Moccasin Trail

by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Paperback, 1992

Status

Available

Local notes

PB McG

Barcode

1436

Publication

Scholastic Inc (1992), Edition: First Printing, 247 pages

Description

A pioneer boy, brought up by Crow Indians, is reunited with his family and attempts to orient himself in the white man's culture.

Awards

Newbery Medal (Honor Book — 1953)
Read Aloud Indiana Book Award (Middle School — 1993)

Language

Original publication date

1952

Physical description

247 p.; 7.5 inches

Media reviews

Jim Keath, a young runaway, is saved from a grizzly bear attack by the Crow, who adopt and raise him. He later leaves the tribe to become a trapper, and finally rejoins his birth family, now resettled in Willamette Valley, Oregon. Having reunited with his family, Jim must confront the conflict
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between his Indian and white worlds. His adventures serve as a backdrop as he searches for his true identity.
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User reviews

LibraryThing member JaJireh
Jim Keath, caught in a battle of his own identity between two worlds: that of a Crow Indian and a White man in the early 1800's. Settling the Oregon Territory brought certain changes that would cause Jim to discover himself. This book was filled with geographical soundness, well-developed
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characters that have the reader living the adventure, heart felt pain and character development of the key people in the story.
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LibraryThing member MereYom
A young white man who was raised by Indians must decide who he is as he choses a way of life in the rapidly changing west. The book dramatically explores the conflicts of the Oregon settlers against the land, against the Indians, and in the case of this young boy, against himself. Worth reading
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again and again.
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LibraryThing member t1bclasslibrary
Jim is torn between the world of Native Americans and that of the settlers- he can't take the middle ground as a mountain man because the beaver have been wiped out, so he ends up back with his family. Even as he rejoins them he always feels like running away. Eventually he decides that his place
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is with them and he rejects his old Crow self. The thing I disliked about this book was that the Native American lifestyle was portrayed as wrong and the religion as untrue.
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LibraryThing member mark_14
I didn't really like this book. It just wasn't my type. I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody. The use of words made the book hard to read.
A boy named Jim decides to run away from his family with his uncle. Then one day Jim gets separated from his uncle and gets attacked by a
bear. He almost
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dies, but a group of indians save him. And for the next nine years he learns indian ways. After that, Jim and his friend Tom leave the indians. They struggle to find food. Until one day Jim gets a letter that his long lost real family are heading out west to claim land. Jim finds it his duty to protect them. But they are distrustful of him after he ran away.
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LibraryThing member satyridae
Quite interesting. This story tells how Jim ran away at 11, got adopted by Crow Indians and lived with them for several years, then met back up with his siblings in Oregon in the early pioneering days. I loved reading about how the Columbia looked and felt in those times, and enjoyed the
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descriptions of the territory as much as I enjoyed the story.
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LibraryThing member electrascaife
Jim Keath runs away from home at an early age, gets mauled by a bear and then raised by the Crow Indians who save him, runs away from the Crow and spends his time with a fur-trapper until he discovers that what remains of his family have followed the Oregon Trail for a new homestead. This is where
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the book picks up and so follows Jim's struggle to discover where he belongs, being not fully white nor fully Crow.
I'm torn about this one, really. The story was good, and I love Jim bunches, but although McCraw does seem to try to balance sympathies between both the Crow and the white man's lifestyles, I'm uncomfortable with her glorification of what the white settlers got up to, to the great cost of the lives of so many.
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Pages

247

Rating

½ (85 ratings; 3.7)
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