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Book Review: Navajo Long Walk

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Part 2: A Different History

This is history that is not often reported in traditional history books, and the reader is better-informed for having read this book and others from the Native American point of view. The author does a good job of remaining neutral, however, letting the facts speak for themselves. The pain and suffering his ancestors felt might have made him angry, but he doesn't show it here. Rather, in the end story, in which the Navajos are allowed to return to their ancestral home, we see the pride and peacefulness of the Navajos, who are happy to be home again.

In a masterful touch, illustrator Shonto Begay has the top photo at the beginning of the book and the bottom photo at the end, signifying that though the times have changed, the Navajo tradition hasn't.

To this day, Navajos live in New Mexico by the thousands. In fact, 150,000 Navajos live on the Canoncito Reservation. They still have their way of life, weaving beautiful rugs and fashioning strong and beautiful silver that are sold all over the world, and they still tell their children such terrible stories as the Navajo Long Walk.

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Graphics courtesy of National Geographic

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