Advertisement
WMRA's November 2026 Books & Brews features author Gregory Smithers discusing The Water Carriers: A Journey Through Cherokee History and the Secret Life of Rivers.Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026 at 7pm.
Live at Pale Fire Brewing Company and available later on WMRA's Youtube Channel.
Signed copies of The Water Carriers will be available at the event and online at Stone Soup Books - https://www.stonesoupbooks.net
WMRA's Books & Brews is made possible thanks to our series sponsor, Gaines Group Architects. The Gaines Group has offices in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg.
About The Water Carriers:
The history of the Cherokee people is an epic story of survival and creativity. A tale usually told through the lens of Cherokee resistance to land-hungry colonists and the removal policy of Andrew Jackson, it is that and so much more. Cherokee history connects us to deep time, to Indigenous environmental knowledge, and the future of a continent.
The Water Carriers—or ama danhtsisi, in Cherokee—is a journey into worlds formed in the mists of “time immemorial.” Award-winning historian Gregory Smithers transports readers back to forgotten epochs when Southern Appalachia’s mountains soared as high as the Alps of Europe, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and ancient oceans receded to make way for rivers. In Southern Appalachia, rivers, which Cherokees called Long Person—or Ganvhidv Yvwi—moved the earth and excavated mountains to reveal fertile valleys. Smithers highlights how Long Person drew Cherokees and their Indigenous ancestors to the water’s edge where they nurtured an enduring bond with the river.
From their first tentative steps in small hunting and gathering bands to bustling aquapelagos—communities forged along rivers—The Water Carriers is a deeply-researched and elegantly written history that illuminates the importance of water carrier traditions in Cherokee history. In the The Water Carriers, life pulses from mountaintops to distant seas, and Cherokees remind us of a simple yet profoundly urgent truth: ama gvnida—“water is life.”
Advertisement
Event venue
Pale Fire Brewing Company, 217 S Liberty St, Harrisonburg, VA 22801-3674, United States
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.
Discover more events by tag
Books in HarrisonburgParties in HarrisonburgBeer in HarrisonburgHistory in HarrisonburgWriting in Harrisonburg