Native American Culture can’t be studied with out considering the relocations. The relocation of Native Americans is a regrettable portion of our nation’s history. Many tribes, like the Cherokee, were forced to move from their ancestral lands so that white settlers could have their lands. Others, like the Navajo, were moved as a punishment, in an attempt to civilize them. When you think about the number of people who were relocated, there really are not many books on this period. Few fiction books have been published on this topic in recent years. More information about this time period can be found in nonfiction books about the individual tribes. Since the list is so short, it is hard to pick a favorite. While there are few, fortunately most are well-done.
Links in this post may be affiliate links. Purchases made using these links will not cost you more but may pay me an affiliate fee. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and related sites. Thank you for using my links.
FICTION
Hausman, Gerald. The coyote bead. Hampton Roads, 1999. 157141453. Paperback. 144 p. Grades 7-adult.
Tobachischin watches his parents gunned down by the “blue coats” who come to take his people away from their homeland. Though wounded, he escapes to a cliff top where his medicine man grandfather lives. They hide there until the boy heals and their food is gone. They then set out for the distant mountains where other Navajo are hiding. An enemy (Ute Indian) chases the two down, killing the grandfather and making several attempts on the boy’s life.
The Coyote Bead contains the traditional Navajo religion; the spiritism, man changing into animals, visions, etc. Rather than detailing the Long Walk, The Coyote Bead looks at one boy’s struggle to remain in his homeland while all around him people are being taken.
Author Gerald Hausman spent over twenty years on the Navajo Reservation. During that time he learned many of the Navajo traditions and stories which are incorporated into his writings.
Turner, Ann. The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow : The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl. Scholastic, 1999. 0590972162. Hardcover. 200 p. Grades 5-9
Sarah Nita and Kaibah are members of the Navajo tribe. They are on the mesa herding their family’s sheep when their family is taken by the men in blue. The girls walk for eight days north to Tseyi to find their relatives. Life continues in Tseyi, however the soldiers eventually come and take the family to the fort. While at the fort, the family, along with other Navajo families, struggles to learn how to eat the strange food given them by the soldiers. The Navajo soon start on their long walk to Fort Sumner. Many die along the trail–some because they are weak and ill, other because the soldiers shoot them when they don’t keep up. While at Fort Sumner, Sarah Nita and Kaibah are reunited with their family.
In The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow, Ann Turner has written a story of a girl who lived during one of the saddest times in Navajo history. The time of the Long Walk was a time when the white man terribly mistreated the Navajo. There are a few minor problems with the book that do not affect the plot but may offend Navajo readers. First, in a picture caption, Chinle is said to be in New Mexico; it is actually in Arizona. Second, Sarah Nita is married to a member of her father’s clan. Traditionally, Navajo do not marry members of either their mother’s or father’s clans.
Thomasma, Kenneth. Kunu: Winnebago Boy Escapes. Illustrated by Jack Brouwer. Baker Book House, 1992. 0801088925. Paperback. 183 p. Grades 4-adult
Ten-year-old Kunu missed his father who was fighting in the Civil War. Kunu lived with his mother, two younger sisters, and Chokay, his grandfather. While Chokay and Kunu were delivering horses to an Anglo in the Sioux Agency, the Sioux go on the warpath changing the life of Kunu and the other Winnebago Indians. As a result of this uprising, all Indians were forced to relocate away from white settlers. Before they even arrive in Crow Creek, their new “home,” Chokay makes plans to escape. In Kunu, Mr. Thomasma shows that not all Native Americans killed Anglos and not all white settlers hated Indians. Chokay and Kunu help settlers on several occasions. These settlers in turn help them escape and establish a permanent place in their traditional homeland.
Fitzpatrick, Marie-Louise. The Long March. Tricycle Press, 1998. 1883672910. Paperback. 32 p. Grades 2-4.
The Long March is a beautiful story of the relocation of the Choctaw people. Healing was brought to the Choctaw people when they reached out to help the Irish during the famine. At first the people didn’t want to help, but the great-grandmother of the story retold the Long March story and helped the people to see that they must help. Author and illustrator Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick is an Irish woman who traveled to Oklahoma to research for this story. The book contains an introduction by Choctaw Gary White Deer as wall as the author’s notes on the history of the story. The Long March is endorsed by the Choctaw Nation.
Armstrong, Nancy M. Navajo Long Walk. Illustrated by Paulette Lambert. Robert Rinehart Publishers. 1879373564. Paperback. 120 p. Grades 5- adult.
Kee, a Navajo boy, becomes man of the family when his father, Strong Man, doesn’t return after warning others that the soldiers are coming. Wise One, the grandmother, makes the decision that the family will surrender. Kee is furious, but goes along hoping to help his grandmother and sister unit his father comes for them. At Fort Defiance, they are reunited with his mother who had been kidnapped. Author Nancy Armstrong uses Kee and his family to tell the story of the Navajo Long Walk. Kee learns that the white soldiers hate being at Fort Sumner away from their homes as much as the Navajo do. He learns the importance of learning the white man’s ways. He learns how to get along with people who are different from him. Eventually, Kee and his family return to their home in Canyon de Chelly and are reunited with his father. The black and white drawings by Paulette Lambert are well-done and give the readers a visual feel for the story.
Stewart, Elisabeth J. On the long trail home. Clarion Books. 1994. 0395683610. Hardcover. 106 p. Grades 4- adult.
Nine-year-old Meli has just been forced to move from North Carolina to Oklahoma. Her mother and sister died when the soldiers were forcing them out of their home. She has not seen her brother or father or their baby since she and her grandmother were taken. The first time they are allowed outside, Meli, spots Tahlikwa (Tahli), her older brother. She runs toward him and as soon as he sees her they decide to run away. Tahli is shot. Meli cares for him the best she can. Caddo Indians take them in when Tahli becomes too sick from the gunshot wound to continue. Their medicine man heals him and they continue on their journey. On the Long Trail Home is the story of their return to their father and baby brother in North Carolina. Elisabeth Stewart based this fictional story on her great-grandmother’s escape from the Cherokee Trail of Tears relocation.
O’Dell, Scott. Sing Down the Moon. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1970. 0395109191. Hardcover. $17.00. 0440979757. Paperback. Grades 4-adult.
Capture and being sold into slavery as well as forced relocation are part of the history of many Native American tribes. In Sing Down the Moon, Scott O’Dell captures both of these horrors in the life of Bright Morning, a Navajo. First, as a fourteen-year-old, Bright Morning is captured by Spanish slavers and sold to a woman in a town several days east of Navajoland. She, along with two friends, steal three horses and escape back to their homeland. After returning to her home in Canyon de Chelly. The American soldiers come and force her people to move to Fort Sumner, 300 miles to the southeast. Bright Morning and her husband escape and eventually return to their home in Canyon de Chelly. Not only is this a story of the injustices the Navajo faced in the 1860’s, it is the story of a Navajo girl herding her mother’s sheep becoming a wife and mother.
NONFICTION
Fischer, Laura. Life on the Trail of Tears. Heinemann Library, 2003. 1403438005. Hardcover. 32 p. Grades 2-7
Life on the Trail of Tears is part of the series Picture the Past. Accurate information, a glossary, bibliography, and an index make this a good reference book for middle elementary students. Five tribes walked the Trail of Tears from Southeastern United States to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. In Life on the Trail of Tears, Laura Fischer focuses on the Cherokee Indians. The book includes short vignettes of famous Cherokee and bits that give greater insight into Cherokee life. The fourteen two-page chapters cover: why the Trail of Tears happened, what happened along the trail, food, clothing, and children. The book is illustrated with photos, drawings, and paintings.
Bruchac, Joseph. Navajo Long Walk. Illustrated by Shonto Begay. National Geographic Society, 2002. 0792270584. Hardcover. 48 p. Grades 4-adult.
Navajo Long Walk is a well-written account of the event. Joseph Bruchac consulted many on the Navajo Nation in the writing of this book. He includes the Navajo creation story as well as some background information. The book concludes with a short afterward of the Navajo’s contribution to the world in the twentieth century. While the book does not have an index, it is a useful resource for those interested in this tragic time in American history. Shonto Begay’s illustrations are reminiscent of VanGogh. I especially appreciated his interpretive captions on the larger colored illustrations.
Bial, Raymond. The long walk: the story of Navajo captivity. Benchmark Books, 2003. 0761412337. Hardcover. 94 p. Grades 7-adult.
The Long Walk is a bitter memory for the Navajo people. In his book, The Long Walk, author Raymond Bial starts with the early history of the Navajo as background information. The book continues through the Long Walk to the period following it. It ends with a chapter on the Navajo today. He has done an excellent job of researching Navajo history. However, the book is a bit academic. Only those who have to research the period will probably take the time to read the book in its entirety. The book is illustrated with black and white photos, many of which are from the 1800’s. It contains an index and bibliographies, which add to its value as a reference book.
Bruchac, Joseph. The Trail of Tears. Illustrated by Diane Magnuson. Random House, 1999. 067989051. 48 p. Grades 2-4.
The Trail of Tears is a Step 4 book in Random House’s Step Into Reading series. Joseph Bruchac has written an accurate story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears for students ready for short chapter books. Written in fiction style, the six chapters read like a storybook. While the book is nonfiction, it is not set up like a reference book (no glossary, index, etc.), yet it would be a good resource for research. The colored artwork of Diana Magnuson successfully depicts Cherokee life and compliments the text.
Isaacs, Sally Senzell. The Trail of Tears. Heinemann Library. 1403425078. Hardcover. 32 p. Grades 4-9.
The Trail of Tears is part of Heinemann Library’s American Adventure series. The book has eleven two-page chapters or articles. Author Sally Isaacs has included information on Cherokee life before, during, and after the Trail of Tears as well as information on Cherokee government. Each chapter contains color-coded panels, which either contain general U.S. history or more detailed information about the Native Americans. The book is illustrated with drawings and photographs, which are clearly identified with detailed captions. The book includes maps, a glossary, a timeline, an index, and a list of books to read and places to visit. It would be a useful book for student research.
Tingle, Tim. Walking the Choctaw road: stories from red people memory. Cinco Puntos Press, 2003. 0938317741. Hardcover. 144 p. Grades 7-adult.
Walking the Choctaw Road is a compilation of stories from Choctaw history from 1800 to the present. I chose to include it in this relocation column because several stories deal with the time period surrounding the Choctaw Trail of Tears. Author Tim Tingle is a Choctaw storyteller. The stories in the book are ones he got from Choctaw elders or ones he himself experienced. The influence of Christian missionaries is evident in the stories, as is the spiritism of traditional beliefs. The stories give the readers a feel for what life was/is like for the Choctaw Indians: being forced to move because whites wanted their land, having their homes burned so they’d move sooner, having stones thrown in their face just because they are Indian. Walking the Choctaw Road does an excellent job of telling the Native side of history without condemning the white man. The book is illustrated with black and white photographs from each story’s time period.
Classroom Activities
Spend time as a class researching the relocation periods of several different Native tribes. Compare the experience of the different groups. Discuss how your students would feel if they experienced some of the things the Natives experienced during the relocation period.
Amazon Affiliate links to books mentioned
The Coyote Bead
The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864 (Dear America)
Kunu: Winnebago Boy Escapes
The Long March: The Choctaw’s Gift to Irish Famine Relief
Navajo Long Walk (Council for Indian Education Series)
On the Long Trail Home
Sing Down the Moon
Life on the Trail of Tears (Picture the Past)
Navajo Long Walk : Tragic Story Of A Proud Peoples Forced March From Homeland
The Long Walk: The Story of Navajo Captivity (Great Journeys)
Trail of Tears (Step-Into-Reading, Step 5)
The Trail of Tears (The American Adventure)
Walking the Choctaw Road: Stories From Red People Memory
More posts in the Learning Native American Culture series.
