One of the questions I (Debbie) get around this time of the year is whether or not I recommend Joseph Bruchac's picture book, Squanto's Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving. The book was published in 2000 by Harcourt Brace. Illustrations are by Greg Shed.
I do not recommend Squanto's Journey because I view it as a feel-good story that is a lot like other books about Thanksgiving. This line is one example:
"Perhaps these men can share our land as friends."See the red question mark on the book cover? I'm using that today to pose some questions. In Squanto's Journey, Bruchac speaks as if he is Squanto. The first sentence in the book is:
My story is both strange and true.See? First person. As far as I've been able to determine, there are no records of anything that Squanto said to anyone. I'm going to keep looking, and if you find something, let me know.
My general position about creating speech and thoughts for a person who actually lived, hundreds of years ago, is that it is not appropriate. I usually say--for example--that a white woman imagining what a Native man said and thought hundreds of years ago is making huge leaps from her own existence to that Native man's time, place, culture, and language. If there are no written records to draw from, I think it ought not be done. To me, it doesn't matter if the work being created is fiction. If it is a person who actually lived, and for whom there are records a writer can draw from to quote the writings or speech of that person, then, ok. I think that can work. But otherwise, no. (The exception I make is when the book in question is written by someone of the subject's own nation who can draw from stories they tell about that person.)
So, a question: are there any documents or writings that quote the man we know as Squanto (more on that in a moment)?
Towards the end of the first paragraph, the text reads:
My name is Squanto.Though many people call him that, other sources say his name was Tisquantum and that "Squanto" was more like a nickname.
So, another question: What did that man actually say his name was?
I have more questions about the history told in Bruchac's book, but for now want to look at Squanto (Bruchac) learning that his wife, children, parents, and others who were close to him had died. Squanto says he will speak to them again when he walks on the "Road of Stars" to greet them. In the glossary, Bruchac says:
Road of Stars: The Milky Way, which is seen as a trail to reach the afterlife walked by those who have died.Is there evidence that Squanto and his people used that phrase? Regular readers of AICL know that I'm critical of white folks who make up things like that... I wonder what Bruchac's source for that is?
Update: a reader replied right away, saying "Isn't Bruchac Abenaki? This sounds like you're saying he's white." My answer: for most of the time that I've been studying children's books, I understood that Bruchac is Abenaki. More recently, he has said he is "Nulhegen Abenaki" which is a state recognized tribal nation. And even more recently, I have been reading Dr. Darryl Leroux's research that calls into question claims made to Métis identity/nationhood and, relevant to Bruchac, the four Abenaki tribes that the state of Vermont has recognized (Nulhegan Abenaki is in Vermont). So, I am not saying Bruchac is White, but I've definitely got questions about the Nulhegan Abenaki, now, given the research Leroux has done. Get his book, Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity" and see what you think. Respected Native scholars are sharing and recommending his book. I know that the responses to this update will be intense. Some will question my reference to Leroux's work. Some will be indignant that I am citing it, but I think it is important work that has bearing on my own work in children's literature.On another page, Squanto (Bruchac) uses the word "sachem." That word, as defined in the glossary, is supposed to mean "a leader of the people." Is that the word that Squanto would have used? What are the roots of that word?
Those are a few questions, for now. I might be back when I have more time, with additional questions (and maybe some answers). They're examples of the kinds of questions that I want teachers to ask when they read children's books, and to teach students to ask, too.
9 comments:
"Is there evidence that Squanto and his people used that phrase? Regular readers of AICL know that I'm critical of white folks who make up things like that... I wonder what Bruchac's source for that is?"
Isn't Bruchac Abenaki? This sounds like you're saying he's white. Forgive me if I'm misreading.
Anon at 11:57 on Nov 7,
I've inserted the following paragraph, above.
"Update: a reader replied right away, saying "Isn't Bruchac Abenaki? This sounds like you're saying he's white." My answer: for most of the time that I've been studying children's books, I understood that Bruchac is Abenaki. More recently, he has said he is "Nulhegen Abenaki" which is a state recognized tribal nation. And even more recently, I have been reading Dr. Darryl Leroux's research that calls into question claims made to Métis identity/nationhood and, relevant to Bruchac, the four Abenaki tribes that the state of Vermont has recognized (Nulhegan Abenaki is in Vermont). So, I am not saying Bruchac is White, but I've definitely got questions about the Nulhegan Abenaki, now, given the research Leroux has done. Get his book, Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity" and see what you think. Respected Native scholars are sharing and recommending his book. I know that the responses to this update will be intense. Some will question my reference to Leroux's work. Some will be indignant that I am citing it, but I think it is important work that has bearing on my own work in children's literature. "
First, an individual's ethnicity does not give them permission to portray and give a voice to whom ever they want, how ever they want, if they are writing from a place of attempting to educate. Ascribing a voice to Squanto or any other historical person, using their voice to white wash, "Perhaps these men can share our land as friends." is, to me, rather disturbing. So many of us have been trying for decades to shine a light on this incessant myth that Indigenous Peoples and colonizers/settlers just wanted to be friends. It is insulting and irresponsible on Bruchac's part to continue to perpetrate this myth.
Second, the genealogy of the Bruchac dynasty is available on the web. One needs to simply google. The genealogies that I am familiar with are all well sourced.
Finally, I support Debbie in her recommendation of "Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity" and the question of authenticity regarding the odd business of creating tribes out of nothing and allowing members to switch between these tribes at will. The author also has a website, http://www.raceshifting.com/.
I'm glad to get a recommendation about this book. The whole Thanksgiving story is a minefield of assumptions and political propaganda in favor of colonization and so I have struggled for years with whether or not to give this book out as a sort of 'harm reduction' to patrons who are dead set on Thanksgiving books. This year and last year I have recommended Otsaliheliga as well and after reading this critique Squanto's Journey is off my list entirely. I also assumed that if Bruchac was accepted by and connected to Native communities, he would not include harmful narratives in his books. I'll have to think about why I made that assumption. As always, thanks for your hard work, Debbie.
Debbie, I don't think you're going to get very far advocating that fiction writers and authors generally not create dialogue for historical figures in their historical fiction, plays, screenplays, or teleplays. It sounds like you're advocating, in reality, that basically the entire stage work of William Shakespeare be consigned to the dustbin of inappropriateness.
Hi Debbie,
I am an educator/instructional coach and I work with teachers in using culturally authentic texts as well as creating lessons for them in the classroom and on my website www.responsivereads. I use your site for recommendations all the time. I just did a post for the book Thanku - Poems of Gratitude where Joseph Bruchac is the first poem of the book. I noticed in your review of that book that you didn't mention him when you were highlighting poems by Native writers and now wondering if you find him problematic in general or just in the couple of instances that you have not recommended his books. I ask to know in general but also because I highlight his poem in my post and wondering if I should rethink it?
Thank you,
Regarding the comment defending invented dialogue/situations for historical figures in books for young people: I think some ethical considerations apply. Younger readers are less likely than adults to have internalized the signals/understandings/whatever that let them know that an author is surely making things up now, even though the character was a real person. I'm not worried about Shakespeare's original audiences, unlettered though they may have been, but I'm concerned about children reading a book that may appear to be an autobiography of, say, "Squanto," when there is so much misinformation already out there about that person. Adding to it ("It's in first person so it sounds like he wrote it.") seems unethical. The fact that there's so much misrepresentation of Indigenous people already in children's literature compounds the problem.
I think it's important to give the reader a clear indicator that "the author is making this up even though the subject was a real person." Right up front, before the story begins. Bruchac happens to be one of the writers who uses this approach without clear indicators, and I tend to not recommend the results.
Interesting, Jean Mendoza, because it sounds like you are taking a far more open approach to giving historical figures dialogue and spoken lines in fiction than Debbie's call to restrict. I agree with you, and think that librarians, teachers, and parents who are bringing children's fiction to the attention of children, or reading it to them, are able to tell the children, "This is fiction, this is not fact." With that said, though, I would not mind if children's publishers and authors all did a basic disclaimer at the beginning of all children's fiction that is similar to the one that is found on the copyright page of much adult fiction. Something like, "This is a work of fiction. All people, places, businesses, interactions, etc. in this book are fictitious, or are used in a fictitious way. This is not a work of non-fiction." Would that work for you? And/or use the thing that the movies and television use all the time, such as "Based on a true story," or, "Inspired by a true story."
Anonymous 11/13, I'm not sure where you got the idea that I'm "more open" to authors making up stuff for actual historical figures to say and do, in books for young people, especially when those books appear to be biographical. In fact, I said that it seems unethical. That, for me, is a pretty strong condemnation of the practice.
It's possible that a clear disclaimer would be helpful to young readers (and the adults who help them pick out, read, and reflect on books). If children's authors are going to attribute imaginary words and deeds to people who actually lived, a statement to that effect should be prominent in the front of the book. Especially if that historical figure is the main character or the narrator.
And if the author is making that historical figure the main character in a work of fiction for young people (as in this book about Squanto), why not write an actual biography, without the fake dialogue and interactions? That seems a lot more useful in the long view. I've been working on a review of a novel about a fascinating but not-well-known Indigenous man, whose verifiable life experiences would have made for good young-person's biography, but the author chose instead to interweave things the man actually said and did with a lot of made-up stuff, leaving me as a reader frustratedly wishing to sort out truth from fiction. If the author felt the world needed to know more about this man, why not give us the real thing?
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