Exactly what part of the country did the Dust Bowl involve. The book "Grapes of Wrath" is the story of Cherokee Indians who lost their land to corporations, then sharecropped until the dust bowl. In this book they talk of leaving Sallisaw, Oklahoma which is close to the Arkansas border. My sister recently read a book titled the "Dust Bowl" and she said that the dust bowl never hit this part of Oklahoma. I have read that the dust storms affected most of the plains and the North Eastern states. Can you help me with this. I teach Cherokee History to the general public and don't want to give false information if the story of the Grapes of Wrath is untrue.