Caleb’s Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks

This book” is based on the true story of the son of a Wampanoag chieftain in 1660s Massachusetts who became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College.  Bethia Mayfield, daughter of a Calvinist minister and Caleb meet when they are 12 and become lifelong friends.  Life is hard in Puritan New England, however, and the colonists are bringing rapid and often devastating changes to the lives of the natives.  Caleb tries to act as a bridge between the two cultures to the benefit of both.  Bethia is quite curious and intelligent.  Being a woman, though, she has to learn the hard way to keep silent most of the time.  This one is a slow start, but a great ending.