How I Became a Ghost: A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story

Joseph is the grandson of Old Man and Old Woman. He is a few years older than Isaac and can transform into a panther when necessary. His past experience with the soldiers proves invaluable to the task of rescuing Naomi because he knows where they keep her. He also knows that there is a wagon of Choctaw councilmen. Isaac’s family welcomes Joseph into their family, and he makes the Choctaw ancestors proud by rescuing Naomi.

Joseph, as a character who transforms into an animal, symbolizes the Choctaws’ connection to nature and the land. Though Joseph doesn’t appear until later in the novel, he acts as a physical stand-in for Isaac after his death, rescuing Naomi from the bonepicker wagon when Isaac cannot, and becoming a part of Isaac’s family. Joseph also ends the feud between the Choctaws and the Nahullos by rescuing a Nahullo soldier, which suggests that the Choctaws’ seemingly passive nature is also empathetic, finding value in the lives of the cruel soldiers.

Nita is a young Choctaw girl who is travelling alongside her family on the trail. She and Isaac form a connection, and Isaac feels protective of her. Nita’s death, and her subsequent visit to Isaac as a ghost, is the inciting incident that causes the main action of the novel. In his role as Isaac’s protector, he feels he must save Nita’s sister, Naomi, and bring harmony to Nita and Naomi’s family.

In the same way that Joseph functions as the physical stand-in for Isaac after he becomes a ghost, Naomi, Nita’s sister, becomes a stand-in for Nita. Following Nita’s death, Isaac fulfills his promise to take care of Nita by rescuing Naomi.

The novel describes Naomi as strong, and she endures a substantial amount of time as the soldiers’ servant. While the novel doesn’t explicitly state that Naomi often endures torture at the soldiers’ hands, the moment when they tie her to a tree simply for speaking suggests that the soldiers have been violent with her all along. Naomi faces her fear of the bones in the bonepickers’ wagon, suggesting she has great courage, and she finally reunites with her family at the end of the novel.