HISTORY

The Cherokee War of 1776: Native Destruction at the Dawn of American Independence

by Kevin Kokomoor
Johns Hopkins Univ. May 2026. 400p. ISBN 9781421454566. $34.95. HISTORY
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Kokomoor (history, Coastal Carolina Univ.; La Florida: Catholics, Conquistadores, and Other American Origin Stories) has written a volume on the seminal year of 1776, but from a different perspective. While the year is best known for the U.S. Declaration of Independence, another war front also began: the war with the Cherokee Nation. The volume is divided into three parts—“Revolution and the Cherokee”; “The Cherokee War of 1776”; and “The Revolutionary War and the Cherokees”—plus an epilogue (“From the Cherokee to the Chikamauga War”). The author makes the case that this was not a surprise war along the southern frontier but a calculated campaign to acquire Indigenous lands and halt any possibility of resistance. Many Southerners believed the Cherokees were aligned with the British and were to be treated as enemies.
VERDICT A meticulously researched and readable volume, this is a worthy addition to the discussion of the events leading up to the establishment of the United States.
Reviewed by Jacqueline Parascandola , Apr 01, 2026
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