The Girl who Chased Away Sorrow

Sarah Nita, a Navajo, narrates to her granddaughter her story of the 1864 "Long Walk," where Navajos were forced by white soldiers to relocate and undertake a grueling march to Fort Sumner, MN. Sarah was twelve years old when she and her sister escaped the soldiers' decimation of her clan. Presumably orphaned, they traveled to Tseyi, where they had family. On arrival, they were adopted by other Navajos, many also escapees. Soon, soldiers returned and demanded Navajo surrender. Thus began the terrible four day trek through freezing weather to Ft. Sumner; those unable to walk were either left or killed. At the fort, survivors faced grueling labor and, although they were given food, it was unfamiliar and thus unpalatable. The girls were reunited with their parents and lived there for four years, until government release. This book could be paired with Holocaust or Japanese internment literature.