The Education of Little Tree

Granpa demonstrates his lack of mainstream societal knowledge when strangers ask him for directions to Chattanooga and he gives them literal directions (west and slightly north) rather than road directions that they can use to drive there. The folks call Granpa and Little Tree foreigners. Little Tree asks what a foreigner is, and Granpa says that it’s a made-up word to express an unnecessary sentiment. To illustrate his point, Granpa tells Little Tree about the history of the word “kin” and how it used to mean understanding rather than blood relation. The point of “kinning” someone was to understand them, and you could not truly love someone or something if you did not kin them.

In the past, the government promised the Cherokee people that their lands and ways of life were safe, only to turn around and betray them by forcing them onto new lands. The Cherokee people chose to walk because they refused to let the soldiers win by driving them to their new homes. This determination continues through the blood of the Cherokee people, and Granpa explains this idea using the story of his own father, who fought against the government.