mountains remember

"In 1929, a woman without a husband is a woman without a voice. What is a widow to do when the Government wants to take her land? She fights. Sadie Bird lives in Shaconage, North Carolina with Lazarus, a mixed-breed dog she rescued from the forest. Sadie supports herself by harvesting medicinal plants which she uses in her tonics and salves. Having recently buried her husband and children, she's more worried about surviving the winter than the federal government's plan to force residents out to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That is, until Bowman Marks, an empoyee tasked with acquiring land, arrives at Sadie's place intent on acquiring it by any necessary means. After Bowman presents Sadie with an offer to purchase, she is forced to swallow her pride and ask for help from church members who cast her out due to nonattendance. Sadie believes that "being asked to sell the graves of my family to the government is the evilest thing I've ever heard," which is why she also joins a lawsuit against the government filed by Pinkney Rucker, the timber baron who employed Sadie's husband, Elkin, who was killed in a logging accident.