AGT Meeting Agenda for September 2026 

The Authors Guild of Tennessee held its monthly meeting on Thursday, September 3, 2026, at Faith Lutheran Church, Farragut, from 10:30 until noon.

The following members attended:

Bill Barbour, Gary Butler, Betty Block, Gayle Curtin, Carmen Flores, Barb Dunn, John Forcum, Leoma Gilley, Daniel Gacely, Jim Hartsell, Wes Hibbert, Sue Hume, David Johnston, Jerry Morton, Nolen Rollins, Kit Sexton, Marty Shoffner, Frank Snyder, Stewart, Becky Tucker, and Jeri Weems.

Visitors:  Jilaine Burley, Allie Brown, Jan Hahn, Brenda King, Teresa Davis

Welcome – AGT applicant Jan Hahn writes children’s books. He has appeaed Riverside Coffeehouse at Dixie Lee Junction.

Teresa Davis is a new author who has written a memoir series of three books.

Sept 12: new book of true short stories titled I Bleed Orange by Nolen Rollins. Jeri has a new book, Serenity Farm, 2^nd in the series. Jeri joined AGT to have support, and she appreciates the support she has received from the Authors’ Guild. Check out books and write reviews. Social media friends are helpful. Share each other’s news. Sign up for newsletters.

 

Treasurer’s Report for August – Bill

Beginning Cash Balance	$       3,281
Ending Cash Balance	$       3,154
Less:	$        (465)	Writing Competition
	$            (5)	Outstanding checks
Net Cash Available	$      2,684
Income
Member Dues	$            40
Fairs Festivals	$          122
Expenses
Storage Rental	$            34
Fairs Festivals	$          243
Fairs Festivals Balance	$        (221)

 

Committee Chairs.

Fairs and Festivals – Jeri. Two more people are needed for the Christmas Expo. Others are needed for Hardin Valley Bookish Festival (new), Etowah Falls Oct 3-4: different audience where religious or local topics would do well. Pumpkin Town in Athens, Mountain Makins. Check email for details. Sept 12 in Lenoir City.

Writing  Contest – Art.  Still looking for 3 volunteers to give 20-minute talks on writing to the class. Four have signed up so far. 30 students in the classroom. Subjects on the students’ curriculum: Bio sketches, topics, perspective and voice, structural experiments, collaborative writing, environmental, constraint-based writing (page of writing without using ‘k’ or some other way). One class each semester.

Program

Our special speaker was AGT member Wes Hibbert. His topic focused on Native Americans, a subject he’s studied over the years and teaches at Roane State College in Oak Ridge. His talk included Native American traits and accomplishments, as well as how they’ve been treated by other Americans, beginning with the new flood of settlers in the early 19^th century. Wes considers the history of Native Americans to be “forgotten history,” as it is not often included in the regular curriculum in our public schools.

Wes has written a children’s book titled Buffy in Bethlehem 

The Lone Ranger should be titled “Tonto and the Other White Guy,” as Tonto did all the work. We now have Native American Day, which is also Columbus Day. Columbus’ ship, the Santa Maria, was destroyed when it hit a coral reef. The natives offered their help to the crew to take everything out of the ship. With 2 ships left, he didn’t have room to take everyone back home. The natives helped build homes for 39 people who stayed. Columbus reported the natives were timid, without weapons, and could easily be conquered. Columbus and crew saw the natives wore gold trinkets, and they wanted the gold. Isabel had given Columbus a list of things she wanted him to bring back, mostly spices. So, he had to take something home to her, and assumed the land was full of gold. But there wasn’t any where he anchored. The gold was traded, not mined.

On Columbus’ second voyage, he returned with 17 boats with 1,200-1500 people–conquistadors, farmers, and couples. He planned to colonize the area so they could find the gold (which wasn’t there). The Spanish and natives didn’t speak the same language. They gathered up the Indians and tortured them to find out about the gold. A priest went with all of them. He was disgusted with what the conquistadors were doing, so he got in touch with the church to make it illegal to ill-treat the natives, but they were in Europe and the conquistadors were in the Americas.

The natives had good traits. They were helpful, working side-by-side. In 1585 the natives helped the Rowan Oak voyagers in Virginia and NC, supplying them with food. They showed them how to plant local crops like corn. The Indians invented it as it is a hybrid plant. The same thing happened in Jamestown.

Archeologists recognize that people in the native world sit down and tell their stories. Recently, they found the storytellers were walking books. That is how they teach and they are consistent from generation to generation without exaggeration. They also include mapping and could help them draw a map of what to expect, even if the person telling them had never been there.

Treaties: over 500 negotiated agreements were signed and sent to Congress to become law. We broke every single one. Settlers were moving west and wanted more. King George proclaimed that settlers could not pass the Appalachian Mountains. It never worked.

The Indians never had a distilled drink; that was brought in by outsiders. Cherokees had a law not to sell land to the white people. Traders gave them alcohol to trick them. Within a short time, they would give up anything.

The cultures of the Inca, Maya, and Aztec were amazing. The Aztec city was covered with gold. In 1517, Hernan Cortes planned to conquer the Aztecs to take their gold, but he didn’t have enough men. He found someone who knew the language as well as Spanish, so he got a lot of information about the people. The Aztecs were strong, but the other tribes had been used for sacrificial rituals. The Spanish convinced the other tribes to join forces and defeat the Aztecs; it took 41 days to take the city.

The conquistadores never got paid with money, food, or anything. They would fight, kill, and then rob the dead. They stole gold from the buildings and even from some of the sidewalks. They stuffed it inside their armor and clothing. The capital was in the center of a lake, and many of them drowned after falling into the lake.

The Inca road system was 25,000 miles long. They didn’t use donkeys and didn’t have wheels. In religious settings, they had toys with wheels, but didn’t use them in real life. A man could run over the mountain, down the mountain, find what they fished for that day, and get it back to the city in less than 24 hours.

Natives invented the syringe, used the bone of a small bird, sharpened one end, and poured medicine through it.

When Wes teaches, he sends the notes via email to each student.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 12:06   Next meeting Thursday, October 1.