I read this for my class. It tells only part of the story of the Navajo forced march, relocation to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and four years of imprisonment which ended in 1868. Very little detail of the true horrors they faced are included. It could be the basis of in-depth discussions and factual information. Children are strong enough to face the truth.

This is a children's book but it helped me understand what the experience of the Long Walk may have been like.

Navajo Long Walk read like fiction! The tone did not relay the seriousness of the Navajo Long Walk. I don’t know if the writer was trying to underplay the actual brutality, viciousness and the victimization that the Navajos experienced to protect young readers or to paint the white politicians and soldiers in a light not to expose their actual behavior, but, whatever the writer was attempting to do, it made the Navajo Long Walk appear to be everything it was not.

Parents who are truly interested in teaching their children about History, no matter how gruesome it was, will pass on any book written or published by The Council for Indian Education. I know I won’t be reading any of their stories to my grandchild.

This book was written for much younger readers than I am. I found I could forecast what was going to happen and I was able to forecast things in the end of the book when they were still a ways off. But this is a story of a tragic event in our history which did not end well for many. I know that, but children in younger grades do not need to have a stark reality of death and loss thrown at them without some kind of positive ending to help them with the sadness.

Some of the story was a little trite, but I think the younger readers will need that. There were some words which younger readers would have problems with, but in a supervised reading, I think this book would be awesome for those readers who are just starting chapter books. For me, this book is a three. For a second or third grader, I would hope this book could awaken their imagination and help to get them on a path toward life long reading. I would hope this book would become a five for a younger reader.

I had to get back on Smoke before he dumped me, or I'd never have enough nerve to ride again.

He saw his grandmother really cry. THis time it was for joy.

THe quiet was glorious. He could hear only sounds he loved, the subdued voices of his family, and Moises made by contended animals moving in their corrals. Peace settled over him.

this book is very iontresting because the navajo people had to walk really far and pass throught many hard sitiations.this kid name knee is the main character,knee's grandma almost die when she was crossing el rio grande.

I really think this book should be 2 and a half.

I think this is a very interesting book

For what this book is supposed to do I think it does it very well. I am assuming this book was written to teach young people about one of many travesties Native Americans suffered when settlers and soldiers moved into their lands. I thought the book was very readable and it handled some of the uglier aspects of this event carefully.

tt“Missing Their Desert”

Sponsored by the Council for Indian Education this short book presents a fictionalized account of the Navajo tribe in the mid 1860’s. Presented with sympathetic historical fidelity the story is related from the viewpoint of Kee, a young Navajo boy who comes of age over the four years that his family is in military exile. He struggles to mature with only one parent; first his father (Strong Man) who disappears, then his mother (Gentle Woman) who returns after many years of slavery in another tribe. He also helps his grandmother (Wise One) and little sister, Hasba.

tDuring the enforced migration march East with 8000 Navajo over 300 miles Kee learns many survival techniques: emotional and
psychological as well as physical. The new reservation, on land
strange to his tribe and hostile to agriculture, proves dissatisfactory, unproductive and depressing as traditional Navajo ways are scorned, remolded, neglected or disallowed. Secretly wondering if his father has been killed or captured elsewhere the boy grows in understanding--especially re the soldiers whom he first loathed and lumped together as the faceless, enigmatic enemy.

tGradually Kee realizes that learning white man’s language is key to understanding another culture; he gradually permits one particular soldier to befriend him through repeated acts of kindness and consideration. Possessing a special way with horses Kee is promoted to stable boy for the magnificent stallion of the Post commander—which proves of real benefit to his family’s meager rations. His mother’s talent as a weaver of blankets is also praised and prized. Best of all he makes friends with a white boy—the first he ever met. The book contains many gentle expressions of compassionate philosophy, mainly spoken by his grandmother and mother. But could a free spirit like his father, if he lived, learn to adapt to peaceful coexistence with white men and with other tribes? Still Kee longs for the colorful, pine-scented desert of Navajoland, where their ancient gods protect and bless them.

(April 20, 2010. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)t

I thought that it wasn´t a very good book,because it was getting off topic.

Good illustrations...but not much else.