AICL on Pinterest

Recently, I created a Pinterest account for the purpose of promoting selected literature by and about American Indians. Here's a screen shot of what I've loaded so far:

Pretty cool, huh? It allows me to visually provide people with books that I find outstanding. They're tribally specific! They're award winning books! And of course, there are no stereotypes in these books! Wanna follow me on Pinterest? Here's the link:
American Indians in Children's Literature on Pinterest

Barbara Cooney's MISS RUMPHIUS: Take Two

Editor's Note: Back in 2009, I wrote up a short note about Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius. Because the book is on the We Give Books site, I decided to revisit that short post, add to it, and repost a cleaned up version of it here, today:

Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius

Though it is much loved and winner of an American Book Award, every time I think of Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius, the image that I recall is not the lovely lupines she walks amongst or the landscapes people adore. Instead, I remember this page:

(Source for image: http://theartofchildrenspicturebooks.blogspot.com/2011/03/miss-rumphius.html)

Here's the text for that page:

Now he worked in the shop at the bottom of the house, making figureheads for the prows of ships, and carving Indians out of wood to put in front of cigar stores.

"He" is Cooney's great grandfather. He's the one who carved cigar store Indians. So... what is wrong with that page?

Source: Oklahoma Historical Society

Noted Creek writer, Alexander Lawrence Posey, said that the cigar store Indians "are the product of a white mans's factory, and bear no resemblance to the real article." Posey died in 1908.

Is Cooney wrong for including this information in her book? It is factual as Cooney wrote it--carvers of that time period did carve figureheads for ships and wooden Indians, too--but given that Miss Rumphius was published in 1982 and the information about these carvings being stereotypical is quite old, perhaps she could have inserted "stereotypical" in front of "Indians."

If she had done that, the text on that page would be:

"Now he worked in the shop at the bottom of the house, making figureheads for the prows of ships and carving stereotypical Indians out of wood to put in front of cigar stores."

Course, if Cooney did that, the story wouldn't be as charming as it is, but it would be more accurate, and it could prompt teachers, parents, and librarians to address stereotypes whenever they read the book to children. What do you think?

Barbara Cooney's MISS RUMPHIUS

Though it is much loved and winner of an American Book Award, every time I think of Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius, the image that I recall is not the lovely lupines she walks amongst... Instead, I remember the page with three Indians. Did you see them?

Update: Try really hard to remember them... and if you can't, I've uploaded the page at my Images site.

Here's the image (added to AICL on September 20, 2012, 9:40 AM CST):

(Source for image: http://theartofchildrenspicturebooks.blogspot.com/2011/03/miss-rumphius.html)

And, here's the text for that page (also added on Sept 20, 2012):

Now he worked in the shop at the bottom of the house, making figureheads for the prows of ships, and carving Indians out of wood to put in front of cigar stores.

Source: Oklahoma Historical Society

Noted Creek writer, Alexander Lawrence Posey, said that the cigar store Indians "are the product of a white mans's factory, and bear no resemblance to the real article." Posey died in 1908. Is Cooney wrong for including this information in her book? It is factual as Cooney wrote it--carvers of that time period did carve figureheads for ships and wooden Indians, too--but given that Miss Rumphius was published in 1982 and the information about these carvings being stereotypical is quite old, perhaps she could have inserted "stereotypical" in front of "Indians." If she had done that, it would read:

"Now he worked in the shop at the bottom of the house, making figureheads for the prows of ships and carving stereotypical Indians out of wood to put in front of cigar stores."

Course, if she did that, the story wouldn't be as charming, but it would be more accurate, and it could prompt teachers, parents, and librarians to address stereotypes whenever they read the book to children.

First Nation Communities Read

In 2003, First Nations public librarians in Ontario launched the First Nation Communities Read program. Books considered for their annual award are ones that (criteria is excerpted from their website):

• are written and/or illustrated by, or otherwise involves the participation of a First Nation, Métis, or Inuit creator;
• contains First Nation, Métis, or Inuit content produced with the support of First Nation, Métis, or Inuit advisers/consultants or First Nation, Métis, or Inuit endorsement.

The 2009 book is Which Way Should I Go, written by Sylvia Olsen with Ron Martin, illustrated by Kasia Charko. On the program's website, you can download a "tip sheet" for using the book. It includes links and programming ideas.

Prior books are:

2008 - Ancient Thunder, written and illustrated by Leo Yerxa, published by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.

2006 - As Long as the Rivers Flow, written by Larry Loyie with Constance Brissenden, illustrated by Heather D. Holmlund, published by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.

2005 - SkySisters, written by Jan Bourdeau Waboose, illustrated by Brian Deines, published by Kids Can Press.

2004 - Solomon's Tree, inspired by Tsimpshian master carver Victor Reece, written by Andrea Spalding, illustrated by Janet Wilson, published by Orca Book Publishing.

2003 - Dragonfly Kites, written by Tomson Highway, illustrated by Brian Deines, published by HarperCollins Canada.

Visit the site, and take a look at the posters created each year. They are gorgeous!

Another award for Alexie's YA Novel

Editors Note on Feb 25, 2018: Please see my apology about promoting Alexie's work. --Debbie

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Roger Sutton, editor at Horn Book, just posted to the child_lit listserv, that Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian has won the 2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry. Roger's post says:

"Novelist Sherman Alexie is new to young adult literature but not to acclaim. A 1995 PEN/Hemingway Award recipient for his first collection of short stories for adults, he is also a poet, a film director, and a standup comic. Last fall, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature."

The award will be presented October 3rd in Boston. Acceptance speeches are printed in the The Horn Book Magazine.

Congratulations, again, to Sherman! I look forward to his work in progress, which is another YA novel: Radioactive Love.

Consider handing Alexie's DIARY to students that are enthralled with Meyer's TWILIGHT saga. His realistic depictions of Native youth in Washington are way better than hers.

Evangeline Parsons Yazzie's DZANI YAZHI NAAZBAA'/LITTLE WOMAN WARRIOR WHO CAME HOME: A STORY OF THE NAVAJO LONG WALK

[This review may not be used (published elsewhere, online or in print) without written permission of its author, Beverly Slapin.]

Yazzie, Evangeline Parsons (Diné), Dzáni Yázhi Naazbaa’/Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home: A Story of the Navajo Long Walk, color paintings by Irving Toddy (Diné), Navajo translation by the author. Salina Bookshelf, 2005, grades 3-up

Children, today more than ever, need to know the truths of history, even—no, especially—the ugly parts, the parts often deemed “not for children.” One of these truths is what has come to be known as the “Navajo Long Walk.” In 1863-1864, U.S. soldiers launched a scorched-earth offensive against Diné Bekayah, grabbed up some 8,000 Navajo women and men, children and old people, and marched them off to a barren concentration camp known as Bosque Redondo (Fort Sumner). On this death march of hundreds of miles, more than 3,000 died of cold and starvation or were killed—the soldiers shot pregnant women and elderly people and all others who couldn’t keep up.

Dzáni Yázhi Naazbaa’ (Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home) is the young Naabeehó (Navajo) girl who survives the Long Walk and the four-year incarceration at Fort Sumner. Yazzie, to whom these family stories have been passed down, spares little detail—the terror of being forcibly taken from home; seeing the elderly and sick being shot as they fall behind; experiencing crop failure and having to rely on foreign, rotten and bug-infested rations; stealing food from the soldiers’ horses to allay starvation. But throughout the torture, persecution, hunger and homesickness, the parents and elders feed the children with perseverance and hope that come from the clan system and the prayers and stories, and the knowing that the land, culture and community will survive. And, indeed, Little Woman Warrior does come home. Toddy’s paintings, especially those of the land and the frightened children, perfectly complement this bilingual story, in Navajo and English, of endurance and strength.

Of all the published children’s stories about the Long Walk period, only Dzáni Yázhi Naazbaa’/Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home and Joe Bruchac’s and Shonto Begay’s Navajo Long Walk (National Geographic, 2002) tell these truths, and Little Woman Warrior is a perfect antidote to Scott O’Dell’s toxic Sing Down the Moon (Houghton Mifflin, 1970) and Ann Turner’s equally poisonous The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, A Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864 (Scholastic, 1999).—Beverly Slapin

[Note from Debbie: This book is available from Oyate.]

Interview: Veronica Tsinajinnie

In April, Veronica Tsinajinnie was awarded the 2008 Lacapa Spirit Prize for her story, Jóhonaa’éí: Bringer of Dawn. According to its website, the Lacapa Spirit Prize is “a literary prize for children’s books about the peoples, cultures and landscapes of the Southwest.

Here’s a paragraph about the book, excerpted from the Lacapa Spirit Prize website:

Jóhonaa’éí: Bringer of Dawn is a beautiful and peaceful story of the relationship the sun has to the earth and its inhabitants as he rises every morning and brings dawn. Veronica Tsinajinnie’s bilingual narrative is powerfully subtle in its presentation of Navajo culture. The story chronicles the journey of Jóhonaa’éí, the sun, as he passes over land, plants, animals, and humans, ushering in a new day. After Jóhonaa’éí wakes the field mice, the rabbits, and the sheep, he is “contented to know his job is done…” He finally arrives at a hogan door to wake “his children” who live inside. The sun then watches as the family offers “white corn to the morning spirits” and “give thanks to the bringer of dawn” before they begin their day also content to know that their job is done as well. Young readers will delight in Tsinajinnie’s progressive repetition, recognizing the daily path as one they, too, walk.

A few weeks ago, I had an e-conversation with Tsinajinnie about her book. Today, I share that conversation.

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DR: Is Jóhonaa’éí: Bringer of Dawn your first book?

VT: Yes. It is my very first “published” book. I was a student at Dine’ College from 2001-2004 and took a children’s literacy class. One of our projects was to write a children’s book. It was a Navajo adaption to the story If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. My story was titled If You Give a Glissi Roasted Corn. Glissi is Navajo for goat. For this project, I actually drew the pictures to go with the story. So if, by chance, you decide to look it up online I must warn you that the pictures were drawn very badly and way before I began “seriously” practicing art/drawing. [Note from Debbie. The text is in Navajo. It is a multi-media project; you can listen to the book being read, in Navajo. Click here. Tsinajinnie's is one of many on the site.]

So technically, Jóhonaa’éí: Bringer of Dawn is not my first book because I did have to have a binding, pictures, table of contents, etc. for If You Give a Glissi Roasted Corn. But it is my first professionally published book.

DR: What prompted you to write it?

VT: At the time I was an educational assistant with a Family Literacy Program, in the preschool classroom. I was constantly reading to the children there and as the number of my nieces and nephews grew I began to feel a feeling of guilt because very few of the books we would read to them (at work and at home) were about them and the things they knew. So……I began to write stories for them about them and about the things they know.

DR: What sorts of books did you read when you were a child? Do you remember one with particular fondness?

VT: I remember my favorite books being Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag, and Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel. I’m not really sure why these were my favorite books but my father says that I would have him read them over and over again.

My all time favorite stories though were not in book form but orally told. I remember loving the summer times and winter breaks from school because that was when my family would stay with my grandparents. In the winter my grandfather would tell the coyote stories by firelight or around the lantern (they did not receive electricity until about 15 years ago). In the summer time they would tell us stories about when they were growing up; I was so fascinated. My grandfather was a great story teller because he loved to laugh. I have fond memories of him telling us a story and my grandmother getting a little bent because according to her, his story was completely untrue. An example of one would be the story my grandfather would tell about how he met my grandmother. The way he tells it he was riding his horse home from a one of his uncle’s house and he came upon a beautiful girl (my grandmother) as she herded sheep. He says she was so beautiful and he knew he wanted her to be his wife so he rode by her and picked her up from atop the horse and never took her home. This was one story my grandmother continues to deny happened. Regardless if it is true or not it is one of my favorite stories.

DR: Where were you born, and did you go to a public elementary school? Or a day school?

VT: I was born in the old hospital in Ft. Defiance AZ. (I really wish I had a cooler story like "in a hogan in the middle of winter" but I don’t.) From kindergarten until about second grade I went to Birdsprings Little Singer School. After that I went to Ganado for elementary, middle school, and high school. I always came back to Little Singer School for summer school though.

DR: Will you have another book out soon?

VT: I’d like to say that I’d have another book out soon although there is not one in the works right now. I have continued to submit more stories but sadly none have gone any further that that.

2008 Lacapa Spirit Prize Winner

PRESS RELEASE
Winner Named: Lacapa Spirit Prize for Southwest Children’s Literature

April 6, 2008

The Lacapa Spirit Prize is proud to announce its 2008 winner. Named for Michael Lacapa, children’s book illustrator and writer who died in 2005, the award honors the legacy of his artistic vision and talent for storytelling. This prize acknowledges great books for children that best embody the spirit of the peoples, culture and natural landscape of the Southwest. Books published in the two years prior to the award are eligible for consideration.

The 2008 Lacapa Spirit Prize for Narrative was awarded to “Jóhonaa’éí: Bringer of Dawn” by Veronica Tsinajinnie, illustrated by Ryan Singer, published by Salina Bookshelf Inc.

“Jóhonaa’éí: Bringer of Dawn” is a beautiful and peaceful story of the relationship the sun has to the earth and its inhabitants as he rises every morning and brings dawn. Veronica Tsinajinnie’s bilingual narrative is powerfully subtle in its presentation of Navajo culture. The story chronicles the journey of Jóhonaa’éí, the sun, as he passes over land, plants, animals, and humans, ushering in a new day. After Jóhonaa’éí wakes the field mice, the rabbits, and the sheep, he is “contented to know his job is done…” He finally arrives at a hogan door to wake “his children” who live inside. The sun then watches as the family offers “white corn to the morning spirits” and “give thanks to the bringer of dawn” before they begin their day also content to know that their job is done as well. Young readers will delight in Tsinajinnie’s progressive repetition, recognizing the daily path as one they, too, walk.

Michael Lacapa (Apache, Tewa and Hopi) worked with the Apache tribe in developing multicultural educational curricula for Native school-age children and often used storytelling as a teaching tool.

He was an exceptional storyteller and the talented illustrator of such books as “The Magic Hummingbird,” “Spider Spins a Story,” and “The Good Rainbow Road.” He is the author/illustrator of “The Flute Player,” “Antelope Woman” and “Less Than Half, More Than Whole,” the latter co-authored with his wife Kathy.

The Lacapa Spirit Prizes will be awarded to recipients during the 10^th Annual Northern Arizona Book Festival in Flagstaff, April 25-26, 2008. This prize is made possible through the generous support of the Northern Arizona Book Festival. The festival schedule may be found at www.nazbookfest.com

Congrats to creative force behind WHEN THE SHADBUSH BLOOMS

 

When the Shadbush Blooms, written by Carla Messinger and Susan Katz, illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden has been selected for inclusion on the 2008 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts!

It is among thirty books selected by the Children's Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English.

I wrote about the book on March 24th of this year. Congratulations to all those involved in the creation of this lovely book!

American Indian Library Association’s “American Indian Youth Literature Award”

For many years, individuals with the American Indian Library Association have worked toward establishing an award for outstanding children’s books about American Indians. Yesterday (September 5, 2006), they announced the first three recipients of the award.

Here is the portion of their press release with details about the books:

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"Beaver Steals Fire: A Salish Coyote Story," by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, illustrated by Sam Sandoval, and published by the University of Nebraska Press is the winner for the picture book category. Accompanied by rich watercolor illustrations, the text relates a culturally vital tale from the Salish people of Montana about the significance of the gift of fire and how it should be respected.

Louise Erdrich is the winner of the middle-school award for "The Birchbark House," published by Hyperion Books for Children. Setting her book in the middle 19th century, Erdrich paints a detailed portrait of Ojibwa life through the experiences of 7-year-old Omakayas who lives on the Island of the Golden Breasted Woodpecker on Lake Superior. "The Birchbark House" was Erdrich's first novel for young readers, and the first book she has illustrated. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa and lives with her two daughters in Minnesota.

Update on Sep 30 2023: I (Debbie Reese) no longer recommend Bruchac's work. For details see Is Joseph Bruchac truly Abenaki?

The young adult award is "Hidden Roots," written by Joseph Bruchac and published by Scholastic Press. The book is set within the historical framework of the Vermont Eugenics Program, a Native American sterilization program in the 1930s, and tells the story of the haunting effects of this shameful and tragic deed on one of the Abenaki families victimized by it. Author of more than 70 books for adults and children, Bruchac is of Abenaki ancestry and is a nationally recognized professional storyteller living in Greenfield Center, New York.

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Thank you, AILA, for establishing this award. Awards do a lot for the longevity of a book. As demonstrated on this blog, and by people who've done this work for many decades, some pretty awful books get printed again and again. They’re hard to displace, but I am hopeful that awards like this one will help change that. We must not forget, though, that the bottom line is sales. All three books are available from Oyate.

If we don’t buy these books for ourselves, for our children, for their friends, for their teachers, they will go out of print, even if they are designated as award winners.