"You will not behave like a Red Indian, Michael"

This morning on his Facebook page, Philip Nel (a professor in children's literature) pointed to Anita Silvey's blog: Book-A-Day Almanac. Silvey is well known in children's literature.

On November 13th, 2010, she featured Mary Poppins, by P. L. Travers. I wondered if Travers included any stereotypical Indians in her book. I ran a search of the book (I used Google Books) and found (on page 199):

"You will not behave like a Red Indian, Michael!"

That line appears in the chapter called West Wind. At that point, Mary Poppins has left and the children are upset that she's gone. The line is delivered by Mrs. Banks when, in his distress, Michael grabs her skirt, shakes it, and cries "Did she say she'd come back?"  In pulling on her skirt, he nearly knocks her over.  Crying out and vigorously pulling on her skirt must, to Travers' way of thinking, be the sort of thing a "Red Indian" would do...

"Red Indian" is a phrase commonly found in England. It appears, for example, in Arthur Ransom's Swallows and Amazons. According to Silvey's post, Mary Poppins was published in 1934. Travers is Australian but emigrated to England.

In her 100 Best Books for Children, Silvey writes:

In the seventies and early eighties, Mary Poppins, like many books of its era, came under attack for racism and stereotypes. In typical P. L. Travers fashion, she took this matter into her own hands and rewrote the sections others found offensive. Hence the chapter "Bad Tuesday" now contains the changes made in the 1981 revision.

As I started research into the changes, I find that I need to locate the older version so I can see what she changed. In that chapter, Mary Poppins took the children north. In the revised version, once in the north, they encounter a polar bear. What was there before? I'll have to check into that... Right now, I've got to get ready for my presentation today at Navy Pier.

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Update, Monday, Nov 15, 5:04 PM

In comments to the post above, Katharine shared a link to her photos of pages from The Magic Compass, which is the Bad Tuesday chapter, turned into a Little Golden Book.  Take a look at the pages she photographed. Clicking on the link will take you to one page. On the right are thumbnail-size images. Click on the each one to see all the pages she photographed. The Magic Compass was published in 1953.