Pathki Nana: Kootenai Girl Solves a Mystery

Pathki Nana never felt she was as good as the other young girls in the Kootenai village.

Making her life even harder, her sister, Red Willow, seemed to do everything right. Often Pathki would go off to be by herself. Many people in her village called this eight-year-old "The Sad One."

When, according to tribal custom, Pathki's mother instructed her to go into the mountains to seek a personal guardian spirit, no one knew the child's stay there would result in a life-and-death struggle.

Pathki N...