This is a great academic achievement and a good resource for an interested scholar in the subject. However, the author frequently uses terms in quotations, acknowledging their specialist terms, but doesn’t define them. That alone shows a clear preference for purely academic readers, mostly those in history or anthropology. Also, the writing sometimes shifts between being very dry and detached and occasionally a shocking folkloric tone will pop up and include bits of theory or vague concepts without much support (especially, for example, in portions of text about Sequoyah). I also felt that sometimes more details about the lives of individual Cherokee (with a less detached voice) would’ve brought life to the text. Overall I think it is a good book with good information and certainly an achievement but one that could’ve been more engaging and consistent.