Book Review: Sing Down the Moon, by Scott O’Dell,* published in 1970, winner of the Newbery Medal Honor Book, 1971, a Booklist Contemporary Classics for Young Adults, 1984 and Phoenix Award Honor Book, 1990 (Children's Literature Association). 122 pages (Kindle edition), Lexile measure 820, recommended for ages 10-13, or grades 5-6, although high school students and adults have enjoyed it, too, along with children as young as 8. Please note: this book is not yet in the Pageturner library and requires student requests in order for purchases to be made.

This novel is a work of historical fiction focusing on two years, 1864-’65, in Navajo history.  He focuses on two characters especially, an empowered Navajo girl who names herself Bright Morning--and her best friend and eventual husband, who calls himself Tall Boy after killing a 6-pronged deer in his early teens. The year is 1864 and will be known in history as the year of the Long Walk. (1) The writing style is simple and straightforward; in it one may hear echoes of the Navajo people themselves, although that would be a fictional impetus created by the author. 

By the 1800s, the Navajo had lived in the Arizona/Colorado area for about 500 years. They trace their history back to the mysterious Anasazi tribe, who lived in the Monument Valley area before they disappeared. Archaeologists have recorded more than 100 ancient Anasazi sites and ruins dating before 1300 A.D. (2) The Navajo cultivated fruit orchards, grew corn, beans, pumpkin, and more, and were perhaps best known for the products of their sheepfolds and looms, as the Navajo were very fine weavers. (3)

Our heroine, Bright Morning, is on the verge of owning her own flock.  It’s the women who own sheep, producing woolen thread and weaving blankets, bags, and items of apparel.  Bright Morning’s mother owns 30 sheep, marked with the red circle of her ownership.  She’s given Bright Morning her first two, marked with two red circles, her very own brand.  Bright Morning dreams of having a flock as large as her mother’s. She hopes one day to wed Tall Boy, one of their group’s most successful hunters. Then her dog disrupts their morning:

“Everything was peaceful in the meadow. There was no reason for him to bark. Then, close to the aspen grove, I saw two long shadows. I saw their shadows before I saw the men. They were not soldiers because they did not wear bright buttons on their coats and bright cloths around their necks. They were dressed in deerskin, with tall hats and silver spurs, riding horses that had heavy silver bits. They were Spaniards.”  

Bright Morning already knew the Spaniards were kidnapping girls to be sold into slavery. Trying to save them, Tall Boy is shot after spearing a horsed Spaniard to death; from that time forward, all his people consider him a failed warrior despite that temporary triumph, as his right arm is now useless.  He is consigned to stay with the women and children.  Although he is often morose and tacit, he also develops use of his left arm and never gives up trying to prove himself again. Bright Morning asks him if he’s now a woman, when he seems too resigned; her prodding encourages him, as she is still his best support:

“I did not care, not for myself, whether Tall Boy would ever be able to hunt again or ride with the warriors. But my sister and my mother did care and there was nothing they would not do to keep me from marrying a cripple. It was my father who would decide and he had said nothing. Yet this did not give me any comfort, for he usually did what they wanted him to do.”

She and her friend Running Bird are captured, bound, and sold to different Whites. Her ostensible owner is a blonde and blue eyed woman with a serious mean streak.  But she buys Bright Morning--who never reveals her real name--new clothes, including a dress in red velvet, and red shoes.  These are to be worn only when serving trays of food at parties. Bright Morning, however, had seen a Nez Percé girl sweeping on her first day, and this girl had told her she must run, or die. The girl’s name is Nehana; she will see her again.

“When one tray was empty I went back to the kitchen for another. Most of the men were Long Knives. They were like the men who had come to our canyon and threatened to destroy our crops and burn our hogans. The Señora had told me to smile as I passed the food around, but I hated everyone there, the soldiers and their wives, too, and I did not obey her. I saw Nehana many times while I was in the kitchen or walking around with trays of food, but she never spoke. Once when Rosita noticed that I was looking at the girl, she cautioned me. “That one you keep looking at,” she said, “is bad. Once last year she ran away. She was caught and beaten for it, with a long leather whip. If she talks to you, do not listen. If the Señora catches you talking to her, you will be punished.” Nehana tells Bright Morning that Rosita is a happy slave because for the first time, she gets to eat as much as she wants.  But Nehana has other plans, and she’s learned where Running Bird lives:

“Most of the people were leaving and I was in the kitchen. Nehana was bringing dishes in for me to wash. Rosita and another girl were helping the women put on their cloaks. Nehana put a tray of dishes on the table and started out of the kitchen. She turned at the door and listened. Men on horses were riding away. Someone was playing a guitar in the garden. Women were laughing in the other part of the house. “In ten days,” Nehana said, holding up ten fingers, “at the church.”

They escape while Pentecostals are reenacting the Passion; ironically, the person portraying the suffering Jesus and carrying a makeshift cross is the very same Spaniard who had sold them.

Bright Morning, Running Bird and Tall Boy arrive home to Canyon de Chelly only to learn that the Long Knives, soldiers of the U.S. Army, have ordered them to leave.  They’ve been further stunned to learn about a massacre of Navajo, mostly women and children, which had occurred shortly before, on November 29, 1864. (4) They must at least pretend to leave.

At first, they hide their sheep and don’t go very far, but the Army cuts off their water supply.  They do an end run around the soldiers and take more water than before, but soon run out again.  Now the soldiers monitor the stream so they can’t access water, and soon, the food supplies run out, as well.  They watch, helplessly, as their hogans are burned to the ground.  Their orchards are cut to stumps.  Their fields of corn are demolished, and all their food sources. Her father urges they will rebuild.  “’Yes,” people said when they heard the news, ‘we will build a new village.’” Then the soldiers herd them and force them to march.  They have no idea where they’re going, but all weapons have been confiscated.  They walk.

“Soon we were to learn that others bore the same fate, that the whole nation of the Navahos [sic] was on the march. With the Long Knives at their backs, the clans were moving—the Bitter-Water, Under-His-Cover, Red-House, Trail-to-the-Garden, Standing-House, Red-Forehead, Poles-Strung-Out—all the Navahos were marching into captivity…That afternoon we saw many bands of Navahos. They came from all directions, from the high country and from the valleys. It was like a storm when water trickles from everywhere and flows into the river and the river flows full. This was the way the trail looked as night fell, like a dark-flowing river…By this time there were thousands of Navahos on the march. We spread out along the trail for miles, each clan keeping to itself by command of the soldiers, who rode at the head of the column and at the rear. At night the Long Knives posted guards near all the Indian fires.”

Bright Morning offers to carry one of the babies another girl is struggling with, but then loses track of the woman.  The baby will quietly die in her arms from sickness and lack of nutrition.  When she finds the mother, she learns her other baby has died, as well. 

After arriving at Fort Sumner, the men essentially lose the will to live, but Bright Morning and Tall Boy are wed and she becomes pregnant. His father gifts them his old horse; they collect firewood and pack the horse but are confronted by an Apache holding a rock to pummel Tall Boy and take both horse and wood. Tall Boy knocks the Apache unconscious with a piece of wood and is arrested.  The soldiers treat the Apache better than the Navajo as the area had been settled by the Apaches before the arrival of the Army.  Tall Boy is incarcerated inside the fort but soon escapes. He and Bright Morning leave on the horse, heading for home.

They will find a cave 30 feet high and about that deep near their original home, and Bright Morning decides she will have her son there.  They settle in, her baby is born, and one day she finds an ewe accompanied by a recently born lamb, which she introduces to her son.  We are confident she will soon have the flock she’s always craved. 

Although Author O’Dell didn’t have much of a grasp on Indian tribes, he did try to incorporate some of their culture and rituals; for example, he realistically describes the wedding ceremony between Bright Morning and Tall Boy.  He also treats the Navajo with respect, and his protagonist Bright Morning is an independent , free-spirited woman. He knew there were many different Navajo tribes and didn’t lump them together.  In this respect, he was ahead of his time. (5) 

Postscript: During WWII, the Navajo played a critical part in helping the Allies win the war, which you can learn more about, here: (6)

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 *Scott O’Dell (1898-1989) was one of the most respected authors of historical fiction, received the Newbery Medal, three Newbery Honor Medals, and the Hans Christian Anderson Author Medal, the highest international recognition for a body of work by an author of books for young readers.  Some of his many books include The Island of Blue Dolphins (Newbery Award), The Road to Damietta, Sing Down the Moon, The Black Pearl, and Zia. Living to 101 years, he witnessed the greatest transformations in human history thus far.

(1) "1864: The Navajos begin ‘Long Walk’ to imprisonment

In a forced removal, the U.S. Army drives the Navajo at gunpoint as they walk from their homeland in Arizona and New Mexico, to Fort Sumner, 300 miles away at Bosque Redondo. Hundreds die during 18 days of marching. About 9,000 Navajos reach the fort, where 400 Mescalero Apaches are already held. The tribes have a history of dispute; many arguments ensue. Food and water run short because there are twice as many people imprisoned as planned.

“As I have said, our ancestors were taken captive and driven to Hwééldi for no reason at all. They were harmless people, and, even to date, we are the same, holding no harm for anybody ... Many Navajos who know our history and the story of Hwééldi say the same.” —Howard Gorman, Navajo Stories of the Long Walk Period, 1973 See: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/332.html   

Additionally, some died because they had no agriculture available at Bosque Redondo.  Where they had always grown corn, the Army now distributed only flour, salt, sugar and lard, which were unknown to natives and sickened many.  In winter, even the distributed flour became largely unavailable. Unable to hunt and confined to small spaces for which they had to fight Apaches, many simply lost the will to survive.

“ Fry Bread Nation: A Tragic Necessity

“The staple food on the Navajo Nation simultaneously calls up historical trauma, perseverance, pride and public health issues. Fry bread was born out of tragic necessity. In the 1860s, the U.S. Army forced 10,000 Navajos and Apaches to a prison camp in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, some 300 miles from home in what is today known as the Long Walk. Col. Kit Carson said he was trying to “tame the savages.” Navajo people were basically given tin meat, lard, sugar, salt and flour. And that became the staple diet,” said Manley Begay, a Navajo and a professor of Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University.

After four years of imprisonment, the federal government let the Navajos return home. But Begay said there wasn’t much to come home to. Their crops and animals had withered and died, so the government supplied the Navajo with rations of tin meat, lard, sugar, salt and flour. Fry bread remained a staple.”
https://news.azpm.org/s/49134-fry-bread-nation-a-tragic-necessity/

(2) “1100–1500 A.D. Distinctive Navajo culture emerges. Believed to have been born to Earth centuries earlier, a distinctive Navajo culture takes hold in the Four corners area of the Colorado Plateau…1863 A.D Scorched Earth Campaign conducted by Kit Carson against the Navajo. Captives are force-marched on the Long Walk to Fort Sumner, 350 miles east in New Mexico, and many died. One group, led by Hoskininni, fled from Monument Valley. Kit Carson, in pursuit, named Agathla Peak ¡§El Capitan¡¨ because of its imposing rock formation. 1868 A.D. Treaty of Bosque Redondo creates a Navajo Reservation.
 http://navajopeople.org/blog/navajo-history/

(3) “According to Navajo myth, the Dine, or the People, were led to the Southwest from the underworld by the Holy People. Spider Man taught the Navajos how to make a loom from sunshine, lightning and rain. Spider Woman taught them to weave. Anthropologists say that the Navajo migrated south from Canada into New Mexico sometime before 1400. From the Spanish settlers the Navajo acquired churro sheep, noted for their long, fine, lustrous wool. From the Pueblo people they adopted the upright loom and weaving techniques.

During the years before 1864, known as the Classic Period (1650-1863), Navajo women wove textiles that ranged from thick utility blankets (diyugis) to extremely fine "wearing" blankets. The broadly striped "Chief blankets" were so named because they were prized items of trade between high-status members of neighboring tribes and early traders. A Chief Blanket, Third Phase, distinguished by a diamond motifs, is on view in the exhibition and represents a later example of one of the most avidly collected of the Classic blanket styles.

Historically, the Navajo era of prosperity came to a sudden and traumatic end in 1863. Seven thousand Navajo were rounded up by U.S. troops led by Kit Carson and held captive for four years at Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. Only one-quarter of these Navajo survived, and when they were released, they found their homes, pastures and flocks destroyed, and their homeland reduced to one-fifth of its original size. During their confinement the Navajo were issued "Rio Grande" blankets, and the eight-pointed Vallero star, a motif commonly used in blankets woven in the Spanish villages, later filtered into the Navajo weaving cycle. A Rio Grande with Vallero Star Blanket, is featured in the exhibition.” https://tfaoi.org/aa/2aa/2aa332.htm

(4)  THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE: “On November 29, 1864, Colonel John M. Chivington led 675 U.S. volunteer soldiers to a Chiefs’ village of about 750 Cheyenne and Arapaho people camped along the banks of Big Sandy Creek in southeastern Colorado territory.

Although the Cheyenne and Arapaho--under Chiefs Black Kettle, White Antelope, Left Hand and others--believed they were under the protection of the U.S. Army on their assigned ratified treaty lands, Chivington's troops attacked and killed about 230 people, composed mostly of women, children, and the elderly.

“When the attack began, noncombatant women, children, and the elderly who could get away fled into the dry creek channel. The soldiers followed, shooting them as they struggled through the sandy ground. George Bent, Black Kettle, Little Bear, and about 100 others ran 1-2 miles farther upstream than other groups and hastily dug protective pits. It was in these sandpits that the largest number of noncombatants were killed… “You would think it impossible for white men to butcher and mutilate human beings as they did.” — Silas Soule to General Wynkoop 

"The 3rd Colorado Cavalry was described as degenerating into a mob, and the attack into a riot. Chivington had instructed the troops to take no prisoners, women and children were shot point-blank. Howitzer cannons were brought forward to drive the fleeing Indians from their makeshift defenses, firing 8.9lb shells into the sand pits. The massacre continued for seven hours with soldiers chasing individual Indians and pony herds for 8 to 10 miles. Troops took scalp locks, ears, body parts, and jewelry from the dead and dying. 

Under the command of Captain Soule and Lieutenant Cramer, the 1st Colorado did their best to keep clear of the slaughter, deliberately firing high. It was clear their honor and word to these Indians had been broken by those in command that day.” https://www.sandcreekmassacrefoundation.org/massacre

(5) “As an outsider to Navajo culture and the historical period in which his novel is set, O’Dell’s characterizations of Navajo culture are limited. However, the specific details he includes convey his intent to treat Navajo culture and history with respect. These details reflect the geography of Navajo culture in 1863–1865, including Bright Morning’s village in Canyon de Chelly (in Northeastern Arizona) and Bosque Redondo in New Mexico, where the white soldiers lead the Navajo.

“O’Dell’s novel also resists viewing Native American culture as homogenous. It instead stresses the diversity of Native American tribes, with the Kiowa, Comanche, Nez Percé, Zuñi, Apache, Hopi, and Ute among the groups mentioned in the novel alongside the Spaniards and other settlers of European descent. The novel provides as much detail as possible regarding Navajo life through the vehicle of Bright Morning. For example, Bright Morning’s fixation on sheep not only reflects her personal desires and goals, but also the importance of sheep within Navajo culture. O’Dell also references woven blankets, the womanhood ceremony Kin-nadl-dah, marriage rituals, and other elements of Navajo culture in order to convey a sense of their reality.” For further, read: https://www.supersummary.com/sing-down-the-moon/themes/

(6) “Code Talkers Were America’s Secret Weapon in World War II: The attack [on Pearl Harbor] set in motion the United States’s entry into World War II and moved young Diné [the Navajo word for their tribe] men to enlist, though some were still in high school and underage…They came from rural backgrounds and military-style boarding schools that had already prepared them to live the harsh life of soldiers. Committed to helping Nahasdzáán, Mother Earth, and the United States, they joined the Marines and were selected to become code talkers, not knowing they would be tasked with developing and using the Navajo language as a secret weapon. 

“They came, ironically, from government and parochial schools that forbade them to speak their mother tongue and where they were expected to become Americanized through severe forms of assimilation and punishment meant to erase Indigenous identity and languages. Eradicating Native languages has resulted in the systematic loss of Indigenous languages throughout the United States since colonization began… Because the Japanese had broken all the codes sent over the radio waves, the Marines were desperate to find a secure way to communicate vital information with precious little time. After several successful tests, the Navajo language was approved as a communication code. The code contained approximately 450 words, spelled phonetically and memorized. Their code book used one to three Navajo words for each alphabet letter, which consisted of animal names and short words used to spell vital information about the locations of the Japanese military and U.S. soldiers, to say where to position artillery, and to relay wartime communication... In cases where no names for artillery existed in the Navajo language, they created shortcut words based on the behavior of animals.

“They returned home without fanfare to continued poverty, lack of economic opportunity, and nonexistent voting rights yet persevered and overcame obstacles that helped change the Navajo Nation and their communities. Approximately 461 Navajo Marines served as code talkers, with 13 killed in action.
https://www.neh.gov/article/code-talkers-were-americas-secret-weapon-world-war-ii

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