The Choctaw Code

by Russell B. Davis & Brent K. Ashabranner

Oklahoma Book Award, 1995, Children/Young Adult Category

"A strong and moving book about a man with deep ethical convictions. . . . This is the story of the friendship between a white boy of 15 and an Indian man, Jim. Jim was sentenced to die by the Choctaw mores; he refused to accept the pardon he knew he could have obtained. Jim had a year of freedom, and spent much of it giving to young Tom Baxter all the training as a woodsman and hunter he could. No happy ending here to weaken the character that has been built up; Jim shows his young friend a model of honor and courage in addition to the material evidence of his friendship. Excellent characterization, a sympathetic and dignified treatment of the Choctaw nation and its problems [at the turn of the century]." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

About the Authors

Brent Ashabranner has written widely on American social history and complex social issues for young readers. He has worked in Ethiopia, Libya, and Nigeria for U.S. foreign assistance programs and for the Ford Foundation in the Philippines and Indonesia. He was director of the Peace Corps program in India and deputy director of the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C. Currently Mr. Ashabranner lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, and devotes most of his time to writing.

Russell G. Davis was for many years Professor of Education and Development at Harvard University. Dr. Davis and Mr. Ashabranner met while working overseas for the U.S. foreign assistance program in Ethiopia, and collaborated on seven books in the course of a long friendship.


Other books by Brent Ashabranner are

• The Lion’s Whiskers and Other Ethiopian Tales
  

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