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Cherokee In Controversy: The Life of Jesse Bushyhead. By Dan B. Wimberly. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2017. xviii + 211 pp. $29.00 cloth.
Dan B. Wimberly's carefully researched book, Cherokee in Controversy: The Life of Jesse Bushyhead, presents the life story of Rev. Jesse Bushyhead (1804–1844), a central though secondary figure in the years leading up to and immediately following the removal of the Eastern Cherokee Nation to Indian Territory. Those familiar with the history of the Eastern Cherokee Nation will be familiar with Chief John Ross and missionary Evan Jones. Bushyhead was a close co-worker of both Ross and Jones. The book places Bushyhead in historical context and relates his role in significant events. Single chapters deal with Bushyhead's ministry in Tennessee, the events leading to removal, the Trail of Tears, settlement in Indian Territory (eastern Oklahoma), and Bushyhead's ministry in the west. There is also a chapter about Bushyhead's participation as mediator in an ill-fated United States government attempt to negotiate the peaceful removal of the Seminole tribe from Florida.
There are several dimensions to the life of Rev. Jesse Bushyhead—Bushyhead as mixed-blood Cherokee; Bushyhead as Christian convert and minister/missionary; Bushyhead as Cherokee political leader; and Bushyhead as slaveowner. The author argues that Bushyhead's identity, character, and lifework were forged in the fires of controversy. There was constant controversy, in all aspects of his...