REVIEW OF HOW I BECAME A GHOST: A CHOCTAW TRAIL OF TEARS STORY
A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tingle,
Tim. 2013. HOW I BECAME A GHOST: A CHOCTAW TRAIL OF
TEARS STORY. Oklahoma City, OK: The Roadrunner Press. ISBN 9781937054557.
B. PLOT SUMMARY
Isaac is a ten year old Choctaw boy living in Choctaw Nation in Mississippi in
1830. The story begins with the news that Isaac, his family, and entire
community must relocate due to a recently signed treaty with the U.S.
government. Isaac begins seeing visions and hearing auditory hallucinations. It
appears that they are images of what will happen in the future.
One night
the white people that live nearby come to Isaac’s community and burn all the
homes and buildings to the ground. Isaac and his family barely escape with
their lives. The Choctaw people make their way to a nearby swamp. They make
shelter for themselves. They hunt, fish, and gather plants to feed themselves.
Winter arrives. Many people in the community become ill and die. Isaac’s family
decides to leave the encampment to avoid catching the whatever contagious
illness is killing the people in the camp.
Later in
the novel, Isaac sees dead people. He sees the ghosts of people he had known in
life, and he also sees the ghosts of people he had not known. They were all
ghosts of Choctaw people who had died in fires set by white people, or who had
died from disease and illness caused by white people. Isaac’s family joins a
different group of Choctaw who are not ill. Isaac’s family travels with them as
they make their way to their new lands set aside for them according to the
treaty they have entered into with the U.S. government.
At one
point another Choctaw young man named Joseph joins them. Isaac leaves with him
to try to help him rescue a Choctaw girl who had been stolen by some of the
white soldiers. One day when he is with the young man, they become separated
when the young man leaves to go hunt a deer. While the young man is gone, Isaac
is attacked and killed by a wolf. This explains the title of the book, HOW I
BECAME A GHOST.
In his
ghost form, Isaac continues to help Joseph. He helps Joseph rescue the Choctaw
girl who had been stolen by the white soldiers.
The novel
ends with the Choctaw people still on their journey to their future home. The
story will continue in the next book in the series, WHEN A GHOST TALKS, LISTEN:
A CHOCTAW TRAIL OF TEARS STORY.
C.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
This book is a historical novel about the Choctaw Trail of Tears. Early in the
story we learn the Choctaw word for the white people that live near their
community. The white people are called the “Nahullos”.
Early in
the book, Isaac’s brother is said to go play stickball. This game is
traditional to the Choctaw people. In the Choctaw culture, the game dates back
centuries. The first recorded documentation of Choctaw people playing stickball
is from 1729. In the days when the novel is set, stickball would have been a
very popular game among young men in the tribe.
When the
Choctaw people first get to the swamp, their leader tells the young men to hunt
for meat, then tells the young women to hunt for edible plants, and finally
says that he and the older men will construct shelters for the families. When
one of the young men asks what the older women will do, he is told that no one
needs to tell them what to do. This vignette illustrates the high regard with
which older women in the Choctaw community are held. They are venerated and
held in high esteem.
After the
Choctaw people have been forced to live in the swamp, they use their
traditional skills to hunt, fish, gather plants for food, build shelters, and
make sure that smoke from their cooking fires cannot be seen by the white
people who attacked them.
There are
times during the story when the Isaac’s family eat pashofa, a traditional
corn-based soupy dish. This food is used in everyday life, but is also
important as a ceremonial food because of its great symbolic meaning. It is an
important part of social events, and it is also used as a healing medicinal
food.
Late in
the story, Choctaw bonepickers are mentioned. These are Choctaw people who
traditionally served an important part in the funeral practices of the Choctaw
community. The Choctaw people took care of the bones of their ancestors, and carried
them with them when they were traveling, until the bones could be buried in a
sacred ceremony in whatever place the Choctaw eventually made their home.
At the end
of the book one of the ghosts that had been traveling with the Choctaw people
made himself known to Isaac. In the novel, he says his name is Chief Pushmataha.
This was a historical figure important in Choctaw culture. In life, he was
their greatest military leader. He was also recognized as one of their great
spiritual leaders. This historical novel is set in the 1830’s. Chief Pushmataha
died in 1824.
D. AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner (2014)
Notable Social Studies Trade Books For Young People (2014)
Sequoyah Master List Title (2016)
Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award Master List Title
(2017)
Horn
Book: “Tingle,
a Choctaw storyteller, relates his tale in the engaging repetitions and rhythms
of an oft-told story. ... The novel comes alive in Isaac's voice and in the
rich alliance of the living and the dead.”
Kirkus: “A 10-year-old Choctaw
boy recounts the beginnings of the forced resettlement of his people from their
Mississippi-area homelands in 1830. He begins his story with a compelling hook:
“Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before. I am a ghost. I am
not a ghost when this book begins, so you have to pay very close attention.”
Readers meet Isaac, his family and their dog, Jumper, on the day that Treaty
Talk changes everything. Even as the Choctaw prepare to leave their homes,
Isaac begins to have unsettling visions: Some elders are engulfed in flames,
and others are covered in oozing pustules. As Isaac and his family set out on
the Choctaw Trail of Tears, these visions begin to come true, as some are
burned to death by the Nahullos and others perish due to
smallpox-infested blankets distributed on the trail. But the Choctaw barrier
between life and death is a fluid one, and ghosts follow Isaac, providing
reassurance and advice that allow him to help his family and others as well as
to prepare for his own impending death. Storyteller Tingle’s tale unfolds in
Isaac’s conversational voice; readers “hear” his story with comforting clarity
and are plunged into the Choctaw belief system, so they can begin to understand
it from the inside out. The beginning of a
trilogy, this tale is valuable for both its recounting of a historical tragedy
and its immersive Choctaw perspective .”
E. CONNECTIONS
This novel describes historical moments in Native American culture.
Readers who enjoyed this novel may enjoy
these other books by the same author:
Tingle, Tim. WHEN A GHOST TALKS, LISTEN: A
CHOCTAW TRAIL OF TEARS STORY (HOW I BECAME A GHOST, 2). ISBN 978-1937054694.
Tingle, Tim. DANNY BLACKGOAT, NAVAJO
PRISONER. ISBN 978-1939053039
Tingle, Tim. STONE RIVER CROSSING. ISBN
978-1620148235
Tingle, Tim. HOUSE OF PURPLE CEDAR. ISBN
978-1935955245
Tingle, Tim. NO NAME (NO NAME, 1). ISBN 978-1939053060
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