It's not the romance in the Hollywoodization that I deplore (I actually loved Last of the Mohicans, and found that it rang truer than most film efforts; it had a dignity and beauty that was completely lacking in the clownish Little Big Man) but the pitying and condescension and attempt to fictionalize history to avoid hurt feelings--next we'll be saying that Cleopatra was Cherokee.
Geronimo and Crazy Horse were the great generals. I don't see anything comparable among the Cherokee--and see no point in trying to create one to avoid hurt feelings.
I never said the Cherokee were great generals, but they were better scholars, for lack of a better term as they were far from that. And you said they united too late. Uniting the Indians for war even very early would have been a losing proposition. Their population and technology was not in their favor. What they should have done was to unite and send people to the east to speak directly with the politicians, newspapers, and people. But of course even this could have failed, and I doubt there were enough Indians who knew just how many people they would have to overcome.