Anonymous author biography john sedgwick
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Two extraordinary individuals provide the axis on which the story turns. One is named “The Ridge,” for “He Who Walks on Mountains” in Cherokee, and later called Major Ridge. Born in 1771, he was raised in the tribe’s demanding, at times violent traditions to become a towering figure. The Ridge was a formidable warrior, leader of men, wealthy landowner and, perhaps unexpectedly, a supporter of Cherokee cooperation with U.S. policies, seeing the loss of their home as unavoidable.
While he spoke no English, John Ross (born in 1790) spoke no Cherokee, and was in many other ways The Ridge’s opposite: a diminutive trader and born politician who emphasized the Scottish side of his mixed heritage. Yet Ross commanded the support of the Cherokee’s full-blooded majority so completely that he served as the nation’s primary chief for nearly four decades.
For a time, Ridge and Ross were allies, and both served under Gen. Andrew Jackson in the Creek Civil War, The Ridge as a veteran officer, Ross as a young adjutant. But as the decades passed, their rivalry became so deep, turning on irreconcilable ideas about Cherokee identity, it would extend to outright assassination attempts and draw in their sons and extended families.
“Blood Moon” proves best at dramatizing and exploring conflicts
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As part of The Colorado Sun’sliterature section — SunLit — we’re featuring staff picks from book stores across the state. >> Click here for more SunLit
This week’s bookstore: Poor Richard’s Books & Gifts, 320 N. Tejon St., Colorado Springs
poorrichardsdowntown.com
From the River to the Sea
By John Sedgwick
Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster
$30.00
June 1, 2021
>>Purchase
From the publisher:Bestselling author John Sedgwick recounts, in vivid and thrilling detail, the decade-long fight between General William J. Palmer, the Civil War hero leading the “little family” of his Rio Grande, and William Barstow Strong, the hard-nosed manager of the corporate-minded Santa Fe. What begins as an accidental rivalry when the two lines cross in Colorado soon evolves into an all-out battle as each man tries to outdo the other–claiming exclusive routes through mountains, narrow passes, and the richest silver mines in the world; enlisting private armies to protect their land and lawyers to find loopholes; dispatching spies to gain information; and even using the power of the press and incurring the wrath of the God-like Robber Baron Jay Gould–to emerge victorious.
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