When Allie MacAllister’s best friend, Leaf Sweetwater, invites her to try on her buckskin dress, Allie couldn’t be happier. Until soldiers interrupt the girls’ fun and round up Leaf’s family, forcing them from their home and taking Allie with them. Together they are swept along the harsh Trail of Tears, and joined by thousands of other Cherokee families. As conditions on the trail grow more desperate every day, hope of rescue fades, and all that’s left is a grueling nightmare of prejudice and terror. Throughout the harrowing journey, Allie and Leaf share strength, hope, fear, and courage, forging a bond of sisterhood greater than any blood tie.
Debbie Dadey is a former first-grade teacher and elementary school librarian. She is the author and coauthor of over 70 books for children, including the Adventures of the Baily School Kids series.
NOTE TO TEACHERS
Cherokee Sister
Debbie Dadey
Soft Rain - A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears
Cornelia Cornelissen
Grades 4 - 6
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Two young Native American girls, forced by United States soldiers to leave their southern homes and head west, come face-to-face with the white man’s prejudice and suffer severe hardship as they walk the Cherokee Trail of Tears.
In Cherokee Sister, 12-year-old Leaf Sweetwater and Allie MacAllister are best friends during a time of great upset between the white settlers and the Cherokees. After her father forbids her from seeing Leaf, Allie slips out of church to visit her best friend. During their time together, Allie tries on Leaf’s new buckskin dress. With her dark hair and tanned skin, Allie is mistaken for a Cherokee and is forced to walk the Trail of Tears with Sweet Leaf and her grandmother. As conditions on the trail worsen, hope of rescue fades away and all that’s left is the grueling nightmare of prejudice and terror. Throughout the harrowing journey, Allie and Leaf share each other’s courage, forging a bond of sisterhood greater than any blood tie.
In Soft Rain, a 9-year-old Cherokee girl finds herself in the same situation as Sweet Leaf as soldiers arrive one day to take her and her mother to walk the Trail of Tears, leaving the rest of her family behind. It all begins when Soft Rain’s teacher reads a letter stating that as of May 23, 1838, all Cherokee people are to leave their land and move to what many Cherokees called "the land of darkness". . .the west. Soft Rain is confident that her family will not have to move, because they have just planted corn for the next harvest. Because Soft Rain knows some of the white man’s language, she soon learns that they must travel across rivers, valleys, and mountains. On the journey, she is forced to eat the white man’s food and sees many of her people die. Her courage and hope are restored when she is reunited with her father, a leader on the Trail, chosen to bring her people safely to their new land.
TEACHING IDEAS
Interdisciplinary Connections
Language Arts-- Soft Rain’s grandmother was a great storyteller and was teaching her granddaughter the skill of storytelling. Many of the Native American stories were legends, such as the story of the uktena. Help students understand the definition of legend. Then have students rewrite the story of the Little People (p.10) as a legend and share the legends with the class.
Social Studies-- Native Americans have contributed much to American culture. Using textbooks, the Internet, and other resources, have students research items used, or garments worn today that originated from the Native American culture. An example of such may be baskets or ponchos. Ask students to describe what things they do or use in their own life that may have been the influence of Native Americans.
Geography-- The names of many cities and towns across the United States are derived from Native American terms, such as Cherokee, North Carolina. Have students look on local maps and list all the cities they think have Native American names. Then ask them to research the exact tribe that occupied the land. Ask students to research the location of any Indian reservations in the area. Do the names of the tribes match the names of the cities?
Science-- Four thousand Cherokee people died as a result of walking the Trail of Tears. Many of the deaths were a result of the drastic weather conditions as they walked from the warmth of North Carolina through the bitter cold of Illinois and Missouri, and finally to Oklahoma. Ask students to look at the map of the Trail of Tears in the book Soft Rain. Have them research the weather and the changing seasons in the states along the Trail of Tears. Then have students draw their findings on a weather map marked to show the varying climates.
DISCUSSION AND WRITING
In the Classroom
Cherokee Sister and Soft Rain are two stories of the Cherokee Trail of Tears. These novels serve as excellent tools in teaching about such themes as prejudice, family, friendship, and survival. The characters in both novels cope with prejudice and fight for survival. The themes of family and friendship also figure prominently in the two stories as both Leaf and Soft Rain have loving and nurturing relationships with their grandmothers. This guide not only provides ideas for exploring such themes, but also offers activities for using these novels to connect to social studies, language arts, science, geography, and art.
Thematic Connections
Prejudice-- Define the term prejudice for the class. Ask students why the "white man" in both Cherokee Sister and Soft Rain was prejudiced against the Indians. Discuss the difference between the terms Indian and Native American, explaining that once it was common practice to refer to the Cherokee people as Indians instead of Native Americans. Ask students why Native American is a better term than Indian. How does learning about discrimination help remove prejudice?
Friendship-- Discuss the meaning of friendship with your students. Ask them to find examples from the books that show that Allie and Leaf, and Soft Rain and Green Fern are best friends. How do they treat each other? What kinds of things do they do together? What do they talk about? Do they always get along? Ask students to compare the friendships related in the books to their own.
Family-- Discuss the relationship Leaf and Soft Rain had with their grandmothers. What kinds of things did they do together and talk about? Ask the students how they think Leaf’s and Soft Rain’s lives will be different without their grandmothers. What aspects of their grandmothers’ lives and personalities will live on in Leaf and Soft Rain?
Survival-- Leaf and Allie, and Soft Rain and her mother encounter many hazards and hardships along the Trail of Tears. Ask students to give examples of such obstacles. How are their experiences similar? Many people died along the trail, including Elisi and Green Fern. How were Leaf, Allie, and Soft Rain able to survive?
SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
Pre-Reading Activity
Introduce the term Trail of Tears to the class. Using the internet, textbooks, or other resources, have students research the Indian Removal Act. Ask students how the Indian Removal Act relates to the Cherokee people. Then ask students why the term Trail of Tears was coined in connection to this Act.
Art-- Each novel describes the physical attributes of its main characters. Using books, magazines, or the Internet, show the class pictures that represent the Native American way of life from the 1800s to the present day. Ask students to draw two pictures of either Soft Rain or Sweet Leaf — one will depict life in the 1800s and the other will show Native American life today.
VOCABULARY
Vocabulary/Use of Language
Sweet Leaf and Allie greet each other by saying tsi-lu-gi, which is "hello" in Cherokee. Both books contain words from the Cherokee language. Have students collect these words and create a picture dictionary that includes the Cherokee word, its English equivalent, and the definition, along with a picture to represent the word.
Teaching ideas prepared by Richard Darst, educator and freelance writer, and Pat Scales, Director of Library Services, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville, South Carolina.
AWARDS
Soft Rain
An NCSS - CBC Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
REVIEWS
"What makes this book different from similar stories is its focus on friendly relationships between local whites and Cherokees and the value placed on the Cherokees' homes and villages. . .the book may bring new insight to children who don't find the words so painful to read." --Booklist Reviews for Soft Rain
"Through Soft Rain’s narrative, the author’s candor and sobering details are easy to grasp by middle graders, and her poignant account closes on a note of hope. . . .An eye-opening introduction to this painful period of American history." - Publishers Weekly
OTHER TITLES OF INTEREST
(by theme)
Sing Down the Moon
Scott O’Dell
Native Americans, Family, Prejudice
Grades 5-7
Trouble’s Daughter
Katherine Kirkpatrick
Native Americans, Family, Survival
Grades 5 up
Zia
Scott O’Dell
Native Americans, Prejudice
Grades 5 up
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
Internet Resources
National Museum of the American Indian
The home page of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian.
Cherokee Removal Forts — The Trail of Tears
This site looks at the various Removal Forts in Georgia built for express purpose of housing the Cherokee before their removal.
Cherokee Trail of Tears Timeline
Covering dates 1838—1839.
Books@Random