The Bear Went Over the Mountain is about one Southerner's discovery of his Native American ancestry in the 1990s. In it you will read:

¶ How the Yateses of Virginia coped on the frontier
¶ How some Cherokees escaped the Trail of Tears
¶ What the Southern drawl really means
¶ Where The Tree That Owns Itself is
¶ How Elisabeth Yates stole her cattle back from Gen. Sherman

By Donald N. Yates

The Bear Went Over the Mountain. Genealogy and Social History of a Southern U.S. Family; the Story of the Native American-English Yates Family, from Colonial Virginia to Twentieth-century Florida, with Sketches of Pioneer Life and Traditional Stories, including an Account of James & Elisabeth Yates of Heard County, Georgia, together with an Appendix about Southern Language, Numerous Photographs, Charts and Illustrations, not without an Index, viz. of Persons of Surname Bondurant/Bundren, Cooper, Denn(e)y, Fawcett/Fossett, Gates, Goble, Graben, Kimball/ Kimble /Kimbrell/ Kimbrough, Kitchens, McDonald, Mitchell, Redwine, Shankles, and Yates/ Yeat(e)s of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North & South Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia (Princeton, N.J.:  The Cherokee Press, 1995), xxii + 468 pp., 117 ill. (ISBN 0-9650551-0-8).

E-book Published by Panther's Lodge. April 23, 2011.

Preview on Google Books.

Purchase as Google E-book for $9.99 (scrollable and better for devices).

DONALD PANTHER-YATES was born in Cedartown, Georgia. His book The Bear Went Over the Mountain is a classic history of Cherokee and pioneer families in the Old South. He is co-author of When Scotland Was Jewish and Jews and Muslims in British Colonial America:  A Genealogical History (with Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman). His new book is Old World Roots of the Cherokee. He lives in Phoenix.