Doublehead: Southern Family Magazine

Doublehead:  Southern Family Magazine

The following article was printed in Southern Family Magazine, Volume VIII, Issue 1, January/February 2012.  The article announces the release of the book, Doublehead: Last Chickamauga Cherokee Chief in February 2012.  Be sure to get your copy of the book about the most famous Indian to ever live along the Muscle Shoals of the Tennessee River of north Alabama.  Many of Doublehead's descendants still live in north Alabama and east Tennessee.  The article as printed in Southern Family Magazine is as follows:  

Bluewater Publications is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Butch Walker’s latest book, Doublehead:  Last Chickamauga Cherokee Chief.  While famous leaders like Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Tecumseh are household names, few people outside of north Alabama or central Tennessee have ever heard of Doublehead.  The author has painstakingly researched all available material on the great Chickamauga leader and written the first book ever published about the man.  He has even enlisted the help of some of the chief’s descendants.

Doublehead's brother-Standing Turkey

Butch Walker spent 35 years with the Lawrence County Board of Education and served as Director of Lawrence County Schools’ Indian Education Program and Oakville Indian Mounds Education Center until his retirement in 2009.  He has written several books on Native American History, including High Town Path, Warrior Mountains Folklore, Indians of the Warrior Mountains, Indian Trails of the Warrior Mountains, and Warrior Mountains Indian Heritage.

Walker describes Doublehead as hot-tempered, overbearing, and haughty.  He possessed one of the strongest personalities of any man who lived at the time.  Through sheer force of will, the man forced himself to the position of principal leader of his people.  Refusing to cede valuable hunting grounds to white intruders, he managed to confederate several tribes of Indians to wage war for twenty-five years.

The book covers all aspects of the chief’s life—from his time as a young warrior, fighting with Bob Benge and Dragging Canoe, to shrewd business man who became wealthy by selling his people’s land.  Not only was Doublehead a ferocious warrior, but he was also a barbarous man, killing women, children, and even a few of his own wives.  He once cannibalized victims during a drunken rage.  It is believed that the blood-thirsty chief killed more men than any other man of that era.

Walker takes the reader through the violent life and death of one of the most feared men who ever lived.  The author has also included a section on the descendants of this famous chief.  A biography on Chief Doublehead has been long overdue.  This is a must-read for anyone interested in Native American history.

Doublehead:  Last Chickamauga Cherokee Chief will release on February 3, 2012, and will be available on amazon.com.  You can subscribe to Walker’s blog and receive all his weekly articles at http://rickeybutchwalker.blogspot.com/.