# books on Georgian native americans



## Cougar Spray (Nov 18, 2013)

what would you guys recommend as the most comprehensive, informative book on native peoples that lived in modern day GA?  thanks in advance


----------



## Nicodemus (Nov 18, 2013)

Sun Circles and Human Hands is a good one.


----------



## Joe of Dirt (Nov 18, 2013)

A good one that illustrates the rise and fall of the Cherokee Nation is Trail Of Tears.  It gives a good explanation of what destroyed them.  Namely, greed and becoming "too white" was the cause of their demise.  Many of their chiefs were assassinated (and some rightly so).


----------



## bushidobam (Nov 19, 2013)

_The Rise and Fall of North American Indians: From Prehistory Through Geronimo_, by William Brandon (2003) is a good, expansive one volume history, that has lots of good passages about Georgia natives. I think it's out of print, so you'd have to find it used.


----------



## NCHillbilly (Nov 19, 2013)

_The Indians of the Southeastern United States_ by John R. Swanton, hands-down the best out there by far. It's out of print, but you can get it used on Amazon for about $25.


----------



## Kawaliga (Nov 19, 2013)

NCHillbilly said:


> _The Indians of the Southeastern United States_ by John R. Swanton, hands-down the best out there by far. It's out of print, but you can get it used on Amazon for about $25.



X2  This is a very good book.


----------



## runswithbeer (Nov 19, 2013)

Nicodemus said:


> Sun Circles and Human Hands is a good one.



Yep, good one


----------



## HossBog (Nov 19, 2013)

My great grandmother was Indian from Candler county area, so I assume she was Creek, but not certain. I don't know if Cherokee were that far south. Thanks for book recommendations.


----------



## dpoole (Nov 20, 2013)

Pioneer Days along the Ocmulgee is another great read


----------



## Cougar Spray (Nov 22, 2013)

I appreciate the feedback.  I'm going to get a couple of these


----------



## White Horse (Nov 23, 2013)

Swanton's book and Sun Circles and Human Hands are great suggestions. Below is an annotated bibliography on the Yuchi that I hope will be of interest also.



Speck, Frank G.  Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Anthropological Publications of the University Museum, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1909.

	Speck’s work on the Yuchi is still the most complete description of the tribe, and is the standard reference.


Jackson, Jason Baird. Yuchi Ceremonial Life: Performance, Meaning, and Tradition in a Contemporary American Indian Community. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

	Dr. Jason Jackson has spent time among the contemporary Yuchi in Oklahoma, and organized an exhibit of Yuchi artifacts at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa while working there as a Research Associate. 


Swanton, John R. The Indians of the Southeastern United States. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1946, 1979.

	Swanton’s work is a valuable background study on the Southeastern peoples and their lifeways, and contains a summary of the Yuchi’s historical migrations.


Taylor, Colin F., and William C. Sturtevant. (Eds.) The Native Americans: The Indigenous People of North America. New York: Smithmark Publishers, Ltd., 1991.

	This book contains double page layouts, in color, of clothing and artifacts of several tribes, including the Yuchi items collected by Frank G. Speck in 1904-1905.


Jackson, Jason Baird. “Dressing for the Dance: Yuchi Ceremonial Clothing.” In: American Indian Art Magazine, Vol. 23, No. 3, Summer 1998, pages 32- 41. 

	This article was published in conjunction with the Gilcrease exhibit organized by Dr. Jackson. It contains color pictures of contemporary Yuchi clothing and artifacts.


Hvidt, Kristian. (Ed.) Von Reck’s Voyage: Drawings and Journal of Philip Georg Friedrich von Reck.
Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990.

Von Reck came to Georgia in association with the Salzburger community in 1736. The Yuchi were at that time living near the Salzburger settlement of New Ebenezer on the Savannah River between today’s Augusta and Savannah, Georgia. This book contains several color drawings of the Yuchi as observed by von Reck, including pictures of the Yuchi Chief and his wife, and Yuchis leaving to go hunting, with
their guns, bows, and other equipment.


----------



## chehawknapper (Nov 24, 2013)

You have received a lot of great suggestions that will cover your request well. I would like to add one more. John Swanton, who was the curator of North American archaeology for the Smithsonian for 44 years, wrote more books and papers on Native America than anyone. Of his 20 books on the native populations, 8 were major research books of which 7 were on the southeast. Early History of the Creek Indians & Their Neighbors was republished by the University of Florida press in 1998. Don't pick it up unless you are really interested as it goes deeper than his fantastic book The Southeastern Indians. The latter book has tremendous info on their way of life and how they used the resources. This book is just describing the people, their locations, their affiliations including dialects and their movements. However, there is no mention of the Cherokee in this one.


----------



## Catawba (Dec 8, 2013)

chehawknapper said:


> You have received a lot of great suggestions that will cover your request well. I would like to add one more. John Swanton, who was the curator of North American archaeology for the Smithsonian for 44 years, wrote more books and papers on Native America than anyone. Of his 20 books on the native populations, 8 were major research books of which 7 were on the southeast. Early History of the Creek Indians & Their Neighbors was republished by the University of Florida press in 1998. Don't pick it up unless you are really interested as it goes deeper than his fantastic book The Southeastern Indians. The latter book has tremendous info on their way of life and how they used the resources. This book is just describing the people, their locations, their affiliations including dialects and their movements. However, there is no mention of the Cherokee in this one.



I agree with chehawknapper.  The work by John R Swanton is an excellent resource for an understanding of the Southeastern Indians.   Here are more suggestions also: Creek Country: The Creek Indians and Their World by Robbie Ethridge.  This book gives a detailed history and culture of the Creek.  
Georgia's Indian Heritage: The Prehistoric Peoples and Historic Tribes of Georgia by Max E. White (Jun 1988).  This is a superlative source on Georgia's Natives.  I hope this helps.


----------



## Flint Arrow (Dec 9, 2013)

Just one correction for White Horse...i live near New Ebenezer and it is far from Augusta....my home is between Old Ebenezer and New Ebenezer...i could walk to either spot. New Ebenezer is on the Savannah River above the city about 30 miles. This is at the mouth of Ebenezer creek and the River. I live on Ebenezer Creek. You turn off of Hwy 21 onto Hwy 275 which dead ends at the River and the Salzburger settlement. They have a Museum there which is full of Von Rech's history. The Yuchee people come back here during the Salzburger Festival during August to visit. The other Yuchee settlements of any size were on Briar Creek "Mount Pleasant" and other smaller one close to here at Tuckasee King 
 Another good book is the Antiquities of Southern Indians Particularly of the Georgia Tribes by Charles C Jones Jr


----------



## NCHillbilly (Dec 10, 2013)

Flint Arrow said:


> Just one correction for White Horse...i live near New Ebenezer and it is far from Augusta....my home is between Old Ebenezer and New Ebenezer...i could walk to either spot. New Ebenezer is on the Savannah River above the city about 30 miles. This is at the mouth of Ebenezer creek and the River. I live on Ebenezer Creek. You turn off of Hwy 21 onto Hwy 275 which dead ends at the River and the Salzburger settlement. They have a Museum there which is full of Von Rech's history. The Yuchee people come back here during the Salzburger Festival during August to visit. The other Yuchee settlements of any size were on Briar Creek "Mount Pleasant" and other smaller one close to here at Tuckasee King
> Another good book is the Antiquities of Southern Indians Particularly of the Georgia Tribes by Charles C Jones Jr



I have that one, too-interesting book. I keep it on the same shelf as my "Full Circle" DVD. 

Another excellent book that doesn't deal directly with Georgia, but has a lot of good first-hand observations of several Southeastern tribes (besides being just a great read,) is _A New Voyage to Carolina_ by John Lawson. Lawson left Charleston, SC in Dec, 1700, and traveled through a big chunk of what are now SC and NC. He was a co-founder of Bath and New Bern, the first towns in NC. He was appointed as the surveyor for the colony of NC,  and was captured, tortured, and killed by the Tuscarora Indians a few years later. He was the first casualty in the Tuscarora war that threw the fledgling colony into an uproar in the early 1700s.


----------



## White Horse (Dec 10, 2013)

Thanks, Flint Arrow. I didn't do too well with that explanation. I edited the text on here to make it more correct.

The Salzburger settlement and museum is well worth a visit.


----------



## Flint Arrow (Dec 10, 2013)

Hey HossBog...you say you have native ancestory from Candler county. If you could give me some of your family surnames i might be able to help. Surnames that you suspect to be of native origin from that area. I have DNA records and other documents from that region. My mom's family is from northern Tattnall which borders Candler.


----------



## Bow Only (Dec 13, 2013)

I have read most of the references listed and they are a great source of information.  One factor to consider is that most of what Swanton writes about is historic information or what we've learned since we arrived in America.  This is just a small sliver of time compared to how long Native American people's have been here.  My studies have been on pre-historic people's and Sun Circles and Human Hands is a representation of mostly pre - historic artifacts.  For a technical read, Cemochechobee: Archaeology of a Mississippian Ceremonial Center on the Chattahoochee River (Ripley P. Bullen) is a good resource on the Rood Phase and surrounding cultures.


----------



## HossBog (Dec 22, 2013)

Flint Arrow said:


> Hey HossBog...you say you have native ancestory from Candler county. If you could give me some of your family surnames i might be able to help. Surnames that you suspect to be of native origin from that area. I have DNA records and other documents from that region. My mom's family is from northern Tattnall which borders Candler.



Thanks, flint! My great grandmother' maiden surname was Warnock. She had 15 children, my maternal grandmother being one. I don't know where she was born. My maternal grandparents died in the 1922-23 flu epidemic within one month of each other, so I never knew them. My great grandmother Indian died before I was born, but my Dad knew her. I'll have to see what her given name was, can't remember now. All of these 15 children were scattered over southeast Georgia as far as I know. I knew some of my younger great aunts, youngest lived in Reidsville.


----------



## Flint Arrow (Dec 22, 2013)

My mom's family is from that area...two surnames tested native on mom's side...Rewis and Jarriel.....one branch goes back to Upper Creek and the other seems to be Lumbee...we are still doing research.....it may pay you to do a DNA test with FTDNA. You can do a Family Finder test which will match you with many people from all your lines...
 We knew which lines to test so we submitted straight line test Y-DNA testing 37 markers.... The test will confirm or dismiss any information. Not all Jarriel's test native, because our family was adopted as adults and given this name so that they could buy land and such. So we are not  Jarriel's....but there are alot of them around. We also took Deep Clade test and Family Finder....if you are from that region you could match our family??? All Rewis males test Q1a3a1 or Q-M3 Haplogroup native american....


----------



## HossBog (Dec 23, 2013)

Thanks flint! I'll check into that. Dad's side is about 100% Irish, mother's side is French, Indian, and English.


----------

