“This deeply researched account uses the river as a lens to examine agriculture, logging, pollution, disease, flora and fauna, as well as warfare, politics, medicine, technology, and commerce. It is a wide-ranging, boundary-defying work, much like the waterways profiled within. This outstanding work of history, environmental stewardship, and cultural scholarship is unmissable. An essential purchase for large public and academic libraries.”

– Library Journal, starred

“Gregory D. Smithers’s innovative cultural history documents how kinship with water is central to Cherokee life. Vivid descriptions of geology, flora, and fauna through the centuries, with imaginative inferences to how historic people interacted with waterways and landscapes, enliven the prose. The Water Carriers is a groundbreaking history of water’s central position in Cherokee culture.”

– Foreword Reviews

“Remarkable. Smithers presents Cherokee voices through their ancient stories and personal interviews: they share a natural world with an array of spiritual figures that present and represent hydrocentrism. In this ethereal and material world, water is as much of a being, an actor, and a force, as the people themselves In the story of water, we learn the story of the Cherokee.”

– Alan Gallay, Professor and Lyndon B. Johnson Chair in American History

"The Water Carriers guides us through the riverine landscapes at the center of continental history, where Cherokee women and men have always acted to protect their sovereignty with determination and ingenuity. Compelling and thoughtful, The Water Carriers is an essential American story, skillfully told."

– Megan Kate Nelson, Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Three-Cornered War

“The Water Carriers is a work of stunning insight and empathy. Gregory Smithers ranges across millennia to tell the story of the Southern mountains' profound evolution and to enter into the world of the Cherokee people who lived, and still live, with the rivers that gave life to those mountains."

– Edward Ayers, author of American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860 and Recipient of the National Humanities Medal

"In this very timely and important contribution, Gregory Smithers wields masterful prose to illustrate the inherent interconnectedness between the Cherokee people, our waters, our culture, and our lands. Alternating between deep time descriptions of geological events and explanations from traditional Cherokee knowledge, Smithers solidifies a theme of connection between the past, the present, and the enduring perseverance of Indigenous people."

– Ben Frey (EBCI), Assistant Professor of Cherokee Language and Culture, University of North Carolina - Asheville