A review by meaganmart
The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl by Ann Turner
2.0
I will start with the positives and say that I had never heard of The Long Walk of the Navajo and will now be doing more research and reading of materials by indigenous authors to learn more about the forced relocation, their internment, the agreement to send Navajo children to government run schools, and the impact on the cultural heritage of the tribe.
What I disliked tremendously: I think it is totally unrealistic for the main character to have the English name Sarah. For a tribe that so clearly resented and feared white men, why before establishing reliable contact would that have given their child this name? How would they even have heard or known how to pronounce an English name?
Also, the book has a soldier that plays the role of white savior, because what story could be complete without “proving” that all white people weren’t completely terrible and barbaric in their treatment of the indigenous people of the Americas.
What I disliked tremendously: I think it is totally unrealistic for the main character to have the English name Sarah. For a tribe that so clearly resented and feared white men, why before establishing reliable contact would that have given their child this name? How would they even have heard or known how to pronounce an English name?
Also, the book has a soldier that plays the role of white savior, because what story could be complete without “proving” that all white people weren’t completely terrible and barbaric in their treatment of the indigenous people of the Americas.