![]() The book could have used some editing as some facts and incidents were unnecessarily repeated several times. She clearly values those stories, however, and gives several detailed descriptions of poems, plays, and stories of these historical events by modern Navajo artists. I did find it curious that as a historian and Navajo herself, the author only used the phrase "oral history" once, preferring instead to refer to the oral testimony referenced throughout the book as stories. ![]() The author does use the exile and the 1868 treaty that allowed the Navajos to return home again as a testament of Navajo survival and a polemic for Navajo sovereignty. ![]() Though clearly a biased account, I found it largely provided a welcome balance to redressing that settler view of history. As such, readers wedded to the settler view of American history and especially the settlement of the west will find it difficult reading. This history of the forced Navajo relocation to reservation lands at Bosque Redondo (Hweeldi) in New Mexico in the mid-1800s is unapologetically told exclusively from the Navajo point of view. ![]()
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