Forrest Carter's EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE

Most people are surprised to learn that the author of The Education of Little Tree is Asa Carter, the former Klansman and speech writer for George Wallace. In addition to discussion of his identity, leading scholars of American Indian literature have soundly criticized the story Carter tells.

Apparently unaware of the controversy and shortcomings of the book, teachers use the book in classrooms across the country. A google search of “Education of Little Tree” +K12 returned 12,600 hits.

Amy Kallio Bollman has an essay that captures the debate over the book. Titled “The Education of Little Tree and Forest Carter: What is Known? What is Knowable?”, it includes an extensive bibliography.

Two articles from my files that are not included in Bollman’s bibliography are:

Krupat, Arnold (2005) “Representing Cherokee Dispossession” in Studies in American Indian Literature, volume 17, no. 1, pp. 16-41.

Smith, Paul Chaat (1996) “Be Like Nick” in Winds of Change, volume 11 no. 2, pages 53-57.

And here’s one an article from Salon.com, from 2001:
“The Education of Little Fraud” by Allan Barra. If you’re not a Salon subscriber, I think I can email the article to you.

Critical Literacy Podcast

I'm taking time this morning to listen to the Critical Literacy in Practice (CLIP) podcast. It is far easier than I expected. All I did was click on the "listen" button. I didn't have to open an audio program like RealPlayer, so I don't know how this works, or if it will work on your computer.

As noted in an earlier post, Vivian Vasquez's CLIP podcast was planning to feature Arigon Starr's song "My Heart is on the Ground." She did that, but it looks like there are two segments featuring Native content. I'm listening to the podcast as I write this post, to a song by Jesse James, who is the lead singer for Diga. According to the Diga website, James is from the Tlicho (Dobrib) community of Fort Rae in the Northwest Terrorities, and Diga's music "tells the stories of the culture, the elders, and the land." On that podcast (Show #6 "Unpacking Stereotypes Continued..., dated Monday August 14th, 2006), Vasquez poses a series of questions about the Tylenol ad I noted a few weeks ago.

The previous week (Show #5, August 7th) the podcast was titled "Rising up against stereotypes." It was on that show that Vasquez played Arigon Starr's song. In this show, Vasquez plays a clip by Dianne Lafferty, who relates an experience her daughter had in a skating show with a Walt Disney theme.

Take time to visit Vasquez's site and listen to her podcasts. And if you know of Native people doing podcasts, let me know. If they're related to education and/or children's book, I'll link to them.

Debbie

INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD series by Lynne Reid Banks

The software that monitors traffic on my site includes a list of words and phrases people use that bring them to American Indians in Children's Literature. (Note: the software doesn’t provide names, email addresses or any information that can be traced back to you.) One that pops up often is “Indian in the Cupboard” and “lesson plan.”

Due to the many problems with that book, I do not recommend Indian in the Cupboard or any of the sequels. Here are some on-line reviews and an article about the book:

“A Demand for Excellence in Books for Children” by Jan LaBonty, published in the Journal of American Indian Education
http://jaie.asu.edu/v34/V34S2dem.htm

Review from Oyate:
https://web.archive.org/web/20010422183916/http://www.oyate.org/books-to-avoid/indianCupboard.html

Review from Paula Giese
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/books/middle/mi228.html

And here’s another article, not available on-line. If you don't have access to it through a library, send me an email (dreese dot nambe at gmail dot com) and I'll send you a copy:

Tyler, Rhonda Harris (Jul/Aug 2000) Indian in the Cupboard: A Case Study in Perspective International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), Vol. 13, Issue 4

If any readers know of other reviews/discussions of this book, let us know. I have some notes on the first chapter, and, a link to an outstanding article about toy Indians here: Indian in the Cupboard, chapter one. 

A Review of Ruth Bornstein's BRAVE BUNNY

[Note: Beverly Slapin at Oyate compared Indian Bunny and Brave Bunny (for background see the blog post on August 14, 2006). She sent her review to me. With her permission, I'm posting it below. Her review may not be published elsewhere without her written permission. Remember to visit the Oyate site to order children's books about American Indians. And if you want more of their reviews, you won't regret getting Oyate's Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children, and A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children. --Debbie]

_______________________________________________

In 1973, Golden Gate Junior Books published Ruth Bornstein's little book, INDIAN BUNNY. In the same year, it was picked up by Scholastic, "by arrangement with Children's Press." Bornstein dedicated INDIAN BUNNY "to Noah, Jonah, Adam, and Jesse," whom we can presume to be her children. Here is the entire text of INDIAN BUNNY:

One day a bunny said,

Good-by, I'm going to be an Indian.

I'll follow the stream

And I'll walk along a hidden forest trail

—so silently

that not even the deer will hear me.

In the stream I'll find a tadpole

and he'll tell me how he turns into a frog.

I'll come to a meadow

and do a deer dance when the sun is high.

I'll climb a tree

and look far out.

An eagle will come to his nest,

so I'll hide in my friend the Owl's house

and watch him.

I'll climb down and find a feather the eagle

has floated down to me.

Then I'll follow the hidden trail

to the place where the animals meet.

and I'll watch them.

And when the sun is low

I'll silently steal away.

I'll gather round stones

to mark a place.

And I'll rub two sticks together

to make a fire.

I'll sit by my fire.

Maybe I'll hear the drums far off—

faintly

faintly.

And I'll beat my drum in the night.

My friend the Owl will hear me.

And when the moon is high

and I crawl into my tepee,

my friend will fly over to say,

Sweet dreams.

That's all of it. A quiet, gently told tale with soft cadence; perfect to read in a dim light to little kids warmly tucked in bed. A sweet little goodnight story for the littlest kids to fall asleep to. Except that it's racist in its inception and imagery. A little bunny goes off and plays Indian, doing all the things that "Indians" do in the imaginations of non-Indian kids and their parents.

In 2003 (thirty years later), Gibbs Smith Publisher morphed INDIAN BUNNY into BRAVE BUNNY. Ruth Lercher Bornstein dedicated BRAVE BUNNY to "Jacob, Gabriel, Joseph, Rebekah, Kalia, and Olivia," whom we can presume to be her grandchildren. According to the publisher, BRAVE BUNNY was edited by Jennifer Grillone. The CIP summary: "A bunny decides that it is time to go into the world to meet and learn from other animals, especially his friend Owl."

So what kind of editing was done? The second line and the last line.

One day a bunny said,

Good-by, I'm going out into the world.

And when the moon is high

and I crawl into my tepee,

my friend will fly over to say,

Good night, Brave Bunny.

Some green and blue tint was added to the pictures. That's all. "Brave Bunny" is still sneaking around, wearing a feather, doing a "deer dance," rubbing two sticks together to make a fire, beating a drum, and going to sleep in his "tepee." I wonder how much Jennifer Grillone was paid for her "editing," and who thought it was a good idea to bring this offensive little book back into print.—Beverly Slapin

Must-have reference books about American Indians

There are three encyclopedia's on American Indians that every school library ought to have. Each one includes a wealth of information, maps, photographs, and a bibliography for each entry. In each one, a good many of the entries are by American Indian scholars, researchers, and widely respected Native people. Ask your library to buy a new copy of each one. Get new personal copies for yourself (if you can afford it), but if not, get a used copy. They are:

The Native North American Almanac: A Reference Work on Native North Americans in the United States and Canada is edited by Duane Champagne, former director of American Indian Studies at UCLA. It is huge---with over 1000 pages---and used copies of it are available for under $20. The second edition was published in 2001 by Gale.


Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia, edited by Mary B. Davis, Joan Berman, Mary E. Graham, and Lisa A. Mitten. It was published in 1996 by Garland Publishing, and is 787 pages in length. Used copies are available on line for as little as $20.

One of the editors, Lisa A. Mitten, maintains the excellent website "Native American Sites" that has the following subsections:
--Information on Individual Native Nations
--Native Organizations and Urban Indian Centers
--Tribal Colleges, Native Studies Programs, and Indian Education
--Languages
--The Mascot Issue
--Native Media - Organizations, Journals and Newspapers, Radio and Television
--Powwows and Festivals
--Native Music and Arts Organizations and Individuals
--Indians in the Military
--Native Businesses
--General Indian-Oriented Home Pages

Encyclopedia of North American Indians, edited by Frederick E. Hoxie, former director of the Newberry Library in Chicago. It is 765 pages long, and was published in 1996 by Houghton Mifflin. Used copies are available for around ten dollars.

I find these encylopedia's helpful when I come across something in a children's book that I want to look up, or double check, or if I want more information on something that is mentioned in a children's book.

L. Frank Baum: Author of WIZARD OF OZ books and racist editorials on American Indians

Most people know The Wizard of Oz books by L. Frank Baum, but not many know that Baum wrote scathingly racist newspaper columns advocating the killing of American Indians. NPR (National Public Radio) ran a story yesterday that says Baum's descendents are issuing an apology for his columns. You can listen to the story here: 'Oz' Family Apologizes for Racist Editorials


For background on the editorials, go here: L. Frank Baum's Editorials on the Sioux Nation. 

[Update: Feb 14, 2011

The link above doesn't work anymore. I'm working on it. In the meantime, here's a paragraph from the his editorial that ran in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, December 20, 1890:

The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are. History would forget these latter despicable beings, and speak, in later ages of the glory of these grand Kings of forest and plain that Cooper loved to heroism.]

I subscribe to "child_lit," which is a listserv (electronic mailing list) of people who write, illustrate, edit, publish, review, critique, read, and teach children's literature. I view it as an important group because key people in children's publishing are subscribers. Discussion topics are related to children's literature, and on occasion there is some focused (often heated) discussion of Native books. When I first joined this list in the mid 90s and posted the sorts of things I post here, I was often flamed by other subscribers who labeled me PC, hypercritical, etc. I don't get those nasty private emails anymore. Either people are just deleting and ignoring my posts, or, over time, they are thinking more carefully about what I have to say. And I should also note that in some ways, there is a creeping subtlety in terms of racist ideology. It is no longer explicit and blatant, but it is still there.

Anyway, child_lit is where I read about the Baum family apology (thanks to Kerry for the link). If you're involved with children's lit and want to see what child_lit is about, you can subscribe to the list. You'll start getting emails from the group. Yesterday there were 33 emails, so only subscribe if you're willing to receive that much email in a single day. If you don't like it, you can unsubscribe. I learn a lot by being on the list. To read about it and subscribe go to the child_lit webpage.

Returning to the Baum apology... If you've seen newspaper stories about it, post links in the comments section. In the NPR story, there was an interview with a woman (didn't catch her name) who is a descendant of a Wounded Knee survivor.

Update: Feb 14, 2011

Through comments to my post on Feb 12 (about Leo Politi playing Indian), I learned that the South Dakota Historical Society Press published two books for children, originally written by Baum as short stories. Here's one: Enchanted Buffalo. I'm ordering the book. 

Tribal Publishers

I came across the bookstore for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma yesterday and saw they've got several children's books, some of which have Choctaw language in them. I ordered two of their books: Choctaw Jack, and Pashofa Pole and look forward to reading them.

Does your tribe publish children's books? Or are you a self-published author? Either way, I'd love to see what Native people are doing with regard to publishing Native stories. Send me an email with that info.

Getting published by the publishing houses that have the money to promote your work in catalogs, book fairs, etc., is very difficult. Some Native authors, like Cynthia Leitich Smith, have experienced success, but it doesn't come easily. She works very hard on her own writing, but also in teaching and working with others. Her love of children's books is evident on her website. Spend time there, reading her web pages. If you're interested in writing, go to Writing Books for Children and Teenagers.

And, go to your local bookstore. Are her books on the shelf? If yes, buy them! If not, talk to the bookstore manager and order a copy. If we don't buy books by Native authors, they'll go out of print. Ordering and buying them signals that consumers want these books. There is a perception that only Native people want children's books by and about Native people. That perception means a very tiny market for the books, and that perception is WRONG. Good books are good books. All children should have them in their homes, schools, and libraries.

Cynthia's books:

If you're looking for a picture book, order Jingle Dancer.
If you're looking for a chapter book for early elementary readers, order Indian Shoes.
If you're looking for a novel for late elementary or middle school readers, order Rain is Not My Indian Name.

If you're looking for a collection of short stories for high school readers, order Moccasin Thunder, edited by Lori Marie Carlson, which has Cynthia's story "A Real-Live Blond Cherokee and his Equally Annoyed Soul Mate."