Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears

In 1838, thirteen thousand Cherokee were forced to leave their homeland in the Southeast and walk 900 miles to present-day Oklahoma. Hunger, cold, fatigue, and disease threatened their very survival. Their grueling relocation trek--the Trail of Tears--takes on new immediacy and meaning with this stunning work of fiction.

Maritole loses not only her home and her settled life in North Carolina, but also many of the people closest to her. A chorus of voices joins hers to vividly recreate the tragic story of the Cherokee removal. Amid wrenching scenes of hardship and pain, there is the underlying strength that ultimately allowed this ancient people to endure.