Author Details Growing Up Navajo On East Coast In Book 'Dog Flowers'
Download mp3 (11.13 MB)Danielle Geller was three years old when her family packed up their car and drove from Florida to her mother’s home of Window Rock, Arizona, where she was registered as a member of the Navajo Nation. But she grew up far from the desert.
Her grandmother adopted Geller and her younger sister not long after, and they moved to a small town in Pennsylvania, where she was something of a novelty.
She grew up wondering about the reservation her mother had left, and after her mother died of alcohol withdrawal years later, she found herself using her skills as an archivist to investigate her mother’s life and homeland as well as her own relationship with her Navajo identity.
The book that came from it is out today and it’s called "Dog Flowers," named for the playful name her mother gave to muddy dog tracks.
The Show spoke with Geller for more about it and what it was like growing up as a Navajo girl in rural Pennsylvania.
