Cherokee farmers and plantation-owners who bought black slaves to work on their properties in Georgia and Tennessee. In 1838, when the armed militia routed the 13,000 Cherokee men, women and children from their homes and  forced them to move to the Oklahoma Territory, some of the Cherokee farmers took their slaves...

Tags: eagle hunters of western mongolia

In 1838, Eagle Hunter faces a terrible future. The armed militia is forcing all Cherokee men, women and children to leave their traditional  eastern homes and travel west.  The brutal 900-mile journey to the Oklahoma Territory came to be known as the TRAIL OF TEARS because so many died along the way.  Eagle Hunter considers joining the Cherokee families who escape from the soldiers and flee to the hills, to the Smoky Mountains of Carolina.

Of course Eagle Hunter is my fictional character, THE CHEROKEE, but the Cherokee escapees' story is part of history. General Winfield Scott's militiamen were never able to round up all of the Cherokee families who hid away in the mountains. Today, descendants of those refugee families still live in and around those Carolina mountains.

Every summer, in that location, Cherokee, North Carolina the famous outdoor drama, UNTO THESE HILLS tells the amazing story of that escape. Every night the production's actors recount this exciting, true adventure story.  The sounds of gunfire, dramatic language and music echo across the wide expanse of the impressive amphitheater.

The historical significance of the production caught my attention when I first saw it several years ago.  Later on, as part of my research for THE CHEROKEE AND THE SLAVE I visited a number of historical sites in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Oklahoma. 

If possible, I...

Tags: 1838 indian removal, cherokee history, cherokee north carolina, cherokees escape from armed militia, trail of tears, unto these hills outdoor drama

There is an important sequence in THE CHEROKEE AND THE SLAVE that describes how the Cherokee, Eagle Hunter meets the Slave, Amanda.

Eagle Hunter visits Colonel Simpson's Alabama plantation on his way to purchase slaves.  He hears Colonel Simpson call out "Mandy!" loudly summoning his young house slave.  Then again after a few minutes Simpson repeats the summons.... "Mandy!" 

Later that night, Eagle Hunter welcomes Amanda into his warm embrace using the only name he knows, "Mandy." 

In contrast to Colonel Simpson's loud voice, exhibiting his ownership of the young slave, Eagle Hunter's soft voice tells an entirely different story.

I was inspired to write that sequence by Mrs. Amanda King, a friend who passed away several years ago.  Mrs. King worked as housekeeper in the home of a boutique owner, who also utilized her skills as a seamstress in his store. When he announced that he wanted to take Mrs. King along on a family trip to Walt Disney World, she refused and made this very firm objection, " I don't want to have to hear you yelling "Mandy!..all over Walt Disney World." 

Amanda King was just that kind of feisty housekeeper. I have to believe that my great, great, grandmother Amanda Simpson was just that kind of feisty slave.

Tags: mandy her name is amanda, the cherokee meets the slave, the feisty young slave