This is the story of Ellen Jane Cummins who married Cherokee William Coker in 1843. Written through Ellen Jane's eyes and covering three decades, the story begins in 1837 when Ellen was not quite 16 and her Methodist preacher father accepts a call to create a church among the Cherokees in Franklin County Tennessee. This is a tale of love and values, capturing Ellen's passions, loves, insecurities and fears, her anguish for the ill-fated Cherokees during the Trail of Tears, the horrors of the Civil War, and is truly an unforgettable story of one white woman who loved and married a Cherokee man. The Locust Thorn is the second in a series of books by Kathy Lynn ("Sonseeahray") about her Cherokee ancestors.