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THE GIRL WHO CHASED AWAY SORROW: The Diary of Sarah
Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico
by Ann Warren Turner
Scholastic
ISBN: 0590972162
Ages 9-12
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In January 1864, American troops rounded
up members of the Navajo tribe, intending to tame what they considered
an uncivilized people. The soldiers forced their prisoners, who included
Native Americans of all ages, to march over harsh terrain to Fort
Sumner, in New Mexico. The deadly march became known as the Long Walk.
This story imagines what the Long Walk would have been like for a
frightened 12-year-old Navajo girl named Sarah Nita.
Sarah Nita calls herself "The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow" because
of her storytelling ability. When she invents a story about a sacred
animal or an unusual word, her listeners' worries temporarily fade
away. At first, she soothes her family when they are fearful of their
land's invasion by white men. Later, when those men kidnap her parents,
Sarah Nita escapes with her sister to another village and tells her
magical tales to more members of her clan, including a 13-year-old
boy who becomes her close friend. At last, the soldiers ruin the Navajos'
crops, forcing Sarah Nita and her guardians to surrender. They hike
through the January snow to Fort Sumner, and Sarah Nita's stories
give the Navajos hope even though they are starving and even though
the violent soldiers shoot the weak or sick people who cannot keep
up.
History books sometimes gloss over the treatment of Native Americans
by white settlers. Very often, we hear that the situation was BAD,
but we don't know EXACTLY why the groups fought one another so fiercely.
This book brutally shows the down side of how the West was won; it
reports on how "Colonel [Kit] Carson led the United States cavalry
into Navajo territory, burning crops and hogans and killing livestock
in an attempt to change the Navajo way of life and reduce the size
of their land."
Author Ann Warren Turner uses Sarah Nita and the Long Walk to show
the importance of telling and retelling stories. At the beginning
and end of this "diary," readers learn that Sarah Nita is sharing
her memories with her granddaughter, who writes them down so that
they will not be forgotten. Although Sarah Nita is a fictional creation,
her life is based on facts that need to be remembered.
--- Reviewed by Nathalie op de Beeck
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