"The Last of the Bird People: A novel" John Hanson Mitchell

This novel is presented as a historical report on events related to the disappearance in 1920 of Minor Randall, associate professor of anthropology at Harvard, the sighting of a nomadic tribe in Massachusetts in 1857 and later, and events along the Tamiami Trail in Florida around 1929.  The main story is a deposition by the police of one of the members of the tribe, the Bird People.  He tells of the history of his people from the coming of Minor Randall, their relocation to Florida traveling along the Appalachian Trail and then down through Georgia and Florida, and the ultimate battle between his people and some Floridians as they try to cross the Tamiami Trail.

I think the idea of a secret tribe of people living among us undetected in the 20th Century has the same appeal for me that the existence of Sasquatch has for modern day pseudo-reality television viewers.  In some ways this could be considered a Utopian novel describing a society of multi-racial, multi-ethnic people who build and maintain the community in peace. However, that peace is disrupted by the U.S. government when they invade their remote valley to prepare for building a dam to create a lake.

The telling of the story by Jon Barking Fox, an older member of the tribe and father of Randall's lover, is presented as a deposition.  Fox is the sole survivor of the Tamiami Trail massacre, or at least that is what the officials believe.  Fox's narrative includes elements of magical realism as he describes the abilities his people have acquired from the animals.  He includes the history of their tribe from their beginnings near Cape Cod to their move to Swift River Valley.  Mitchell's background in anthropology is evident in the detailed and interesting descriptions provided by Fox of the culture of the Bird People and how that culture changed by necessity as they traveled south and incorporated Randall's knowledge of the world.

Told as an historical record, with reports, statements and depositions, I would want the dates to be accurate, but at one point the story says that 1909 is 75 years after 1857.  I tried to reconcile this error, that is, decide what the author meant to write, but I couldn't.  The first few sections were very confusing in that way.  On the other hand, as you might expect of a real historical record, many questions are left unanswered.  Reading and reviewing the glossary provided by Mitchell was useful.