Emperor of the Cherokee
Stephen Erin Dinehart IV
Wonderfilled, Inc. · 2026
On April 3, 2026 — 296 years to the day after Moytoy's coronation as Emperor of the Cherokee — Wonderfilled published a novel years in the making.
Emperor of the Cherokee reconstructs a chapter of American history that has been systematically overlooked: the moment the Cherokee operated as a sovereign imperial power, with diplomatic standing, territorial authority, and a monarch recognized by European crowns.
The novel is told 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
Drawn from years of research into the Cherokee Nation, British colonial records, and the broader currents of 18th-century American geopolitics — this is a book about sovereignty, memory, and the stories we choose not to tell.
In 1730, Moytoy of Tellico was recognized as Emperor of the Cherokee by British colonial officials — a diplomatic acknowledgment of Cherokee sovereignty that most American history education omits entirely.
The Cherokee held functioning governance, territorial authority, and the political sophistication to navigate the competing imperial pressures of Britain, France, and Spain at once. Emperor of the Cherokee is the story of that navigation — and what it cost.
Hardcover, paperback, ebook. Audiobook in development.
Available wherever books are sold · ISBN information on request