The Coyote Bead

Praise for The Coyote Bead

". . . real magic comes from grace. . . if a people are one with the land, they will endure with the land forever! This is Gerald Hausman's finest book."

—David Kherdian
Newbery Honor award winning author of The Road from Home

"With The Coyote Bead, Gerald Hausman once again displays the sensitivity and sympathetic understanding toward Native people that has long marked his work. This novel offers an intriguing look into a tragic and—unjustly—little- known episode in American history; younger readers of all races should enjoy it."

—William Sanders
award-winning science fiction author of Journey to Fusang

"More than a poignant tale, more than a story laced with native magic, The Coyote Bead is steeped in the richness of Navajo legends which prove determination and perseverance can bring ultimate triumph to all those who have the courage to believe in themselves."

—Mary Summer Rain
author of The Singing Web

"Gerald Hausman brings a poet’s keen vision to this narrative of a Native American tragedy, one that reverberates with so much that was to come in our own time. Hausman knows the Navajo people, the land, and the healing wisdom of their culture as well as any living American writer."

—Aram Saroyan
author of Day and Night: Bolinas Poems

"Once again Gerald Hausman has delivered a powerful book for a new generation of readers who deserve to know the whole truth of the past. The tragic yet poignant story of a band of resolute Navajo people as told in The Coyote Bead is as timeless and provocative as the account of the Joads in The Grapes of Wrath. This is an important story of human struggle, resiliency, and hope."

—Michael Wallis
author of The Real Wild West

"A family tale of the Dineh, The Coyote Bead retells a heroic battle between the boy Tobachischin and his lethal enemy, Two-Face, the Ute bounty hunter killer incarnation of Coyote, the trickster god. The factual, sparse graceful prose style underlines the terrifying and bloody conflict of evil and good. Hausman's writing quivers and reverberates with underlying song power magic. The bravery of Tobachischin and his protective shaman Grandfather are contrasted with the evil cowardice of the Blue Coats (eeyoni) and their minions the Utes, who brutally murder and herd the Dineh on a 350 mile forced march to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, from Canyon Del Muerto, Arizona. Many Dineh died. This is a tale of a heroic few who survived and used the sacred land and animal helpers to build a new identity despite their pain and suffering. The Coyote Bead is beautifully written for young adults."

—Midwest Book Review