Elias Cornelius Boudinot: A Life on the Cherokee Border

Parins describes the Cherokee leader as "a man obsessed with amassing wealth and success in the white world who at the same time was determined to vanquish the enemies of his father as well as his own, no matter what the cost" (219). "It is clear, too, that Boudinot's love-hate relationship with his Cherokee brethren had roots deep in a family history with all its baggage," Parins states, including "the alleged treachery and treason followed by the assassinations, the civil unrest during the 1840s, the attempts by the Ridge-Boudinot-Watie faction to split off from the main Cherokee Nation" (218).