Death in the Tallgrass

An excerpt from Death in the Tallgrass: “Oklahoma is a land of ghosts. Not the ghosts of murdered Indians or enslaved people and the tortured and exploited. No state or island or U.S. principality can lay claim to being special in that way. No, the ghosts that haunt this country will never rest until the living are no longer filled with guilt.”

November is Native American Heritage Month, and I decided to read a book from Native author Andrea L. Rogers. She is a member of the Cherokee Nation and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her picture book, Chooch Helped, was awarded the Caldecott Medal. Her latest book, Death in the Tallgrass, is a historical fiction mystery for middle grade readers.

In the northeastern hills of Oklahoma in the summer of 1968, Cynthia and her family have just moved from Dallas, Texas, to her grandfather’s ranch. Cynthia and her two sisters, Diane and Wren, will be spending the summer with their grandparents, before moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma, with their parents. Until then, Cynthia and her sisters will have to get through living with their mean-spirited grandfather for the summer.

The sisters are facing a summer of changes. Diane has fallen for a local Cherokee boy, while Cynthia and Wren try to learn more about their Cherokee heritage. After discovering the charm bracelet and diary of Violet Wood, a Native girl who died in 1920, Cynthia and Wren stumble upon her tombstone on their grandfather’s property. They begin to wonder if Violet was murdered for the land she and her mother lived on.

Throughout the book, there are short chapters filled with Cherokee legends, lore and history, adding to the depth of the main story. Death in the Tallgrass helps young readers understand the ongoing nature of historical injustice.