In 1856 Dzanibaa’(Little
Woman Warrior Who Came Home), a young Navajo girl, was taken from her
beautiful home in the Black Mesa’s by United States soldiers and taken
to Fort Canby. Soon after her
whole family was brought to Fort Canby and then forced to walk 450 miles
to Fort Sumner in New Mexico. Dzanibaa
saw the old and sick fall behind and the soldiers shoot them, as they
walked to New Mexico. Four
years the people tried to plant crops in the hard and alkaline ground
without success, making sure the children did not forget the to plant.
Since the crops failed the Naabeeho, (Navajo people) had to rely on
the rations provided to them by the soldiers.
The Naabeeho were given rations that were foreign to them, bug
infested, and rotten. With the strength of the people, the clan system,
their songs, and prayers the people survived extremely desperate times.
On June 1, 1868 the Naabeeho were allowed to return home between
the sacred mountains, with the Treaty of 1868.
This is a book is written
in two languages, Navajo and English, offering Native voice and a way for
children to connect to the story in both.
My favorite part was the description of how Native People were
given Commodity food with out cooking instructions.
They boiled the black beans, dumped out the water added new water,
and boiled them again and they never got soft.
They were Coffee beans. I’ve
heard stories about flour being used as paint, cause the Native people
thought that the soldiers wanted them to be white, not knowing they were
to cook with the stuff.
Marlette
Grant-Jackson – ITEPP-CRC
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