Emperor of the Cherokee — the four-voice historical novel by Stephen Erin Dinehart IV — published on April 3, 2026. The date was chosen with care: 296 years to the day after Moytoy of Tellico was crowned Emperor of the Cherokee in a ceremony witnessed by a British colonial agent and recorded in the annals of empire.
The novel tells the hidden history of that empire through four interleaved voices:
- Testimony — the witness accounts of those who were there
- Witness — outsiders watching history unfold
- Record — the documentary evidence, the ledgers and letters
- Reflection — the long view across centuries
Drawing on years of research into the Cherokee Nation, British colonial records, and 18th-century American geopolitics, the book reconstructs a chapter of history systematically overlooked: the moment the Cherokee operated as a sovereign imperial power, with diplomatic standing, territorial authority, and a monarch recognized by European crowns.
Emperor of the Cherokee is available now in hardcover, paperback, and ebook wherever books are sold. An audiobook edition is in development.