Pushing the Bear

by Diane Glancy

In a novel that “retains the complexity, immediacy, and indirection of a poem,” Glancy brings to life the Cherokees’ 900-mile forced removal to Oklahoma in 1838 and gives us “a powerful witness to one of the most shameful episodes in american history” (Los Angeles Times).

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Native American, Indigenous, Historical, Native Americans, School

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

(Helen) Diane Glancy is a Cherokee poet, author and playwright.

Glancy was born in 1941 in Kansas City, Missouri. She received her Bachelor of Arts (English literature) from the University of Missouri in 1964, then later continued her education at the University of Central Oklahoma, earning her a Masters degree in English in 1983. In 1988, she received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa.

Glancy is an English professor and began teaching in 1989 at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, teaching Native American literature and creative writing courses. Glancy's literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I loved about this book was finishing it and being free to go on to my next book. I came close to giving this 1 star but I just couldn’t because I loved the map on the inside covers and the maps that are at the front of each chapter, showing the route as the Cherokee progressed, and I like that the Cherokee language is used at times throughout the book.

I’m very interested in the Trail of Tears but I might have preferred a non-fiction book or at the least a much better novel. I will not be reading the sequel, Pushing the Bear: After the Trail of Tears. If not for my real world book club I would have taken a look at the information about the Cherokee oral/written language and then abandoned the book; there HAVE to be better books about this subject out there.

Reading this was a slog. It was tedious when it shouldn’t be and I just couldn’t care that much about the characters when I should have. Sometimes I mildly enjoyed this as I was reading but I never got lost in the book.

I often like books such as this, with alternating narrators, but here some of the narrators seem to be there just to give the reader the history and background information about the removal. While I’m interested in the history and was glad to learn more about it, it’s didn’t make for a scintillating novel. The book is written in short little sections so it’s way too easy to put down the book, sometimes a helpful thing, but for me I’m not so sure it was with this particular book. The account felt very jerky; there was no good flow to the story.

I got really irritated when the conflict between the Cherokee and the European whites was presented as too evenly at fault. Yes, it was good to see sympathetic white European soldiers and not perfect Cherokee, but nope, the forced removal wouldn’t have happened without the whites coveting the Cherokee’s land. The Cherokee lived in cabins, had possessions, and were farmers, not at all nomadic by that time. Sorry, not evenly at fault at all. Not even close!

I did learn a lot. The Trail of Tears was much different than I’d envisioned. Many things struck me, including the fact that the Native Americans forced from their farms were also forced to pay landowners/farmers for passage over their lands. We American immigrants have a crazy history, which I suppose it just part of the overall crazy human history.

So, I’m glad I’m done and delighted to move on. I would like to read an excellent book or more, fiction and/or non-fiction, about The Trail of Tears. If any Goodreads’ members can recommend any, I’d appreciate it. I can’t recommend this book to anyone, but I’m curious about what my other seven book club members will say about this book.

[Diane Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author is in my church book group - so she gave a presentation to our group about why/how she wrote the book.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

How many people in the U.S. have paid a visit to Talequah, Oklahoma, capital of the Cherokee Nation? I have been, and it was well worth the visit. Honestly I learned more there than I learned from this book, although I loved the book. So ... my dear fellow citizens of the United States ... before you book your trip to Paris or Sydney, why not think about visiting a treasure trove of history right here in our own country? I went to Talequah with my family several years ago; we visited the Cherokee Heritage Center, with its beautiful museum and recreated ancient village, complete with tour guides to show us the old Cherokee customs ... and I saw the "Trail of Tears" pageant at the Tsa-La-Gui outdoor theater. It was truly a moving experience, and the memories have stayed with me. Looking back ... that must have been my motivation for hunting down and reading this book.

Truth be told ... at first this book was awful, but ... gradually it grew on me. At first I was taken aback by the jarring way in which we, the readers, were thrown into this ordeal. I felt like the author was hurling fragmented pieces of dialog and thoughts at us ... it was clear that the people in the story knew each other very well; they had been neighbors and friends and relatives before The Trail ... but we, the readers, don't know them at all, and here we are, making the bumpy wagon ride or walking along with them, hearing their intimate thoughts and words, and not understanding anything! It was very frustrating.

But I kept going, and gradually I got to know and understand the characters in the story; I started to like it somewhere between pages 50 and 100. As I continued on, I enjoyed it very much. I found myself thinking about the characters throughout my day, and I was earnestly looking forward to the chance to start reading about them again.

The author spent 17 or 18 years doing research and soul searching for this book, and she's a renowned poet ... all of this come through in her writing. At times the passages flow along in a linear, traditional way, and other times, the book seems "crazy" or nonsensical ... but to me, it is only nonsensical in the way a good poem would be. Reading the book all the way through, you get an eerie feeling of walking the trail all the way through, for four months ... hearing bits of dialog from others as you go along, and maybe bumping up against other people and imagining what their thoughts were. Sometimes you might pass someone on the trail and never bump into them again. That's how it is with life, and I can imagine, that's how it was on the trail. It's not a regular book where you've got these six main characters and they all get accounted for at the beginning and the end.

Honestly, I feel the book is more poetry than prose. And I loved that, once I absorbed and understood it.

Other things I loved about the book:

* That the author included Cherokee writing throughout ... beautiful to see.
* The maps helping us see where we were as we continued along the trail.
* The way the characters of Maritole, Knowbowtee, Oganaya, Tanner, Luthy, and Maritole's dad changed and grew throughout the story
* The way the author showed the mixed feelings of anger, bitterness, regret, self-blame, hurt, hope, and pride, on the part of the Cherokee people
* The pieces of history the author inserts for points of reference
* The shopping lists and inventories, which give a good picture of daily life
* THE ENDING OF THE BOOK; thank God it was not schmaltzy at all. So many good books totally screw up the ending, but this one got it just right. I was going to give this 3 stars, but due to the excellent and VERY APPROPRIATE ending, I am cheerfully bumping this up to 4 stars. Yeah!

Now for just some general comments.

I disagree with some reviewers who say that the author makes it sound like the Cherokees were to blame (partially) for their removal; from the book it was clear that there was no other option; yes, there was anger at the Georgia Cherokee, but the North Carolina Cherokee didn't agree to the treaty and were removed BY FORCE ... so what other option was there? None. I think that was clear from the book. Yes, the Cherokee were tormented by self-blame and guilt, as in, "If only we had done X, Y, or Z ... maybe we could have stayed on our farms!" but that is only wishful thinking, something that nearly everyone goes through, whenever they suffer a huge loss. It is NOT THE SAME as the author blaming the Cherokee for their forced removal.

There was no pretending that the white man was A-OK for the Trail of Tears; I don't know where some readers got that. Maybe the readers got it from the "Author's Note" at the end where she says it wasn't a "good Indian / bad white man" story. Well, I agree that it wasn't like that ... she portrayed the Cherokee characters in vivid color, with good qualities, and faults, too, so there was no glorification of the Cherokee. But there was also no "pardoning" of the white man. Essentially, she doesn't even portray the "white man" much, except for one white-man character (the soldier), but that was just one guy. Also, she never gets inside that guy's head (the soldier was never one of the characters talking in first person), so we never know what he was really thinking. I feel the purpose of this story is to bring the Cherokee people and their suffering on the trail, to life. It's not about the "white man" at all ... and I do find that refreshing. In this book, the "white man" is on the side lines, and he's not exactly evil or good. He's just doing what man does.

I thought it was interesting in the Author's Note, she was saying that things come back around ... she said the same farms that were stolen from the Cherokee in Georgia were burned by Sherman's army in the Civil War; and that the Cherokee cheated members of a late-arriving tribe (Osage from Kansas) by selling them bad land, and then received their come-uppance when oil was found on that land. So ... yes, she is saying, no matter what race you are, you are capable of doing good and evil things. Meanwhile I think it was pretty clear that she was saying that the forced removal of the Cherokee was a very bad thing. No ambiguity there.

I think you can acknowledge that evil is inherent in everyone (as the author does), and you can condemn certain evil acts (which I believe the author does), without condemning everyone of a certain race. Because of all of this, I'm a bit confounded by some of the reviews I see here on goodreads, expressing dismay because they believe that the author was at least partially "pardoning" the white man for the Trail of Tears. No, I don't think she was ... at least, that's not the impression I got.

So ... I hope folks can give this book a chance and sink into it like a puzzling and interesting, yet deeply satisfying, piece of historical poetry. That's what it was for me.

[Bobby · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I first learned about the Trail of Tears in the 10th grade, I remember thinking Andrew Jackson was an a**hole. This book confirmed that at least I had good judgment about something when I was in high school. It's a shame Jackson is still on the $20 bill given he engaged in what we would likely call ethnic cleansing these days! Anyway, I give credit to the writer for capturing the chaos, sorrow, and the great loss suffered by the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. Unfortunately, as for the writing and structure of the book, I found it rather disappointing and rather annoying at times. For some unfathomable reason, the author chose to include words in the Cherokee language throughout the text. As they cannot be sounded out (not Romanised), I had to skip them, basically pretending they did not exist. However, this breaks the flow of reading and distracts from the reading experience. Another major problem is the multiple narrators of the book, with each narrator having a paragraph, or few at most, at a time. While multiple narrators can work if done correctly, in this case the effect of jarring and again interrupted the flow. Furthermore, though I assume this is actually not the case, it certainly felt as if the book is basically a compilation of journal entries and other information regarding the Trail of Tears that the author found and just decided to cut-and-paste and call it a novel. I say this because often the entries by various narrators don't relate to each other and while some narrators clearly speak to the central focus of the book, others seem to make random and even nonsensical comments (which add no/little value overall to the story). Overall this book felt more like an anthropology project written by a grad student than historical fiction geared towards the general reader.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forget the technical term for the type of narration this author uses, but she writes about The Trail of Tears from multiple perspectives (ie Cherokee men, women, and children and the white soldiers). As far as I know the main characters are fictional although the places and events are true. It is pretty good, mostly sad, but what I like most about it is that it has the tone of Native American culture; ways of living, thinking, and believing. It strongly exemplifies the Native American's connection to the land and animals. Not only does it show the physical struggles that the Cherokee had on the trail, it also shows the spiritual struggle they had, especially when trying to understand why a "Christian" people would force people off of their land and onto a horrifying 1000 mile walk during the winter months.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A multiple narrator approach is used in this novel that follows a group of family and neighbors during the Cherokee Removal. The title, and a major theme, is taken from the myth of the bear, ᏲᎾ. The legend goes that a young boy began spending all his time in the woods, his body growing long fur, never even coming home to eat. He told his family that they should leave the settlement of the Cherokee people and live in the woods, where there is plenty of food and no need to work. His entire clan decided to follow him despite the other clans pleading with them to remain, and thus bears came into existence.

Glancy interprets this legend as illustrating the greed and self-centeredness that all people are capable of. It is these motivations that led the white citizens of Georgia and surrounding states, working through their governments, to force the Cherokee from their homes onto a long winter journey that would kill a quarter of them. The novel shows all that horror in action.

Is it unfair to show that in the midst of this great injustice that people on the receiving end might also act out of the exact same motivations, only with far less coercive power available to them? The two primary characters, Maritole and Knobowtee, are a husband and wife who cause each other great hurt over these months on the trail, each seeming to be metaphorically devoured by their “inner bear”. This is made very clear with Maritole, who dreams of and has hallucinations of being clawed and eaten by a bear. On an intermediate level, between that of the US Government/Cherokee relationship and a marriage relationship, relations between the Tennessee Cherokee and the Georgia Cherokee and the North Carolina Cherokee also show these motivations at work.

The title thus refers both to large, public wrongs like Cherokee Removal, and the small private wrongs that each of us might commit no matter where we find ourselves situated on the larger public matters. To push the bear, to fight against the bear, is a battle for everyone, however much power they have or do not have.

Such a battle naturally has religious connotations. The Cherokee on the trail are divided between the old ways of belief and Christianity. Cherokee medicine men argue with Cherokee clergy as each try to relieve the sufferings of the people. Cherokee wonder how those who follow the teachings of Jesus can be responsible for such great suffering, or at best just stand and watch as the detachments pass their towns. Jesus himself might wonder, but not be all that surprised, as one woman suggests:

“Jesus knew all his life he would push the bear because of us,’ I told Maritole as we walked. ‘The claws piercing his head like thorns. His feet and hands nailed with claws. The darkness licked his fur up and down when he was on the cross. Yet he was the man ᏥᏌ ᎦᎶᏁᏛ who pushed the bear.”

One downside to this novel for me is the fractured multiple narrator construction. Perspective regularly shifts once or more per page. Distinctiveness of narrative voice is I think an issue.

By coincidence I finished the novel the day before the annual Remember the Removal bike ride begins in New Echota, Georgia, in which Cherokee youth ride almost 1,000 miles over one of the trails walked during the Removal.
(https://rtr.cherokee.org/about-the-ride)

3.5/5

[♡ella grey♡︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

The overall concept is amazing and important to know, although the writing style was difficult and not super entertaining to get through.

[Bill H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent follow-up to Glancy's earlier account of a fictional family's journey on the "trail of tears." This one deals with what happened when the Cherokees came off the trail to settle in the land allotted to them in eastern Oklahoma (the "Indian Territory" at the time). Divisions between those who negotiated the sale of their lands to the government and those who were forced to leave persist, as do divisions between the Christian and the traditional spiritual ways. As in the first Pushing the Bear, a mix of fictional and historical characters are featured. Glancy incorporates historical documents (Baptist Missionary Magazine articles, letters) to create what she calls "fictional, historical nonfiction." Compelling story, faithful to the different perspectives of an uprooted people.

[Anne Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sad story, beautifully written.

Page 206- "Like the phoenix we fly on again."- Tannos- Wech

An important read about the Trail of Tears.
I started with sorrow and ended with anger. Everything was done wrong and nothing was done right for the removal of the Cherokee people from their lands. Why were they not given notice? Enough time to pack belongs and supplies for the long trip? Why were they then not provided with enough food and clothing to survive a winter trek across the country? Why did the removal have to happen during winter? And why go north from Southeast US to Oklahoma? Why did the Cherokee people have to pay farmers to cross their land? Why why why? The ending was bittersweet for me: a nation just starting to heal. But will they ever truly?

[Savannah Slone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glancy's "Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears" was absolutely heart wrenching, though beautifully expressed. I will now be reading more of Glancy's work and reading more historical Native American novels. I highly recommend that everyone read this book. It's tough to endure, but their stories need to be heard.

[Alarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book sat on my Amazon Wish List for many years. I expected to love it, so it disappointed me. However, one of the things that annoyed me most in reading was the chopped up narration, each speaker saying a few lines to a few pages before another stepped in. Yet, among the many great wrongs perpetrated against the indigenous people in North America was stealing their voices. Glancy was trying to let them tell their own truths. Perhaps making Maritole the sole narrator would have been a better choice.

I enjoy hearing Native Americans speak and have read some of their poetry. To me, their native beliefs about animals and the world make daily talk sound like poetry. I love that, but it wasn’t enough to keep me fascinated with this book. I do think school children should be told the truth about the wrongs perpetrated in the name of the government. We could all benefit from learning more tolerance for those not just like us. I'm just home from a trip to Canada where we saw more than one display about the atrocious treatment of Natives there.

[julianna ☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

probably could have been four or five stars except i dissociated the entire time

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book a generous two because even though I couldnt even finish it, I liked the idea of it. I was glad to see a personalized account of the trail of tears and I really wanted to like this book but I couldnt get in to it at all. Even when relating emotional experiences, the characters words felt hollow and I couldnt sympathize with them. Going to try again with another of her books and hope that I like it better...

[Claudia Mundell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was hard to read due to the subject matter. It is so painful to read of the mental and physical anguish the Cherokee suffered on the Trail of Tears. This book is rather graphic about each and every day's hardships. Readers get the feeling of the extreme suffering experienced! It was an American Holocaust.Told with a few Cherokee words and mythology included.

[Nella ☾ of Bookland · Rating 2 out of 5]

National American Indian Heritage Month 2021 Read #2 🍂

A generous 2.5 stars

I desperately wish I liked this more. I appreciate that this story exists, as the Trail of Tears is not talked about enough. However, I didn't like the multiple character perspectives nor the narrative structure itself.

[ErinAlise · Rating 4 out of 5]

From October 1838 through February 1839 some eleven to thirteen thousand Cherokee were forced to walk nine hundred miles as they were removed from their land. One fourth died or disappeared along the way.
They came during the day, while Maritole was caring for her baby and her husband was working the fields. The soldiers came and ordered them to leave. Leave to where, Maritole did not know, but her husband did. The soldiers refused to allow her to collect her things. She was forced to leave it all behind, the home her grandmother grew up in, her clothes, her pot, and jewelry. Her feet refused to move as the shock took over, they loaded her in the wagon and started along the trail. As more and more of her tribe was gathered, her hopes for ever seeing her home diminished. The trip would take months, as the soldiers relocated the Cherokee tribe from North Carolina to Oklahoma. Maritole and many others not only lost their home that day, they lost their livelihood, their history and their very way of life.
Written and told from many points of view, the reader is given a glimpse into the horror of what the Cherokee endured. Though I appreciated the many outlooks, I found myself time and time again wishing only Maritole was telling the story. Her anguish and failure, is transported to strength and endurance throughout the journey. She had lost so much and yet still prevailed. I thank the author for sharing the history and for enlightening me on a part of this past that I was not fully aware of. It’s a heart wrenching story that deserves to be read.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is about the trail of tears, the forced relocation long walk by the Cherokee nation from Georgia to Oklahoma. I had known of it, but this novel did bring the faces to life. What I hadn't known is that some of the Cherokees sold out other Cherokees and agreed for all to relocate. I also did not know the marchers were expected to pay fees to traverse some farmers' lands. What the heck!
It was discouraging that the soldiers expected the Cherokees to keep moving and not bury their dead along the way. It was discouraging that they weren't provided with adequate clothing, or the opportunities to bring more stuff from their homes along with them. It was discouraging that many starved. I had a hard time connecting with the characters because of the format. There were so many narrators, and often 2 or 3 on each page. I just couldn't emotionally connect with them individually because of that. I would have preferred a single family to connect with and through them experience what so many felt.

[k · Rating 2 out of 5]

A historical novel based on "The Trail of Tears" that happened to Indians people. One of the Indian tribes called the Cherokee was forced out of their homes, farmlands, country, and marched over 1,200 miles of rugged land from North Carolina to Indian Territory by the Removal Act. It is a good book that explained all the hardship (disease, death, spiritual despite, cruelty) Cherokees had endured during the trail with multiple voices from different characters. Maritole and many characters questioned God. If god exists, why make them walk this trial? What type of god makes people suffer? (Connection: HUM class "if God is omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect, why is there evil?") Since I'm currently in HUM class, reading a book on indigenous people that viewed corns as sacred objects expanded my knowledge on the topic of indigenous people and symbolism (corn, bear).

[Emily Nordhaus · Rating 2 out of 5]

(read for AMERIND172) I thought this book was really interesting, I learned a lot. As someone in the reviews said, this book is a SLOG. The chapters are too short to get into any of the narratives, and I never felt like I knew any of the charaters enought to be attatched to them. It was really informative to get a first person point of view at the horrid conditions that happened on the Trail of Tears. Overall, it wasn't a HORRIBLE book, but I think this book could have been shorter by at least 100 pages and significantly less choppy. I also think it would have been much more impactful if Glancy had selected fewer charaters to focus on because there were many characters that I didn't even know who they were.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very complex text. Pain and suffering, life and death, forgiveness and regret, but never forgetting.

I can't say more right now. I read this for school, which I only mention because it was not a good time for me, personally, to read this book, because I am struggling with depression right now. That means a book with this much pain is bad for my mental health, which ipso facto does the book a disservice, because it's an important text that I couldn't appreciate. It is hard to connect with a book like this when my mood swings back and forth between apathy and pain. But I wish that I appreciated it, because that is what it deserves.

[Angela W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the book feels like reading a dramatized history textbook. I like the nuances that the book incorporates. I also like how the many different points of narratives in the book make it sound like a conversation among the people. They remind me that the historical event was complicated and controversial at the time, and people have different opinions. I enjoy learning the important history of Trail of Tears through the book. The description of the spiritual thinking of the people (and their conversion to Christianity while maintaining) through their own mouths makes vivid a culture. As a fiction, however, neither its plot nor its characters have sufficient depth. This accounts for the one lost star.

[Virginia Pulver · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history we learn inn school, is all too often simply about those who conquered land or won the wars. We do not hear the other side of the story. It is important to read about the experiences of those who have suffered. This book gives us insight into what it must have been like. Reading this book reminds me that we need to see the world with new eyes (as Proust said). We must open our hearts as well. - Ginn

[Kaelyn Ireland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal historical novel that brings the Trail of Tears to life through a variety of viewpoints. The sincere narration and blending of suffering, humor, joy, sorrow, abuse, and hope endears the reader to numerous characters and showcases the humanity and infinite complexity of the people who walked the trail. The book is enriched by its inclusion of Cherokee language, culture, and spirituality throughout its pages.

[Fred Daly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping to like this better. Writing a novel about the Trail of Tears must be a challenge: you want to convey the tedium and misery without making the book itself tedious and miserable. The author uses a variety of voices, and that's probably the best way to approach the challenge, but the different voices didn't always distinguish themselves, and all the switching made it hard to be emotionally invested. I'm glad I read it, though.

[John Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a novel about the Trail of Tears told through multiple perspectives of people who walked on it from North Carolina to Indian Territory. The primary voice is that of a young woman, Maritole, who becomes estranged from her husband, Knowbeetee, as they walk the route. I found the book very moving as it brought out all these voices and the struggles they endured on this long trek.

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

The more of this book I read the less I liked it. The story is told thru multiple voices - that was interesting. And I learned things about the trail of tears that I would not have known. But I found it hard to stay interested after a while.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad the way the Native Americans were treated. It helps me understand a little bit about the Caribbean Indigenous, of which I am descendant (Puerto Rican Taino) and of the last generation with any trace of blood.

[Jeremiah Lorrig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes well written this book does inspire deep emotion and is provocative of the sorrow of the Trail of Tears, but the end of the novel did not leave me with any real emotion except that I was glad I was done with the book.

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Trail of Tears, told from the perspectives of different people on the trail at the time. The main character is a strong female. Very educational, a small window into the world of suffering that was created.

[Emma Dewalt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this for school. Read part of it then switched to audio book. I did learn a lot but some of the characters I disliked greatly. Worth the read to learn the historical context from the Cherokee and just pretty crazy. Maritole is my biggest opp