In 1775, Irish trader James Adair published his History of the American Indians, giving an account of the 40 years he had spent living among various Native American nations "adjoining to the Mississippi, East and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia". Within this work, Adair makes mention of a "great divine" Cherokee man who had in his possession a mysterious stone talisman reputed to be of supernatural origin. In Wise Man,...