Robert Walker

In a nation facing erasure, their only weapon was the truth. But truth is no match for power. In the forests of 1820s Georgia, the Cherokee Nation deploys a revolutionary new weapon to defend its sovereignty: a cast-iron printing press. For young David Aganstata, apprentice to the brilliant editor Elias Boudinot, the Cherokee Phoenix is more than a newspaper. It is a promise-that ink can stand against bayonets, that a voice, clearly and reasonably expressed, can hold back the tide of greed and injustice.
But as the Georgia Guard closes in, land is seized, and President Andrew Jackson defies the Supreme Court itself, the promise of the press begins to fracture. A devastating schism tears the nation apart, pitting leaders, friends, and brothers against each other in a bitter debate: Is survival worth any price, even the surrender of one's homeland?When the press is seized by militia and their voice is silenced by force, David is thrust onto the brutal Trail of Tears, a journey of unimaginable loss where he must discover what remains when everything is taken.
A devastating saga of resistance, betrayal, and the catastrophic price of compromise, The Law of Ink and Iron asks a haunting question: What happens when the tools of truth are destroyed, and a people must carry their voice in their hearts, one step at a time, through the ashes of their world?