There really was a place called Kewahatchie. This dead settlement with a Creek Indian name is now just a parcel of swampy Alabama woods about forty miles south of Birmingham. Even in its heyday it was probably just a no-account farming community on some of the less desirable land that had been seized from the Creek Nation in 1814. For Louise Sims, though, Kewahatchie is the setting for a bizarre tale featuring Indian "princesses" and characters named after some of the author's ancestors. It's a harmless enough book, except to those readers who are inexperienced enough to accept it as the fruit of valid genealogical research.

Judging from this book, Louise Sims was a sloppy researcher with peculiar ideas. Her narrative is full of Indian "braves," princesses, priests, bogus legends, and stilted dialogue that is supposed to resemble Welsh dialect. She is convinced that the Creek Indians originated at Wupatki National Monument in Arizona, apparently because she happened to visit that place herself and found it inspiring. She invents a chief called Squire Cloud, possibly based on garbled family legend. Then she invents a "Cloud Clan" for him to belong to.

Predictably, there is an obsession with character traits supposedly inherited from Indian ancestors, although the terminology is updated. Instead of "Indian blood," Sims refers to "Indian genes" that supposedly helped shape the personalities of American southerners like her.

In sum, this book is pure invention, and it has a poor reputation with knowledgable genealogists. Unless you enjoy or are interested in the modern folklore of southern Americans, reading this book will only waste your time. ( )