This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Excellent story that compassionately reveals the travails endured by young people interred in a boarding school for Native American Youth stolen from their parents to be indoctrinated in the "values" of the dominant White culture. A group of four children, three white orphans and one Native American escape the school and go on a journey. The time period is the early thirties and the horrific consequences of the Depression become a part of their story as they make their way South in a boat. The young narrator is an appealing character whose storytelling weaves its way into the heart of the reader, at least this reader. Recommended.