“When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.”
— Cherokee Proverb
All of us living in Western North Carolina know of much of the history of the Cherokee Indian tribe. Its origins, its general history, its cultural significance. But I’m betting that not everyone knows the historic timeline of its chiefs and particularly the story of former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert.
In a book loaned to me by my physician, Patrick Lambert’s memoir “The River,” (On the Boundary Press, 2026, 275 pages) delivers one of the most captivating biographies I’ve ever read. His style, his convincing humility, his forthrightness and his provocative intelligence are the avenues that take us through the landscape of his life, which features not only family history but some of the more important and controversial episodes in recent Cherokee business and politics. “The River,” then, is a personal memoir and an historical record of a pivotal moment in Cherokee history that flows like the “Long Man,” or the river, ever onward.
