Module 4 - My Choice Native American Picture Book - TWU - Multicultural Literature

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Tingle, Tim. 2006. CROSSING BOK CHITTO, A CHOCTAW TALE OF FRIENDSHIP & FREEDOM. Ill. by Jeanne Rorex Bridges. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press. ISBN 978093831777.

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Some awards for this book:

American Library Association, Notable children's Book, 2007

Oklahoma Book Award, Best Children's Book, 2007

Oklahoma Book Award, Best Illustrations, 2007

Texas Institute of Letters Best children's Book, 2006

Texas Bluebonnet Master Award List 2008-2009

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This story was a wonderful experience for me. I was not aware of any of the details in the story and it was a real treat to read this book. It is a story of friendship between a young Choctaw girl and a young slave boy. There is a river called the Bok Chitto that cuts through Mississippi in the days before the Civil War. It is a boundary between the Choctaw Indians, and the white plantation owners and their slaves. If a slave made it to the side of the Choctaws, the white man could not follow. It was the law. Martha Tom is sent to pick berries and she ends up on the wrong side of the river, setting up this story of friendship that eventually leads to assisting her new friend and his family to freedom.

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I was really impressed by this story. It was immediately interesting, and the pictures really enhanced the story. The young girl in the book was dressed in a pioneer style calico dress and apron. Later in the story, the Choctaw women were dressed in long white cotton dresses that skimmed the ground. The Native American men were dressed in simple dark colored pants, and shirts, with hats common to the 19th century. These details are something different than the stereotypical Native American styles that children may expect. This should stimulate conversation about the specifics of the Choctaw tribe and their uniqueness.

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Other Choctaw cultural details that I found were details of a traditional wedding ceremony. Wearing their white dresses, the Choctaw women stepped out of every doorway.....their shiny black hair fell well below their waists. The women formed a line and began a stomp dance to the beat of the chanting, gliding to a clearing at the end of town. When they reached the clearing, they formed two circles, the women and the men, and the wedding ceremony began. The old men began to sing the old wedding song. It is still sung today in Mississippi and Oklahoma, just as they sang it then. "Way, hey ya hey ya, You a hey you ay, A hey ya a hey ya! Way, hey ya hey ya, You a hey you ay, A hey ya a hey ya!"

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Also, Martha Tom describes her mother as "cackling like a mad crow on the outside, while inside she would coo like a dove with love for her daughter", after she has been caught disobeying her mother. There is a strong feeling of love, both in family and friendship in this book. There is love among the Native Americans depicted here between mother and daughter, and also love among the slave family that is described. The love and respect between two friends from two completely different worlds is the basis of this story. What a wonderful kind of story to read and share with others! It is very positive, especially in dealing with a very difficult story of the slavery and the possibility of slave families being split up on the whim of a white master.

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This story feels good, and based on the author notes and author biography, I feel like the story is authentic. There wasn't anything that felt stereotypical about these Choctaws. In fact, I felt like I was learning something completely new about this group of people. Mr. Tingle provides some excellent notes in the back of the book about the source of this story. Mr. Tingle is an "insider" of the Choctaw, as he is a member of the tribe. He spends his time collecting stories and writing them down. Joseph Bruchac commented that "Mr. Tingle honors the Choctaw traditions of his ancestors."

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There are cultural markers in both the text and the illustrations of this story that help to portray this culture. The Choctaw skin tones are a soft brown. Their facial features show dark hair and eyes, and high cheek bones. Sometimes their hair is loose and sometimes it is in a simple braid, both men, women and children.

In the text, Martha Tom sings a song that she had heard the slaves singing, only she sings it in Choctaw. "We are bound for the Promised Land!" "Nitak ishtayo pikmano, Chissus ut minitit. Umala holitopama, Chihot aya lashke!" This use of Native American words adds reality to it, even though the words are not interpreted for the reader. It does not matter though, because the reader understands the message of the words. It works beautifully in this story.

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Jeanne Rorex Bridges is an award-winning artist of Cherokee ancestry. She has won many awards in Native American art shows. CROSSING BOK CHITTO is her first book illustration. I loved the pictures in this book. The faces are beautiful and clear and they face the reader straight on. The colors are soft, with lots of details, especially in the clothing. The scenery of the river and surrounding woods are well depicted and help to support the story.

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This is a fantastic read aloud book in a classroom or library setting. This could be a wonderful choice to use while teaching a pre-Civil War unit. We don't often think of American Indians in the context of helping slaves escape to freedom and this story adds a different tangent to history. Students could even do some Internet research to find out more about the Choctaw Indians, both historically and currently. They could present their details in small group discussions, or even make a poster of their findings.

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Publisher's Weekly

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Bridges, a Cherokee artist making her children’s book debut, joins Tingle (Walking the Choctaw Road) in a moving and wholly original story about the intersection of cultures. The river Bok Chitto divides the Choctaw nation from the plantations of Mississippi. “If a slave escaped and made his way across Bok Chitto, the slave was free,” writes Tingle. “The slave owner could not follow. That was the law.” But Bok Chitto holds a secret: a rock pathway that lies just below the surface of the water. “Only the Choctaws knew it was there, for the Choctaws had built it,” Tingle explains. When a slave boy and his family are befriended by a Choctaw girl, the pathway becomes part of an ingenious plan that enables the slaves to cross the river to freedom-in plain view of a band of slave hunters during a full moon.

Bridges creates mural-like paintings with a rock-solid spirituality and stripped-down graphic sensibility, the ideal match for the down-to-earth cadences and poetic drama of the text. Many of the illustrations serve essentially as portraits, and they’re utterly mesmerizing-strong, solid figures gaze squarely out of the frame, beseeching readers to listen, empathize and wonder. - March 13, 2006