This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

In 1932, Odie O'Banion and his older brother Albert have had it with life in the Lincoln Indian Training School in Minnesota.  They may have be white but are just as poor and even more isolated. With the help of Mose Washington, a young Sioux who had his tongue cut off when he was young, they devise a plan to escape. The plan becomes action when a fatal accident makes it necessary to leave immediately.  Another tragedy adds little Emmy Frost to this band of lost children.  In true Huck Finn manner their journey is fraught with both danger and unexpected kindness.  It is another look at life during the Depression and a time when social struggles tended toward a sense of communal support not selfish hoarding and is all framed by Krueger's love for this part of the world.