Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home New Release!
Written by Evangeline Parsons Yazzie
Illustrated by Irving Toddy
June 2006
We’re very excited to share with you our newest publication, Dzání Yázhí Naazbaa’: Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home. This book is written by Northern Arizona University professor Evangeline Parsons Yazzie and beautifully illustrated by Irving Toddy.
Dzání Yázhí Naazbaa’: Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home has been receiving considerable attention in the book world. Kirkus Reviews described the book as “…a valuable addition to most libraries” in their March 15, 2005 issue; and Booklist published a glowing review in their April 15, 2005 publication.
Dzáníbaa’ is alone when U.S. troops swoop down on her family’s hogan. Before she can run to safety, a soldier grabs her and puts her on his horse. She is taken to Fort Canby, and from there is forced to walk to Bosque Redondo. For four long years, Dzáníbaa’ and her family endure incredible hardship and sacrifice. Crops wither. Food is scarce or so tainted that it poisons. Illness strikes. At times there seems no hope of a better future.
Nevertheless, this time of trial gives Dzáníbaa’ a profound sense of herself as a Navajo and of the importance of her culture. As never before, Dzáníbaa’ realizes the significance of the clan system, of the prayers and songs of her people, and of exerting herself to help her family.
Hear Dzáníbaa’’s story, and discover why she is the Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home.
Kids Given Close Look at Navajo Long Walk
by By Jeff Berglund
04/17/2005
“Remember the Things They Told Us” is the English translation of an often-used Navajo/Diné phrase at the beginning of stories told by Navajo people, including writing by contemporary Diné writers.
The phrase reminds listeners and readers that the wisdom and the fortitude of one’s ancestors will continue to sustain and give strength. This impulse to remember the past, then, is also simultaneously about the past, present and future.
Evangeline Parsons Yazzie’s new bilingual picture book for children, “Dzání Yázhí Naazbaa’: Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home,” published by Salina Bookshelf, revolves around this very principle.
Written in Navajo and English, Parsons Yazzie’s book examines the tragic history of the Navajo Long Walk and the forced imprisonment of Navajo people from 1864 to 1868 at Bosque Redondo, N.M. These experiences, often referred to as Hwééldi by Navajo people, are movingly rendered through the story of one young girl whose name in English means “Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home.” Her birth names gains even greater significance in light of her enduring spirit, which allows her to survive the terrible testing.
When the story opens, Little Woman Warrior is living at Black Mesa, on land surrounded by four sacred mountains, including the closest, Dook’o’ooslííd, the San Francisco Peaks. She lives a life as any Navajo girl did in the 1860s.
One day, when her parents are going about their daily business, she is kidnapped by U.S. troops who have been given orders to begin rounding up Navajo people to begin the march to Fort Sumner in an effort to subdue and crush the spirits of the Navajo people who occupy territory the U.S. government desired. She and other children are used to lure their parents into submission.
Later scenes feature the almost 500-mile trek, attempts to plant crops in the hostile climate of Bosque Redondo, difficulties making due with government rations, often too meager for proper sustenance, as well as a moving scene focused on Navajo headsman, Barboncito, adeptly negotiating an end to incarceration and a return to a newly defined reservation.
The narrative ends with Little Woman Warrior’s return to Black Mesa where her mother begins preparation for her kinaaldá, her coming of age ceremony, which was not possible during their time at Hwééldi.
These scenes are richly illustrated by Irving Toddy’s paintings. The book opens with Little Warrior woman playing with butterflies outside of her family’s hogan, surrounded by the powerful beauty of the four sacred mountains. This image is in stark contrast to the fear, pain, and sorrow displayed on the faces of Navajo children during their capture and their families’ incarceration.
Throughout, Little Warrior Woman and her family, dressed in traditional clothing in striking red, black, coral, and turquoise, stand out in Toddy’s panoramic paintings featuring the muted beauty of canyons and deserts. Readers familiar with the photographic history of this period will understand that Toddy has presented an accurate vision supplemented by the emotional power of color and the nuances of gesture available to a creative artist.
Both author and illustrator have made decisions in confronting the truth of history. One image focuses on Little Woman Warrior screaming as she flees armed gunmen and another focuses on crying and traumatized children.
Parsons Yazzie’s text mentions how the elderly and sick were shot by U.S. troops or forcibly left behind to die. These details are particularly striking in comparison to other children’s stories, and are daring by what is implied. Parsons Yazzie and Toddy refuse to whitewash the historical account, an all-too-common trend in writing for children about historical events.
Other books for children on The Long Walk, including Scott O’Dell’s “Sing Down the Moon” (1970), Nancy Armstrong’s “The Long Walk” (1994), and Ann Turner’s “The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary Of Sara Nita, A Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864” (1999) have failed to offer readers an accurate sense of the pain and anguish that was part of this terrible time.
In the popular imagination, the minimizing of emotional devastation, of the grave injustice of these actions, is akin to historical revisionism and has laid the groundwork, I believe, for continuing claims to deny the magnitude of suffering, and a refusal to recognize connections with persistent legacies today that can be traced back to this period.
Prior to the publication of Parsons Yazzie’s book, only two books for children by American Indian writers touched on The Long Walk with any degree of cultural specificity and understanding. “Ashkíí’s Journey,” written and illustrated by Verna Clinton (also for Salina Bookshelf in 2002) and “Navajo Long Walk,” written by Abenaki writer Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by Navajo painter, Shonto Begay in 2002.
In Clinton’s book, which only briefly touches on this episode, a grandparent’s story about The Long Walk reminds the young protagonist to call on the strengths handed down to him by his elders.
In Bruchac and Begay’s book, published by the National Geographic Society, readers follow an account that is historiographic in tone and which attempts to balance the different perspectives on the episode, all the time foregrounding, nonetheless, a Navajo perspective. The highlight, for me, of this book is the work of Shonto Begay. His paintings, along with his own sidebar commentary, tell the most emotionally resonant story.
This context brings me to the source of the powerful beauty of Little Woman Warrior: its emphasis on telling a people’s story through the experiences of one young girl. Young readers unfamiliar with this passage of American history will connect to Parsons Yazzie’s protagonist.
Moreover, unlike other fictional books focused on The Long Walk, this story is informed by the richness of the Diné language, cultural value systems and knowledge, and family accounts about the events. This informed perspective, managed through the striking and emotional tones of Toddy’s paintings, allows readers to understand that Little Woman Warrior’s reactions, decisions, and ways of coping and evaluating her situation are all informed by values central to Navajo life.
This book’s release is perfectly timed to coincide with the opening of the first-ever cultural interpretative center, the Bosque Redondo Memorial, scheduled to open June 4 at Fort Sumner, N.M.
My sense is that Parsons Yazzie and Toddy’s collaborative vision serves a similar purpose to such efforts to build monuments and memorials to the past. Unlike place-bound memorials, though, Dzání Yazhí Naazbaa’, can be read and experienced hundreds of times, and passed on to new generations of readers who will be inspired to bear witness to the dark annals of American and Navajo history, to bear witness to the strength of Navajo people, and to the enduring power of Navajo people and language now and in the future.
—Jeff Berglund is an assistant professor English and a faculty affiliate in the Ethnic Studies Program at Northern Arizona University.
Copyright 2005 Jeff Berglund
Salina Bookshelf & Southwest Restaurants
Bring the Navajo Languange into Communities
July 2005
In the fall of 2004, Salina Bookshelf approached restaurants located on and near the Navajo reservation to talk about printing their children's menus. The goal: to create a functional menu with fun activities that children could complete while they waited for their meal to arrive. Many of the activities focused on learning the Navajo language and introduced basic vocabulary words such as colors, numbers, and other common words and phrases.
Brian George of Salina Bookshelf developed the idea of adding Navajo learning activities to the menus. “I wanted to find a way to bring the Navajo language out into the community,” he said. “Some children receive Navajo instruction in school, but other than that the language isn't used as much as it should. I felt that working with restaurants and adding fun activities to children's menus would be a unique and effective way of exposing a wide audience to the Navajo language.”
The first menus were introduced in the restaurants in the fall of 2004. Participating restaurants included the Diné Restaurant in Window Rock, AZ; Hogan Restaurant in Tuba City, AZ; and Goulding's Stagecoach Restaurant in Monument Valley, UT. So far, the response from customers has been positive. Community members have been surprised, but very pleased, to see activities written in Navajo.
Because the response from the menus has been so encouraging, Salina Bookshelf is making updated menus with new activities. In addition to the restaurants mentioned previously, the View Restaurant, located at the Navajo Tribal Park in Monument Valley, AZ, will be participating.
For more information about the children’s menus, please contact Salina Bookshelf, Inc. at 877-527-0070.
Author To Know Roberta John
June 2006
Navajo author Roberta John decided to write after she was inspired by fellow Salina Bookshelf writer, Marjorie W. Thomas. John had seen a newspaper article featuring Thomas’ two children’s books, Bidii and White Nose the Sheep Dog (Chiilgai, Na’nilkaadii). “I figured that if she could write books, so could I - even though I had never written a children’s book before,” John said. Red is Beautiful (Chííh Nizhóní) is her first book.
The book’s main character, Nashasha, is teased at school and is nicknamed, “Ch’ízhii” (the girl with the rough skin). John thought children would identify with Nashasha’s struggle to overcome teasing, and felt that they would be inspired by the example of Nashasha’s determination to remain strong in the face of adversity. John thinks the book will help children who find themselves in similar situations. She hopes that children will find a way to transform negativity “into a positive situation, or even turn it into a teaching for other people.” Early in her writing process, she wanted the book to be educational, unique, and inspirational.
There is another reason that John wanted to write stories. She had heard that young Navajos desired to learn more about their culture, but resources for doing so were simply not available. “Some of these young people don’t have grandparents who can teach them,” John said, “much less knowledgeable parents who know about traditional Navajo teachings.” Nevertheless, she remains optimistic and hopes that Red is Beautiful and her new book Proud to Be a Blacksheep will provide children with the culturally relevant materials they are craving.
Red is Beautiful (Chííh Nizhóní) tackles a tough issue many Native American tribes face: teaching the younger generation about culture. The book focuses on chííh, which is one aspect of the Navajo culture. In the book, Grandmother teaches Nashasha the importance of chííh and its many uses; for instance, chííh is capable of helping to heal and protect skin – a very important use, especially for those who spend long days herding sheep and goats. Additionally, chííh is utilized in many traditional Navajo ceremonies. “Chííh was put here on earth for more than protection of the skin,” John said.
When asked if the relationship between her grandmother and herself was similar to the one the book depicts, John said each of her grandparents were “unique in their own way.” She recalled one grandmother used chííh for her cheeks while the other did not. Both grandmothers herded sheep, but followed the herd differently. One rode a horse, while the other walked. Her grandfathers were both medicine men, one of which had a sense of humor and the other a serious manner.
Born in southeastern Utah, John is Tl’aashchí’í (Red Cheek clan), born for the Bít’ahnii (Folded Arms clan). She is proud of the reviews and positive feedback she has received for Red is Beautiful. When she talks about the book, people become excited about its unique storyline and the lesson it teaches.
John will continue to write children’s books and has thoughts of producing an animated DVD incorporating Navajo culture. Her new book, Proud to Be a Blacksheep, is scheduled to be released in fall 2005. As for advice for future writers, “If you think of a unique topic to write about, write it down while it’s fresh in your memory,” she said. “And if it entails a little bit of truth, I think it’s more likely to sell.”
Who Wants to be a Prairie Featured Book
Written by Ann Nolen Clark
Illustrated by Van Tsihnahjinnie
June 2006
Who Wants to be a Prairie Dog (Háisha’ T’áá K’ad Dlóó Silii’). When a lazy little boy falls down a prairie dog hole, he must decide whether to live among the prairie dog people or to help his family with the sheep dip. He must choose what is more important: his needs or the needs of others.
Who Wants to be a Prairie Dog was one of Clark's first cross-cultural books. As an educator, Clark was surprised by the lack of teaching materials offered to Native American students to help them learn English. Many years later, after the book had gone out of print, Salina Bookshelf reprinted the title. This was the first book printed by Salina Bookshelf when it opened its doors in 1994.
Salina Bookshelf Takes
July 2005
Salina Bookshelf recently participated in the 2005 American Library Association Conference in Chicago from June 25 - 28. An estimated 27,800 individuals attended the conference, making it the largest attendance ever, according to an ALA press release.
Brian George, sales representative, was one of four Salina Bookshelf employees who attended ALA. He said the conference offers librarians from across the country the opportunity to gather and learn about new publications or products from different publishing companies. “It’s important because it gives us the opportunity to try to meet as many librarians as we can,” he said. “So we can introduce our books to them.” The event also gives librarians the opportunity to learn about new library services that are offered.
The 2004 ALA conference was Salina Bookshelf's initial introduction to the world of major book conferences. Since last year's conference, the company has been to 11 different conferences throughout the year. One lesson Brian learned from last year's experience was being prepared. “This year we were able to go in there with a plan,” he said. The company continued to expand its network and continued to provide quality service to the librarian population.
Brian had fun seeing the “cool” librarians wearing T-shirts adorned with slogans that read, “Scan Me,” along with a bar code or “Check me out, I am a librarian.” He also noticed how people reacted to the company's booth. “I think everybody liked our books,” Brian said. “They wanted more information about our books.” Visitors wanted to know more about the Navajo people and even suggested Salina Bookshelf look into writing a history of the Navajos.
Along with informing individuals about Salina Bookshelf, author Patricia Hruby Powell (Zinnia: How the Corn Was Saved) was on site June 25 - 26 to sign copies of her book. There was large audience for her signing. Zinnia was one of two Salina Bookshelf books that grabbed attention. The other book was Dzání Yázhí Naazbaa': Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home by Evangeline Parsons Yazzie. Zinnia continually gathered outstanding comments about its illustrations, which were by Kendrick Benally. People remarked about the use of vibrant colors and how the colors were eye catching, Brian said. Most people found Dzání Yázhí Naazbaa' informative because they were not familiar with this chapter of Navajo history. Individuals left Salina Bookshelf’s booth with a greater understanding of the force removal of Navajos from their homelands to Bosque Redondo in southern New Mexico.
Salina Bookshelf anticipates attending both ALA’s midwinter meeting in San Antonio and the 2006 conference in New Orleans, to continue serving librarians and their libraries.
From the Editor
July 2005
Thank you for reading the premier edition of the Salina Bookshelf newsletter. We are very pleased to introduce you to our company, the books and other materials we publish, as well as to some of our authors. We hope you will enjoy learning about us and our efforts to preserve the Navajo language in literature.
Currently, Salina Bookshelf is in the midst of twelve new projects, all of which are in various stages of completion. One of them, What Does ‘Died’ Mean? (by Marjorie W. Thomas, author of Bidii) is being printed and should be available for sale in just a few weeks. Another six of the books are in the process of being illustrated by our talented Navajo artists, and should be completed either in the fall or winter of 2005. The others are completely new projects – the manuscripts arrived on my desk just a few weeks ago!
Needless to say, all of us at Salina Bookshelf, Inc. are very excited about the new books we are working on. In 2004 and 2005, we’ve been accepting more projects than ever before, and we are certain that the new titles will further our mission of making the Navajo language and culture accessible to a broad spectrum of curious minds. Our lineup of new releases includes Frog Brings Rain (by Patricia Hruby Powell, author of Zinnia: How the Corn Was Saved), Proud to Be a Blacksheep (by Roberta John, author of Red is Beautiful), and a biography of Annie Wauneka by Carolyn Niethammer. We are looking forward to getting these books to the schools and curriculum centers on the Navajo Nation, as well as to bookstores and libraries across the nation.
Salina Bookshelf is a small company focusing on quality literature about the Navajo people, their language, and their culture. If you write stories that would be appropriate for our list, please consider sending them to us. Of course, we have a limited number of titles we can publish each year, but we are always happy to consider new authors and new story ideas.
If you are interested in submitting work to Salina Bookshelf, please refer to the guidelines on the manuscript submission page. We also recommend that you visit our website, www.salinabookshelf.com, so that you are familiar with the types of books we have published in the past.