Pushing The Bear is an historical novel by Diane Glancy. It explores the lives of the Cherokee in the years spanning 1838-1839duribg their forced removal from their land along the Trail of Tears.
Glancy adheres strictly to historical accuracy and consistency using many real-life experiences along the Trail of Tears as experiences and attributing them to her characters. Critic Valerie Miner commended Glancy for weaving stories with factual details borne of meticulous research, adding authentic details like the axel grease used to soothe the children's chapped lips, or the fact that many white farmers charged the Cherokee a fee for crossing their land. These details, plus the addition of maps at the start of each chapter, make the grueling trek more realistic for the readers.
Glancy told interviewer Jennifer Andrews that the land had to give her permission to write the story, and each time she tried to tell it she needed to go back and add more characters so that more voices could be heard because it takes more than one voice to tell a story, and everybody carries those voices within.