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Just exactly who was Forrest Carter? I asked myself this obsessively while re-reading with new eyes his book The Education of Little Tree. New eyes because for months now I’ve been looking at books from a critical standpoint in terms of their portrayal of the American Indian. I am even beginning to feel that Little House on the Prairie should not be used in curriculum of any kind for children under thirteen.

My psychic friend Patti did a reading on me several months ago. I asked her to check on my father and my grandfather and that I was open to hearing any messages anyone had for me. At the time, I had just begun my studies on the Shawnee Indians, as more and more evidence has accumulated that some of my ancestors were Shawnee.

Patti told me that a grandmother of mine was trying to tell me something. First she spoke to Patti in an Algonquin language and then in French. My grandmother said there was something I needed to know in the book The Education of Little Tree. That she wanted me to re-read the book.

You would think I’d run out and read the book, but I didn’t. Instead, I Googled it and found out that Forrest Carter was really a white man named Asa Earl Carter and that he had been a klavern head for the KKK and a speechwriter for segregationist George Wallace. He edited and published a white supremacist magazine. He created the literary hoax — The Education of Little Tree. A James Frey stunt pulled in 1976 and still largely unknown. Not only wasn’t Carter Cherokee, but he hadn’t even done his research and most of his so-called relaying of Cherokee beliefs and customs was inaccurate.

This caused me a great deal of inner panic for two reasons. It’d been on my heart to eventually write a book about the Shawnee, but about what had been vague. Secondly, I wasn’t sure we’d ever be able to prove what tribe(s) my ancestors came from. So, was my grandmother warning me to not be an imposter? I would rather not write than write something that hurt American Indians. I shot off a desperate email to Patti and she responded that no, she thought there was a real message in the book for me.

I still didn’t run out and read the book. I watched the movie again when it came on cable and said, “Oh, yes, I need to read the book.” And then one of my writer friends listed it as one of her all-time favorite books. I asked her if she knew about the controversy and she said she kind of did, but it’s still a great book.

Is it? It was for me years ago when I first read it. But now, it’s not such a great book. Why would a white guy pretend he’d been raised by Cherokee grandparents and make up stuff about them? Well, he wanted the book to be published and having them be American Indian in 1976 was a sure hit.

But what really ate at me, despite the very moving and tender scenes of love between the grandparents, the dogs, Willow John, Mr. Wine and Little Tree, is the underlying mocking, sarcastic tone Carter uses to portray his characters.

Granpa is a doofus. And it began to grate on me as the pages went by. Granpa knows only how to make whiskey and survive in the mountains. Despite having sat through endless church sermons, Granpa doesn’t know who Moses is nor can he explain to Little Tree what Christianity is. Despite Granma reading the classics to him for years, Granpa is intellectually void and has no use for words. His little nuggets of emotional intelligence are almost overwhelmed by the characterization of him as being intellectually incapacitated.

Granma doesn’t wear underwear in the 1930’s. Pine Billy is not too bright. Willow John has dead eyes. Mr. Wine is “frugal”. The preachers are all hypocrites. The character I ended up enjoying the most this time around was Wilburn. Angry, defiant Wilburn: the outcast club-footed orphan at the horrible evil orphanage. He is the only character who escapes Carter’s mocking and subtle derision. Could Wilburn be a characterization of the real Forrest Carter?

But there are enough nuggets of EQ scattered throughout the book to continuously wonder who was Forrest Carter?

He was raised by both of his parents in Alabama. He ran for governor of Alabama in 1970 on a white supremacist platform. He took the name of Forrest Carter in honor of the Civil War general after losing the election and estranged himself from his family, even calling his sons “nephews”. He died in Texas in 1979 choking on food and a blood clot after having an alleged fistfight with his son.

And was any of what he said about the Cherokee truthful? Carter may have had distant maternal Cherokee ancestors, but he was raised white.

Page 57~ “Cherokees never scolded their children for having anything to do with the woods.”

Manataka American Indian Council on Cherokee Customs “…the Indians were indulgent parents. A child was allowed to nurse as long as he pleased, or until his mother became pregnant again. Although mothers were primarily responsible for their children during their first four or five years of life, they were not supposed to punish them physically, particularly their sons.  Boys fell under the discipline of one of their mother’s older brothers. Ordinarily, the disciplinarian was the oldest, most influential male in the mother’s lineage. Girls, on the other hand, remained under the supervision of the women of their clan. If physical punishment had to be administered to a boy, it was usually done by lightly scratching his dry skin with a sharp, pointed instrument. This was called “dry-scratching”. Dry-scratching was especially humiliating because it left scratches or light scars on the skin for several days or weeks so that all could see them and tease the child about them. The scratching was punishment, but it was also thought to “lighten” or lessen the child’s blood, and it was believed that this made him healthier and less troublesome. …The usual way of punishing less serious instances of misbehavior was by ridicule, a device which can be an especially powerful sanction in a small community.

Page 58~ (Granpa) showed me how the Cherokee walks, not heel down, but toe down, slipping the moccasins on the ground.”

Beginning on page 59~ “Granma said everybody had two minds.”

Granma explains that we have a body living mind and a spirit mind.

Page 60~ “Granma said your spirit mind could get so big and powerful that you would eventually know all about your past body lives and would get to where you could come out with no body death atall.”

I could not find any information via the Internet as to whether or not the Cherokee believe in reincarnation. This sounds New Age to me.

Page 138~ “There is a sign for everything. Granpa, however, didn’t need an almanac. He went by the stars d’rect.”

Granma plants with a Cherokee planting stick and saved the marriage stick of Little Tree’s Pa and Ma (and her own).

The wedding ceremony from the Cherokee By Blood Society: A priest escorts the groom to one end of the open space in the council house (north or south) A priest escorts the bride to the opposite end of the space.

The couple meet at the center, near the sacred fire ( the sacred fire is the gift of light, knowledge, heat … the bedrock of civilization) The priest stands, facing the east, toward the door of the council house ( groom on one side, bride on the other)

The groom’s mother stands beside the groom. (children belong to the mother, and her family) She holds the gifts of venison and a blanket (food and a warm bed for his wife - symbols of his ability to support her)

 The brides mother stands beside the bride. She holds the gifts of corn and a tanned skin (food and clothing for her warrior/husband to be)

The brides brother stands behind his mother. The brother accepts responsibility for his sister and her children (he will be the godfather if the husband is killed)   The bride and groom wear blue blankets over their shoulders (traditional symbol of their Old Ways - single life) 

The priest says a prayer blessing the sacred fire and the marriage union. (thanks to God for his blessings)  The priest asks the Great Spirit for a long and happy life for the couple.

The bride gives the groom a red and black (cloth) belt that she has made. The groom accepts and puts on the belt.  (accepts the union) (replaces the wedding ring in modern society)

The mothers give their gifts to their children.  The bride and groom exchange these gifts. (marriage is acceptable by the mothers)

The bride and groom join their blankets, symbolizing mutual support ( both under the double blue blankets) The bride and groom share a corn drink from a double sided vessel. (Share the fruits of their labors - crushed dried corn and water) 

They drink East, West, North, South (declaring their marriage to all the earth)

The priest drinks Up toward the Heavens, Down to Mother Earth, and toward the couple (Only the priest can ‘address’ the spirits of Heaven and Earth to bless the union.  After the spirits of heaven and earth have been asked to bless the union, the priest directs the spirits attention to the bride and groom.  They are the ‘center’ of the union, and must constantly reflect on their inner thoughts to make the marriage work. )

The vessel is thrown down and broken, to seal the wedding vows.  The broken fragments are buried (returned to mother earth)

The blue blankets are shed and a white blanket is wrapped over the shoulders of the couple, symbolizing the union. (symbol of happiness)   A wedding feast is held (traditionally by the whole village, but not practical today) 

The couple walk silently and alone to their dwelling place, among the bride’s family (the groom  goes to live with the wife’s clan and the house belongs to her. The children also will belong to the wife’s clan, having her brothers more responsibility and control over them than the father).

Page 143~ “My birthday being in the summer made it my season: that is the custom of the Cherokee.”

Page 148~ “Oncet, after we taken our seats, I found a long knife laying where I set. It was as long as Granpa’s and had a deer skin sheath that was fringed. Granma said Willow John gave it to me. That is the way Indians give gifts. They do not present it unless they don’t mean it and are doing it for a reason. They leave it for you to find.”

Not the Shawnee though, according to my studies. They presented their gifts. As you can see in the above wedding ceremony, many gifts are presented.

Code of Right Relationship as given to the People by the Pale One:

1: Speak only words of truth.

2: Speak only of the good qualities of others.

3: Be a confidant and carry no tales.

4: Turn aside the veil of anger to release the beauty inherent in all.

5: Waste not the bounty, and want not.

6: Honor the light in all. Compare nothing; see all for its suchness.

7: Respect all life; cut away ignorance from one’s own heart.

8: Neither kill nor harbor thoughts of angry nature, which destroy peace like an arrow.

9: Do it now; if you see what needs doing, do it.

from “Voices of our Ancestors”, by Dhyani Ywahoo - Etowah Band, Eastern Tsalagi Nation

Did I find the message my grandmother wanted me to hear? I’m not sure. Maybe it is in the part when Little Tree can telepathically communicate to his grandparents and Willow John via the Dog Star. Maybe she wants to communicate to me this way and I’m not listening. But after all is said and done, I am fairly confused as to why this book.

This is what I say to her sometimes at night, “Grandmother, I would like to hear what you have to say. I want to know who my family were. Please speak to me.”