Geary Hobson uses the power of narrative to re-walk the Trail of Tears. His collection of voices traces the forced march, sickness, upheaval and dispossession of the Cherokee removal. Rain Crow, Dragging Canoe, White Path, Pigeon Woman, Richard Old Field, George Lowrey, Dreadfulwater, Jesse Bushyhead are a few of the speakers who illuminate “one of the worst blemishes on American history.” But it is Hobson’s own “cross-cut saw” of words that makes The Road Where the People Cried remarkable.
—Diane Glancy, author of Pushing the Bear and The Book of Bearings
Geary Hobson’s The Road Where the People Cried brings both the human tragedy and legal travesty of Cherokee Removal to life for today’s readers through the historical figures who voice his vivid and compelling poetry. From Six Killer to Tsali to Dragging Canoe and even the vile, sorry, low down, no good, ne’er do well Andrew Jackson, these characters will make you sit down and listen.
—Kimberly G. Wieser, author of Texas . . . to Get Horses and
Back to the Blanket: Recovered Rhetorics and Literacies in American Indian Studies
In his eighties by then, Going Snake saw what life had become for his Indigenous people when they were forced to leave their homelands. He saw and felt their sorrow and loss. He heard and suffered their cries and pain. Nevertheless, he knew and insisted on this truth: Life-Everlasting. This is the deeper, fiercer, and loving core of Nunna da-ul Tsun-yi. The Road Where the People Cried. This is the love deep and everlasting. Ever Lasting. Ever. Lasting. These poems by Geary Hobson must be read.
—Simon J. Ortiz, author of Speaking for the Generations, Out There Somewhere,
Going for the Rain, Beyond the Reach of Time and Change,
The Good Rainbow Road, from Sand Creek, and many more.
