Not Recommended: Gooney Bird and the Room Mother, by Lois Lowry

Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry came out in 2002. In 2005, Gooney Bird and the Room Mother came out and there are a few more Gooney Bird books since then. Of course, Lowry has written many books -- several of which have won major book awards. 

Published by Houghton Mifflin in 2005, I'm disappointed that nobody involved in the creation of Gooney Bird and the Room Mother noted the problems I see. And, I'm disappointed in the starred review from Kirkus. Their reviewer described it as a "winning, tongue-in-cheek outing." School Library Journal said the illustrations highlight key moments in the story, but four of the 10 illustrations show kids stereotypically dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians. Why didn't they note that problem?

I didn't know about the Gooney Bird books until recently when a reader wrote to ask me about Gooney Bird and the Room Mother. Here's the description:

Gooney Bird Greene likes to be right smack in the middle of everything. That's why she wants to have the lead role of Squanto in her class Thanksgiving pageant. But that role will go to whoever finds someone to be the room mother. All the parents are so busy, no one can bring cupcakes to the play. Gooney Bird Greene to the rescue! She finds a room mother alright, but promises not to tell who it is until the day of the play. Now the kids are really busy getting ready for the show. But will the mystery room mother really show up?

Thanksgiving events in schools are disturbing because they introduce (or affirm) a feel-good story that glosses the truth of what happened. Reading reviews at Goodreads, I see two that note the problems I saw. Walton says that "History is totally whitewashed in appalling ways." Cindy says that she was uncomfortable with the dressing up part and that the book went from uncomfortable to "downright inappropriate" in its depiction of Squanto as a "very, very helpful guy." She notes that the book briefly references the fact that Squanto was forcibly taken to Spain and sold as a slave but that the general narrative of him is about choices he made to go here and there. Surely Houghton Mifflin could make sure their staff includes people like Walton and Cindy who could help the publishing house and the author, too, step away from feel-good stories that mis-educate children. 

Without hesitation, I am giving it a 'Not Recommended' label:

Several years ago I wrote an article for Journal of Language and Literacy Education. In it I analyzed Anne Rockwell's Thanksgiving Day and did a lot of historical research about Thanksgiving that I am using as I read through Lowry's book. Below, description is in plain text and my comments are in italics:

In chapter 2, Gooney Bird tells her teacher, Mrs. Pidgeon, that she wants to color Squanto's feather on the mural the class is working on. On page 10, we read that she's coloring one of his feathers blue. On page 13, she's coloring one red. 

Debbie's comments: Did the man commonly known as Squanto wear feathers? And if he did, what did they look like? Did he wear them all the time? Were some red and some blue? The man's name was Tisquantum, not Squanto. His correct name has been known for so long. Why do children's books continue to use Squanto? 

In chapter 4, the teacher tells them the mural is coming along well and that they also have to learn a song, make costumes, and select a cast of characters for the pageant. They need Pilgrims and Native Americans.  Gooney Bird wants to be Squanto. Children have begun working on their costumes, as shown by the illustration of them singing the song:

Debbie's comments: That illustration with kids in those hats and headbands appears four times in the book. I see that in many children's books and in many photos teachers share of their own classroom activities around the holiday. Lowry's book joins the pile of educationally bad children's books that get circulated in society. It miseducates every child who learns this is ok.

The pageant would be more educational if it was tribally specific. By that, I mean that instructional materials about the Pilgrims need to use the name of the tribal nation--Wampanoag--rather than generic labels like Native American. I'd also want to see more facts than are likely to be included in pageants. However, my guess is once the facts are included, any "fun" in a pageant disappears. If a fuller understanding leads teachers to reject books like this one, or to stop doing these activities, that's a huge plus for children they teach!

Here's the song lyrics, sung to the tune of Jingle Bells:

Succotash, succotash, lima beans and corn. Thank you, noble Squanto, you may set the platter down.

Debbie's comments: I think the idea is to show gratitude to Native peoples -- Tisquantum in particular -- for help in learning how to plant and grow vegetables but why is he characterized as noble? 

On page 32 the class works on their costumes. Their teacher tells them that the Pilgrims didn't decorate their clothing but Native Americans did. Students making headbands glue beads onto them and will also add a feather. Chelsea says "I wish I could be a Native American" because she hates her plain Pilgrim hat. There's a conversation about Pilgrims being brave, crossing the ocean. 

Debbie's comments: This pervasive activity -- Native people in feathered headbands and Pilgrims in hats with buckles is inaccurate. The idea that Pilgrims wore black and white clothing and buckles on their hats and shoes is not accurate. The Mayflower History page (and other sources, too), tell us that is a stereotype.  

Many people in the US wish they could be Native. They may have a romantic idea of what it means but that idea is often missing the difficulties Native people endured and endure as we fight for our rights, homelands, religious sites, return of artifacts and so on. There's a growing body of writing about people who go from wishing to claiming a Native identity. I've been compiling a log that you may want to visit. 

On page 34, Mrs. Pidgeon asks Gooney Bird if she has been working on Squanto's dance. On the piano she plays some low notes in a repetitive way and tells Gooney Bird to pretend it is a drumbeat that Squanto should keep time to, and maybe doing some "rhythmic foot-hopping, too." 

Debbie's comments: I can almost hear (in my imagination) the low notes Mrs. Pidgeon is playing. They're the sort of thing you hear in so many movies and TV shows and on sports fields where the team has a stereotypical mascot. It is kind of a BOOM boom boom boom, BOOM boom boom boom in a minor tone. If you listen to Native music done by Native drummers, do you hear that sort of thing? I don't. Take a few minutes to watch this video from the Museum of Indian Culture in New Mexico. In it, you will see how pueblo drums are made. There's a segment where a group of children is playing the drums they've made, and in the background of some of the narration, you can hear drumming. Music across Native Nations is different, of course, and I don't know all of it but I don't hear it in pow wow drumming or any other ceremonies of other nations that I've been to. I'll look for an example of Wampanoag drumming and add it when I find one.

In chapter 6 on page 36, Gooney Bird is wearing a hat with a feather in it. Mrs. Pidgeon asks why she doesn't have a headband. Here's their conversation:  

"I decided Squanto should have a better hat than the other Native Americans, because he's been to England, remember?"

"Well, yes, he did travel there. But that's a top hat, Gooney Bird. Something an ambassador might wear. I don't think---"

"I think Squanto brought it back from England. He probably went shopping and bought a lot of new clothes there. People always buy new clothes when they travel." 

Debbie's comments: Yikes! Granted, the character is a little girl but that character was created by an adult and looked over by editors at the publishing house... it is disappointing that nobody hit the pause button on the idea of Tisquantum shopping in England as if he is a modern day tourist!

On page 38, Gooney Bird began testing some dance steps and says that she thinks Squanto probably learned the tango in England. 

Debbie's comments: Again, how did this get by editors?! I'd have flagged the idea of a kidnapped individual learning the tango (as if he is a modern day tourist) as being ridiculous but I'd also have looked up the tango. When was it invented? The answer: in the 18th century. When was Tisquantum there? Centuries before that! 

Beyond that, it is important to know that Native dance is not performance or entertainment. Much of it is associated with a spiritual or religious ceremony. Teachers would not reenact something they see in a church or temple or place of worship... and it should not happen with Native dance either. Far too many writers misrepresent it in books they write. 

Near the end of chapter 8, Mrs. Pidgeon worries that the costumes and song are slapdash and ill-fitting. The students tell her all the things they've learned in her classroom and she cheers up and says:

"I'm sorry that I was depressed for a minute. It's just that the story of the first Thanksgiving is such a truly wonderful story, about becoming friends, and helping one another, and being thankful. I wish I could have presented it better, instead of writing a dumb song about succotash."

Debbie's comments: These pageants are not a wonderful story! Especially for Native children. Native parents have been asking teachers to reconsider them for decades.  

Gooney Bird has an idea. The day of the pageant, their presentation opens with Gooney Bird as Squanto, entering the multipurpose room with a dance that is "a combination of shuffles, taps, and twirls, with an occasional pause for a hop" done to Mrs. Pidgeon playing rhythmic drumming sort of music on the piano. At the front of the room, she says:

I am not the actual Squanto. The real Squanto was a Patuxet Indian who was born in a village near where the Pilgrims would land, but when he was born they hadn't landed yet.

He learned to speak English from some early settlers. He helped them in many ways. He was a very helpful guy. 

When some of them went back to England, they invited him to go along. His mother didn't want him to.

But he went anyway. This was way back in the 1600s. Squanto is dead now. I am not the real Squanto. I am an imitation.  

Debbie's comments: See notes above regarding Native dance and rhythmic drumming. Regarding Tisquantum speaking English: none of my sources say he learned it from early settlers. He learned it when he was kidnapped and taken to England. They didn't "invite" him to go along. Later in her remarks, Gooney Bird says he was taken captive, but why didn't Lowry or her editors remove the invitation part here? And where did that bit about what his mother wanted come from? I've never seen that before but I can imagine teachers raising that part and asking "would your mom want you to go so far away." It makes me deeply uncomfortable. He wasn't a child when taken. Does that passage invite children to think of him as a child? 

She asks the principal to tell the audience what imitation means (she said "I am not the real Squanto. I am an imitation.") and then continues:

He traveled around for a while, being helpful because he was a helpful guy. He was an interpreter between the Americans and the Indians. 

Debbie's comments: "He traveled around the world" and "being helpful" invoke an image that does not reflect the truth. I urge teachers to read Chris Newell's If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving. Get a classroom set of the book and use it to critique Gooney Bird's remarks! Develop a lesson plan on how to critically analyze the ways the Thanksgiving story is presented! In his book, Newell tells us that Tisquantum and 20 other Patuxet Wampanoag people and seven Nausets were kidnapped by Thomas Hunt who took them to Spain to sell them as enslaved people. 

She asks a classmate to explain the word interpreter and then continues:

But suddenly--a bad ship captain tricked him into going onto his ship. It was a big scam. They made him a captive and took him to Spain. The captives all were sold as slaves. It made Squanto pretty mad. 

But he was indefatigable.

After a long time Squanto finally made his way home. He had been away for years. And when he finally got home, he found that his village was gone. His people had all died. He was the last of his tribe. 

It was very sad. But he became friends with the great chief Massasoit, and after a while he met the Pilgrims, who had just arrived. So he had some new friends and they hung out together. 

The Pilgrims' lives in America would have been a fiasco if good Indians like Squanto had not helped them.

Squanto had gotten lots of new clothes in England, and he had learned to dance.

The End.

Gooney Bird bowed, twirled in a circle, did a bit of hula, and then said:

"All of my story was absolutely true, except maybe the part about learning to dance, but I think he probably did."   

Debbie's comments: "He traveled around the world" and "being helpful" invoke an image that does not reflect the truth. I urge teachers to read Chris Newell's If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving. Get a classroom set of the book and use it to critique Gooney Bird's remarks! Develop a lesson plan on how to critically analyze the ways the Thanksgiving story is presented! 

Gooney Bird tells children some truth but overall there is a silver-lining way to her remarks. "It was very sad" is immediately displaced by "But he became friends..." And then "... new friends" and "hung out together" and "new clothes" and "learned to dance" -- all of that softens the truth. And note the "good Indians" characterization, too. It implies there's bad Indians. Who were they, and what did they do that readers are meant to think of as "bad"? 

 

Indigenous Food Knowledge in 2 New Books

 

Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint? Celebrating the Seasons

Written by Tyna Legault Taylor (Attawapiskat First Nation)

Illustrated by Michelle Dao (Vietnamese Canadian)

Published in 2025

Published by Portage and Main (Highwater Press)

Reviewer: Jean Mendoza

Review Status: Highly Recommended

b

laget hiyt toxwum/Herring to Huckleberries

Written by ošil Betty Wilson (Tla'anim)

Illustrated by Prashant Miranda (not Native)

Published in 2025

Published by Portage and Main (Highwater Press)

Reviewer: Jean Mendoza

Review Status: Highly Recommended 

Are you a teacher who has used a curriculum about Native Americans? Debbie has started analyzing one on AICL. Take a look! Her comments can help you think critically about whatever curriculum you use. Her analysis got me thinking about a phrase I've seen in non-fiction books to describe Indigenous societies before colonization: "hunter-gatherer." It's used to differentiate between groups that mainly "lived off the land" and those that grew crops or kept animals. It's not usually explained very well.

As a kid, I pictured "hunter-gatherers" wandering in the woods hoping to come across something edible to collect or kill. It seemed like an exhausting life, always having to find the next meal. In my mind, people who grew gardens and row crops didn't need to go looking for food. (Though I figured they'd still pick huckleberries if they found some, because who wouldn't?)  Nothing in textbooks or children's literature I saw dismantled those mistaken ideas, and it's embarrassing how long it took me to replace them with a more accurate picture. 

That's one reason it's good to see two 2025 picture books from Portage and Main Press that give a clear, respectful sense of what's involved in collecting food from the land (and water) to feed families and the community. Observation, intergenerational knowledge, ingenuity, and hard work kept the people fed, and continue to do so today. 

Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint? is for ages 5-9. The protagonist is a contemporary Native child, Joshua. Joshua learns from his dad about when, where, and how to find foods that have sustained his Omushkego Cree and Anishinaabe communities over time. Plants, fish, and mammals couldn't just be taken all year round. What Joshua likes most of all is picking mint so his mom can make mint iced tea, but he has to wait until summer for that. Meanwhile, he and his dad go on walks each season, and dad shows him what to look for. 

I like the way several two-page spreads show what Joshua learns, and what he does to help. Here are  pages about fall:

On the left, Dad explains the peoples' seasonal food sources. On the right, Joshua has hooked a white fish, one of the foods of fall.

The illustrations show his delighted engagement as he soaks in what Dad teaches him. But what he wants most of all is to be able to gather wild mint for tea. Spoiler alert: that day comes at last.

Herring to Huckleberries is suitable for slightly older children; I would think middle grades and up. It follows the experience of a girl from the Tla'amin Nation, one of the Coast Salish nations in what is currently known as British Columbia. In her author's note, Betty Wilson comments that the book shares her memories of growing up in the 1950s, when, during each season, she would go with her grandparents and other relatives to collect foods that would sustain them all year. 

Throughout the book, text and pictures give a sense of how large the gathering operations could be, and how much knowledge was involved. Yes, the people caught herring when the fish showed up in the bay -- and they used a specially-designed rake. They also sank cedar branches in the water so the herring would lay eggs on them. They then gathered the branches full of eggs, peeled the eggs off to eat fresh, or hung the full branches up on drying racks so the eggs would dry, to be used later. They dried the whole fish, too. 

Children reading these two books will never be burdened with the inadequate ideas I had about what it means to "hunt and gather"! Both Dad and Herring emphasize the science, community effort, and complexity of the knowledge involved. Dad features a map of the region where Joshua's family lives, and a recipe for mint tea. The back matter of Herring includes an eagle's-eye-view map of the Tla'amin homelands, and detailed descriptions of 12 of their important traditional foods.

I also love that both books integrate specific Indigenous languages of the protagonists. In Dad, selected words in Anishinaabemowin and Omushkegomowin are part of the text, with English equivalents in the margins. Herring is a dual language book; the story is told in the author's native Ayahjutham and English on the same 2-page spreads, like this:

Some young readers will be intrigued to see that the orthography of Ayahjutham is very different from English. Here's how the name of that language is written:

At AICL, we're strong believers that Native children benefit from knowledge about their Indigenous language, and that all children benefit from knowing about languages other than what they speak at home! Both Dad and Herring support this by providing vocabulary lists and pronunciation guides in the back matter. 

And teacher guides for both books are available from Portage and Main.

There are so many opportunities for conversations with children here, whether they're Native or not. Younger kids may be very surprised that not everybody has gotten their food from Safeway or Jewel. They may want to talk about foods they would be willing to work for, as Joshua and ošil do. What do they notice about the variety of foods shown in the books -- does it create a balanced diet? Do they or any of their family members fish, hunt, trap, or collect wild foods like mushrooms or berries? Is the activity random, or does a person have to "know what they're doing" in order to have success? What's it like for them -- do they enjoy it, or feel like part of something important? Is it even possible to find wild foods where they live now? How could they find out what wild food resources would have been available in their area 70 years ago, or longer? Betty Wilson comments that many of the foods her community gathered in the 1950s are no longer available. What might have happened to those foods? 

Food sovereignty is an increasingly important topic for Native people. High schoolers may know that the US government officials provided or withheld food to keep Native communities "in line". They may have heard that settlers' foods, heavy on sugar and carbohydrates, have created health problems that Native Nations now deal with. Food sovereignty addresses those issues, and more. Picture books like Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint and Herring to Huckleberries can help older kids explore the historical and cultural significance of communities being able to think critically about diet and supply themselves with food. 

Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint and Herring to Huckleberries are strongly recommended! They can be important additions to a curriculum about Native Americans, and useful in teaching about the relationships between human well-being and the foods we eat.  

NOT RECOMMENDED: BACK IN THE BEFORETIME. TALES OF THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS by Jane Louise Curry

A reader wrote to ask if I've read Back in the Beforetime: Tales of the California Indians by Jane Louise Curry. 

The answer? I had not, but the reader's question prompted me to take a look. 

It came out in 1987 from Margaret K. McElderry Books and again in 2001 from Aladdin. It is written  by a person who (as far as I can tell) is not Native.  Back in the Beforetime is one of several books Jane Louise Curry has written about Native peoples. I was able to get an electronic copy of her book. The first thing I do when taking a critical look at a book is to see if there's an Author's Note. There is one in this book. Reading it, I was pretty sure I would not recommend the book. Let me show you what I mean. 

The first sentence of the note starts with "The Indian tales." That word -- tales -- is familiar. You see it with "folk" and "fairy" and "tall" but you rarely see it used with Bible stories. In my work, I've come to see that as a problem. Many "tales" are creation stories considered sacred to the people who tell them, but their stories aren't treated with the same respect given to Bible stories. You don't see Bible stories categorized or shelved as folktales. As I read further, would I find a lack of respect in Back in the Beforetime?

Let's see. The first sentence in its entirety is:

The Indian tales of Back in the Beforetime come from a number of California tribes, from the Klamath River region in the north to the inland desert mountains and the southern coastlands. 

Here's the second one:

In reading through the many tales and fragments of tales recorded during the past century, I chose first those legends which could be woven together to tell the larger tale of Creation from the making of the world to man's rise to lordship over the animals, and then a selection of comic or trickster folktales which seemed to fit happily within that framework.

Hmmm. There's a lot to respond to in that sentence. "Lordship over the animals" sticks out and feels very white to me. And where, I wonder, was she finding these "tales and fragments of tales"? Reading to the end of the note, I don't see a list of her sources. That's important information. Knowing them would help us a lot. Her sources are likely ones collected by white people who had no idea what they were doing when they looked upon Native ways. Their lack of knowing meant their account is a misrepresentation of what was going on. The second part of that sentence tells us she chose legends that "could be woven together" to tell what she calls "the larger tale of Creation." What she did, when she wove some together, is a huge red flag. Why? Because she assumes that all these tribes are the same in how they think about the world. Many writers do that. They take something from one tribal nation's stories and then take something from a different one, and put them together as if that's fine. I don't think it is fine, particularly when books will be used in classrooms to teach children about Native peoples. In fact, anybody who reads the book is being miseducated. 

Third sentence:

In several instances, where a story was incomplete or lacking in detail which could be found in a second version from the same or another tribe, I have told a composite tale.

See? She says right there that she pulled from several places (that she must assume are accurate) to create a "composite" tale. You might be thinking that I've being harsh. You might be thinking that Curry and her editor and others who did the same thing didn't know better. That they had good intentions. We can assume ignorance and good intentions but the product is still deeply flawed. The book came out in 1987. By then there were many people writing about misrepresentations. As far back as 1829, Native people were objecting! Take a look at William Apes (Pequot) on Depictions of Native People in Stories. Many people defend what an author does by saying that nobody spoke up, then, and that it is unfair to challenge the author. People say that about Gone With the Wind but when the movie came out, African Americans protested at a theater in 1940. The New York Times article has photos of the protest. My point is that the author and editor may not have known they were publishing a flawed product--but that doesn't mean people weren't objecting. What anyone knows is shaped by who they know and what they read. 

Back to Curry's note. In paragraph two, sentence one:

Several of the California tribes are represented in Back in the Beforetime by more than one tale, and many by none.

Reading that sentence, I thought that when I read the stories in her book, I'd see names of specific tribal nations. Some would be mentioned more than once because "more than one tale" was from one tribe. That was not the case. Here's the table of contents:

See? Titles of stories, but no tribally specific information. Is there some with each story? Easy enough to check. I turned to the first one: 

There is no tribal nation mentioned after the title, and as I read the story, I didn't find one there, either. On the last page of that story, I see that after having created Grizzly Bear, "Old Man" was afraid of him So, Old Man retreated to his ice mountain and began to "hollow it out for a teepee." A teepee? I wonder about that because I associate tipis with Plains Indians. Curry finishes the story by telling us that the animal people Old Man created never saw him again, but sometimes, they'd see smoke coming from "the smokehole of the white teepee mountain and knew he was still there. They called his mountain Shasta. And so do we, for it is still is there." (Note: I am tempted to go down a rabbit hole wherein I search for "Old Man" and "Shasta" to see if I can find the source for Curry's story. I may do that later.) 

In the second paragraph of the Author's Note, the second sentence is:

Being a storyteller rather than a folklorist, I have not sought to make a representative collection, but one which will offer to readers or to a storyteller's audience entertaining tales that can both stand alone and give some sense of what the context of a single story might have been within a tribe's traditional body of tales.

Entertaining? Ok. Stories do that, but within an educational context, the goal is education. Learning. Understanding. When the stories are about Native peoples, it is crucial that they be specific to a tribe. Without specificity, we all fall into stereotypical chasms that suggest all Native peoples are the same. We're not. 

Next is the third paragraph. First sentence:

Many California tribes have dwindled or vanished. 

Too many books use that sort of language. "Vanish" is especially outrageous. It means to disappear suddenly, without a trace. That's not what happened. Things don't just happen.  Colonization, invasions, killings, removals... that's what happened, over a period of time. Native people fought back. There's more to say about that style of writing but I'll move on to the next sentences.

Others still struggle to preserve their traditions and holy places in a world of change. Of some, little trace is left but their tales, recorded long ago by folklorists and anthropologists.

Part of that "struggle" involves pushing back on misrepresentation that started with those long ago recordings. We could insert "white" in front of folklorists and anthropologists but unless you've studied how they got it wrong, inserting white doesn't help much. 

The last sentence in the Author's Note:

For us their tales of the Animal People, in whom animal and human natures are mingled, are both comic and poignant, reminding us that once there was a time when Man was more fully at home in the natural world.

Comic? As in funny? Amusing? Ludicrous? Ridiculous? The author is definitely making a judgment that bothers me. But I remind myself that her sources may have that quality in them --- because the folklorist or anthropologist got things wrong. 

That's the end of the author's note. And from what I've seen, my earlier thought that I'd not be recommending the book stands. I do not recommend Back in the Beforetime. 

I encourage you to stop using it in your classrooms. And as always, if something I've said doesn't make sense or if you want me to say more, let me know in the comments.

NOT RECOMMENDED: "Native Americans Part 1" (a Video on PBS)

A reader wrote to ask me about a video on PBS, titled Native Americans, Part 1; 2nd [grade] Social Studies. I've loaded it and will watch and pause as I do to make notes here. The person in the video is a teacher, Mrs. Huson. She works in Missouri. The video aired on December 16, 2020 and is still available on the PBS site. I think this set of notes is going to make people feel bad for the teacher in the PBS video. She's doing what she thinks is good work and obviously someone at PBS thought so, too. But one minute after another, there are errors. (For those who don't know who I am, I'm tribally enrolled at Nambé Owingeh, was a schoolteacher and assistant professor in American Indian Studies, and now work as an educational consultant.)

At the 1:04 mark Huson asks "Have you ever heard of Native Americans? Do you know what a Native American is?" 

Deb's notes: the teacher is assuming there are not Native children in the audience for the video. If questions like that are asked in an actual classroom, how does it land with children who are Native? Huson is speaking as if we no longer exist. That's a common misconception. In fact, we're still here, thriving as hundreds of tribal nations across the continent. Due to government programs, many of us were removed from our homelands. Today there aren't any Tribal Nations in Missouri, but if you're a fan of professional football, you may know that Native people attend mascot protests in Kansas City. We live all across the country. Do not assume that there aren't a Native children in your classrooms! You've been mis-educated to think we don't exist anymore, and that if we do, we have dark hair and dark skin -- but that's not true!  

At the 1:14 mark, the teacher says "We're going to learn about Native Americans, who they were, and we're going to learn a lot about their culture." 
Deb's notes: Two errors in that sentence: first, she used the past tense verb "were" as if we aren't here, today, and she used "culture." As I continue to watch, I wonder if I'll hear her use present tense verbs? Will I hear her use the word nation? A common mistake is to speak of us as cultures. We are people with distinct languages, songs, histories, stories (those are parts of cultures) but we are first, and foremost, nations of people. Remember learning about treaties? We were nations with leaders who negotiated treaties with leaders of other nations. We were nations before the US was a nation. 

At the 1:53 mark, the teacher says "the settlers discovered the United States of America." 

Deb's notes: There's a lot wrong with that phrase! For decades Native people have asked that people not use the word "discovered" to describe what happened. And, the land they arrived on--or invaded--was not called "the United States of America." That phrase (USA) did not come into existence until later. 

As I continue to watch I see very broad definitions for words like "culture" and "tribe" and verbs the teacher is using are past tense. I understand she is pitching this to children in second grade but they're being given information that is reductive and most definitely not educational. She's speaking as if we're all the same. An example is what she says about totem poles. She's speaking as if we all carve them. We don't. 

Her explanation of a powwow is a bit of a mess. She says it is a festival where Native people gathered to celebrate something. She talks about kids going to parties to celebrate birthdays as being similar to a powwow. 

Oh.... dear. Tribes had chiefs, she says, and they were "extravagant headdresses" and tells students if they encounter a tribe (based on all she's said so far, I think she means "encounter" in a book rather than in person) you can tell which one is the chief by the headdress. No, no, no! 

I can't go on. Pausing here. I don't know if I'll be back. I'm going to get in touch with PBS in Missouri. This is deeply problematic content and should not be on any website. 

 

NOT RECOMMENDED: Lois Duncan's STRANGER WITH MY FACE

I begin with a sample of the book covers for Duncan's Stranger With My Face, overlaid with the red X that I use to signal that a book is not recommended. There are several different covers, which means the book sold well enough to get reissued with a new cover.

In her article for the May/June 2023 issue of Horn Book Magazine, Angeline Boulley talks about Lois Duncan's Stranger With My Face. She wrote:

The first time I read a story that featured a Native American protagonist, I was a high school senior. It was a significant experience for me. As an Ojibwe teen, I hadn't realized my absence in books until that moment. In Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan, teen Laurie learns she was adopted as a baby and that she is Native American. I was excited and intrigued to dive into the mystery-thriller in which Laurie's twin sister, Lia, reconnects with her via astral projection. 

My excitement quickly subsided, to be replaced by something unfamiliar and uncomfortable. I didn't have the words at the time to convey exactly why I felt so disappointed and, even, embarrassed. Now--as an adult with a twenty-year career striving to improve public education for and about Native Americans--I understand that the story lacked authentic representation and perpetuated stereotypes of Indigenous peoples. 

Boulley's article pushed me to take a look at Stranger with My Face. Previously, I've read Season of the Two Heart (published in 1964). Both are deeply problematic. As an adult, Angeline Boulley is able to describe an emotion she had experienced as a Native teen. That emotion? Embarrassment. What do non-Native teens feel today, when they read the book? What do non-Native readers feel? What do non-Native readers take away from the book?

Today, I listened to a podcast about the book (recorded 4 years ago) by two adults who discuss books they read as teens. They are clearly enthralled by the book and have no idea the Native content is problematic. 

Here's the book description:

Laurie Stratton finally has everything a sixteen-year-old could ever want. But just as her perfect summer comes to a close, things start to unravel when her boyfriend insists he saw her out with another guy-when Laurie was really home sick! More mysterious sightings convince Laurie someone very real is out there, watching her. . . .

The truth reveals a long-lost sister who has spent the years growing bitter and dangerous. She has learned how to haunt Laurie, but the visits soon become perilous. She wants something from Laurie-her life!

Stranger with My Face was first published by Little Brown in 1981. It was named an ALA Best Books for Young Adults and as the covers above show, it did very well. It was republished in 2011, with some edits to the content and an interview with Duncan, done by young adult author Jenny Han. 

Han asks Duncan about the Native content (p. 291):

Jenny: The glimpse into Navajo culture is fascinating, and in the end, it's what saves Laurie. Do you have any ties to Navajo or Native American culture?

Lois: I spent most of my adult life in New Mexico, surrounded by Navajo culture. 

That's it: Lois lived in New Mexico, "surrounded" by Navajo culture. In several places, I read that she lived in Albuquerque starting in the early 1960s. The Navajo Nation is not in Albuquerque. There were, and are, Navajo people in Albuquerque, but Duncan said "Navajo culture." As I sit here, my thoughts on "Navajo culture" are of Navajo art forms like sandpaintings and woven rugs. What does she mean? 

Let's take a look at the Navajo content in her book. I lay it out by page number with content or description of content on that page, followed by my comments in italics. The story is set on the east coast, mostly on an island. The protagonist is a seventeen-year-old teen named Laurie. Her boyfriend is Gordon. 

p. 23

I didn't have the sort of looks you found just everywhere. Gordon kidded sometimes that I could be part Indian with my dark coloring, high cheekbones and almond eyes. "Bedroom eyes," he called them, meaning they were sexy. My father referred to them as "alien" because they were the same shape as the eyes he gave to the maidens from other worlds in his novels. When I looked at my parents--both of them so fair--and at Neal and Meg with their light blue eyes and freckled noses, I wondered sometimes how I had managed to be born into such a family.

Deb's Comments

Dark coloring and high cheekbones? Those are stereotypical markers. And, those "bedroom eyes" bother me. The phrase sexualizes a teen girl. The book was first written in 1981 and revised in 2011. I suppose some women would be ok with that term in 1981 but in 2011? Surely not! When the 2011 edition was done, that passage could have been edited out, but apparently neither Duncan or her editor thought it was a problem. It is, however, a significant problem. Native women experience violence from non-Native men at alarming rates. 

Laurie's dad calls her eyes "alien." He's a sci-fi writer and uses that word to describe "maidens from other worlds." He means other planets, but reading those words hits me in a different way. As we come to find out, Laurie's birth mother was Navajo. The adoption part of the story took place in Gallup, New Mexico--which borders the Navajo Nation's reservation. Laurie is definitely not from "another world" but the white family that adopted her? We could say they are from another world. But really, her dad's use of the word is awkward and ought to be have taken out of the revised edition.

p. 52

Before we get to page 52, Laurie's friends, Laurie's family, and Laurie start to sense and see someone/something that looks like Laurie. 

Meanwhile, a new family has moved to the island. It includes a girl named Helen. They've moved from Tuba City, Arizona, where Helen's parents taught at an Indian boarding school. Laurie starts to become friends with Helen. Here's their conversation on page 52:

Helen told me about a boy named Luis Nez.

That was the name he used at school," she said. "I wasn't allowed to know his Indian name. The Navajos are a private people. Luis was my boyfriend, but there was so much that he couldn't share with me." She paused, and then raised her hand to touch the tiny turquoise carving at her throat. "When I left, he gave me this." 

"What is it?" I asked, hoisting myself up on one elbow so as to see better.

"A fetish," Helen said. "It's an eagle, predator of the air. When Luis learned we were coming east by plane, he carved it for me. Turquoise is the Navajo good-luck stone. A turquoise eagle protects the wearer against evil spirits from the skies."

Deb's Comments 

Duncan tells us that Helen's family has moved from Tuba City, Arizona which is within the borders of the Navajo Nation. It is likely that the boarding school her parents taught at is Tuba City Boarding School. That's fine, but what about the passage about his Indian name? All we really get from that is that Navajos are kind of mysterious. 

Remember that Duncan told Han that she was surrounded by Navajo culture? Duncan was a white woman (she died in 2016). When Duncan died, people offered tributes to her body of writing, especially for the crime, gothic, supernatural, and horror stories she wrote for teen readers. She told Jenny Han in the interview that she experienced astral projection herself (more on that later) several years after the book came out when her daughter was murdered.  

Duncan didn't have to depict Laurie as being Native. Laurie could have been white. Why did Duncan depict her as Navajo (actually, Laurie's birth mother was Navajo and her birth father was white)? To some readers it might seem cool, or as Han said "fascinating" but if the reader is Native or Navajo in particular, it is not cool. 

When Laurie first saw Lia (her twin), Lia is a scary, ghost-like image. On page 65, Laurie learns that she was adopted. Laurie's parents had gone to New Mexico to adopt a baby. They saw twin babies. Her mother held and liked Laurie, but not Lia. When she held Lia, she felt that the baby was strange and that she would not be able to love her so they did not adopt Lia. Her placements in foster homes never worked out. Much later in the story we learn that Lia has malevolent motives, driven by jealousy and she uses astral projection to harm others. 

The passage on page 52 has things in it that Duncan depicts as cultural: a name and how it is/is not used, and a stone and its significance within a culture. Living in Albuquerque, Duncan would probably know about stores where Native art is sold. Carved stone figures (fetishes) were, and are, quite popular items. She may have asked a shop keeper about the significance of turquoise (the stone) and eagles (the fetish Helen has been given). In this book, that fetish is a key plot device. Duncan needed an item that would fit with the astral projection plot. In the interview with Han, Duncan likens the fetish to rosary beads or bread and wine in Communion. 

I wish that Duncan had depicted Laurie and Lia as white characters and used rosary beads instead of making them Navajo. In choosing to use Navajo culture, she casts Navajo people as mysterious and, well, evil. Angeline Boulley felt embarrassed and I bet Navajo readers feel that, too. 

p. 53

When Laurie tells Helen that people see her in places she wasn't actually at, Helen asks her if she was using astral projection:

"Using what?" I said in bewilderment.

"You know--sending your mind out from your body? Luis's father used to be able to do it." She paused. "If you had, you'd have known it. It's something you have to work at."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said. What did Luis's father do?"

"I'm not sure exactly," Helen said. "Luis didn't talk much about it. He seemed to take it for granted. The medicine men could do it whenever they wanted, I think, and some of the others too. The way Luis described it, the person has to will himself out of his body. It takes tremendous concentration."

Debbie's Comments:

Above (through Helen), Duncan is introducing readers to astral projection as something that a Navajo medicine man does. Laurie's bewilderment and responses further Duncan's depiction of Navajo's as mysterious. 

As the story continues, Helen and Laurie talk about astral projection, and Laurie tries to find out more information about her twin. Helen and Laurie grow closer, as friends. But then something happens to Helen. She falls, hits her head, and ends up in the hospital. It becomes clear that Lia is responsible for Helen's fall. That makes Helen the most recent person who Lia hurt out of jealousy. The turquoise eagle necklace plays a prominent role towards the end of the story. Megan (Laurie's little sister) throws it at Lia who has occupied Laurie's body. On contact, Lia is driven from Laurie's body and Laurie retakes control of her body. 

p. 97

Lia lived with their mother for a short time before she died. Laurie remembers asking Lia (who was visiting Laurie via astral projection) to tell her about their mother. Lia tells her that their mother never smiled because the world had been cruel to her. In her telling, Laurie says Lia creates "some sort of fairy tale from another place and time." Laurie can't recall Lia's precise words but remembers it this way:

There was once a young Navajo girl, Lia said, so lovely that all the men in her village wanted to wed her, and she was married at the age of thirteen to the son of the Chief. So, without having known girlhood, she settled down to being a wife. Then one day when she was seventeen, the same age we are now, a trader came through the village in a pickup truck buying turquoise and silver jewelry. He was handsome and fair-complexioned with hair the color of sunshine, and the girl took one look at him and fell violently in love. He asked her to come away with him. She told him that was impossible. But suddenly, when she realized that he was really leaving, she climbed into the cab beside him and rode away with him, leaving everything she owned behind in her husband's hogan. 

"I belong to you now," she told the trader. "I will love you and stay beside you until the day I die."

But the trader was a casual man who was used to willing girls and good times, and after several months with his Indian maiden he grew tired of her. 

"Go back to your people," he said. "That's where you belong."

"I can't," the girl told him. "My husband would never take me back. Besides, I am going to bear your child."

"That's your problem, not mine," said the trader.

She thought he was joking. But that night he did not come home to her. She sat for three days in their apartment, waiting, until finally she had to realize that he had left her. In the top drawer of his bureau she found an envelope with money in it and a note that told her to put the baby up for adoption. Enclosed was the address of the Hastings Agency.

The "baby" turned out to be twin girls with the trader's fine feathers. They had lighter skin than their mother's, but had inherited her hair and eyes. Obeying the instructions in the note, the young mother took them to the agency, but because they were of mixed blood they were classified as "hard to place." 

"Won't your family help you raise them?" the director, Mrs. Hastings, asked. "The Navajo people always take care of their own."

The girl explained that she could not return to the reservation with half-breed children.

"The people would drive me out," she said. "I am married to the son of the Chief."

Laurie's telling of the conversation with Lia continues, with Lia describing their mother's attempts to raise her alone. They lived in one low-cost apartment after another, and that their mother supported them by cleaning houses. Sometimes she'd take Lia to them. They were beautiful. At the end of the day, Lia and their mother would go back to their apartment, eat, and go to bed. She was miserable. She'd imagine the ocean, that their mother had seen when she went searching for the trader. Laurie asks when she had time to do that, and Lia told her that their mother would just lie still on the bed and "go." Laurie realizes that their mother also had the power to do astral projection. One place she looked for the trader was in California because Indian jewelry was in demand there. 

Debbie's Comments

In Lia's story to Laurie, we see outsider writing. Duncan has a Navajo character--Lia--speaking about their origin but she sounds like a white girl telling a European fairy tale. "There was once" as the opener kicks it off. It continues with notions of beauty making a Navajo person much-desired by others. And what the heck... Lia uses "Indian maiden"? That grates! And, being married at thirteen? Jean Craighead George did that, too, in Julie of the Wolves. 

White traders did go through Native communities, buying items they would later sell and it is reasonable to think that Lia and Laurie's mother fell in love with one but I don't know about her calling her own children "half breed" and I don't know if "the people" would reject her. Calling them "the people" also grates. She's talking about her own community. Again--this is supposed to be a Native voice, but it sure doesn't sound like one to me. I also wonder about "the Chief." The Diné (Navajo) people use "chairman" to refer to their leader. The word "chief" was used to refer to Manuelito but that was in the 1800s. Duncan's "chief" sounds more like the romanticized kind of thing that outsiders come up with. 

****

Summing up: I read the whole book more than once to do this write up and analysis of significant passages in the Stranger With My Face. I think I've done all I need to. I wish Duncan had not depicted Laurie and Lia as Navajo. It wasn't necessary for a horror story about twins and astral projection. In fact, when a film version of it was made in 2009, Laurie and her sister are not Navajo. Have you seen the film? Was there a necklace in it that saves Laurie in the end? Objects do have significance, within any peoples' spirituality or its religious ways of being, but in this book, something that *might* be significant to Navajo people sounds more like holy water to me. In so many ways, this book fails. It is fiction, and people will defend it being on shelves because of that. I hope my "not recommended" label encourages some librarians to reconsider it. 

NOT RECOMMENDED: "California Native American Tribes" series by Mary Null Boulé

If your library has a copy of one of the 26 books in the "California Native American Tribes" book series, get it off the shelf. Let's take a look at it. My hope is that you will see it ought to be weeded, immediately. 

The series is written by Mary Null Boulé. They came out in 1992, and were published by Merryant Publishers. 

The books are similar. They begin with a section of "General Information" that starts out with:

Out of Asia, many thousands of years ago, came Wanderers. Some historians think they were the first people to set foot on our western hemisphere. These Wanderers had walked, step by step, onto our part of the earth while hunting and gathering food. They probably never even knew they had moved from one continent to another as they made their way across a land bridge, a narrow strip of land between Siberia and what is now Russia, and the state of Alaska. 

Historians do not know exactly how long ago the Wanderers might have crossed the land bridge. Some of them say 35,000 years ago. ...

Those Wanderers who made their way to California were very lucky, indeed. California was a land with good weather most of the year and was filled with plenty of plant and animal foods for them to eat. 

Most people remember "the land bridge." But most people do not realize that it is a theory. Boulé gestures to it being a theory when she says "Some historians think..." but the rest of the paragraphs present that theory as if it is a fact. It is not a fact! 

Recently I was in the San Marcos, California area for a workshop. The main presenter was Nicole Myers-Lim, director of the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center in Santa Rosa, California. She began her remarks by saying that nearly every fourth grade textbook incorporates the Bering Strait Doctrine into its content on California Indian history. There are several other, more recent theories, about how humans came to exist on the continents known as North and South America. 

If you're a teacher or parent who has access to a history textbook being used right now in your school, take a look. How does it present that theory? 

As I page through the books in the California Native American Tribes series, I see text and sketches that make me cringe: 

Not only did the California tribes speak different languages, but their members also differed in size. Some tribes were very tall, almost six feet tall. The shortest people came from the Yuki tribe which had territory in what is now Mendocino County. They measured only about 5'2" tall. All Native Americans, regardless of size, had strong, straight black hair and dark brown eyes. 

That's just one example. Through and through, the text and illustrations feel like grotesque anthropology books that suggest Native people no longer exist. The Boulé books are riddled with past tense verbs. They look and feel like dioramas that museums, like the University of Michigan's Museum of Natural History, are abandoning. Here's an excerpt from the article:

What may have been once an effective means to portray how artifacts were used in context of early Native American civilization has become inexpedient, often evoking pejorative connotations, and sometimes fostering perceptions of Indians as “frozen in time,” said Amy Harris, director of the University of Michigan’s Exhibit Museum of Natural History. 

In early January, 14 dioramas at the museum will be taken from public viewing and placed in storage. Until then, Harris said the dioramas are a catalyst for a broader discussion about the role of museums, and the proper portrayal of Native Americans, the only people relegated to be “presented” in natural history museums. 

“We were concerned that we were leaving the impression that Native Americans are extinct, just like the dinosaurs on the second floor,” said Harris, who, since 2000 has met regularly with a range of constituents, including U-M faculty, students and Native Americans around the state. The goal was to gauge the effectiveness of exhibits. Harris soon found out the dioramas were offensive and perpetuated negative attitudes. 

Some of you may cringe, too, reading the paragraph from the Boulé book, but you might be saying 'well, that's what they thought back then' when the series came out in 1992.

I urge you to revisit that justification. Who is 'they' in that way of thinking? That justification suggests such things no longer happen. But the thing is, books with that sort of thing come out, today, in 2023. And I see the Boulé books on library lists of recommended books, today! If you're using them or recommending them, stop! They're completely unacceptable. The paragraphs from the University of Michigan's director can help you think more critically about books -- old or new -- that have a land bridge theory or frozen-in-the past depictions of Native people. 

Highly Recommended: FOREVER COUSINS written by Laurel Goodluck; illustrated by Jonathan Nelson

 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Forever Cousins

Written by Laurel Goodluck (Mandan, Hidatsa and Tsimshian member)

Illustrated by Jonathan Nelson (Diné)

Published by Charlesbridge

Publication Year: 2022

Reviewer: Debbie Reese

Status: Highly Recommended

****

As I turned the pages of Forever Cousins, I thought back to the early 1990s when we left Nambé's reservation to go to graduate school in Illinois. Our daughter was three years old. She and her cousins were in tears. The always-present playing options were about to change. 

When you start reading Forever Cousins, you'll meet Amanda and Kara and to a lesser degree, Forrest. You'll learn a lot about them. The two girls are together all the time. Sometimes they're doing things most kids in the U.S. do--like make jelly sandwiches--and sometimes they're doing something Native kids do, like dancing at a powwow. On the cover you see both girls have dolls. Those are quite special! They were made for them by their magúu (the author's note tells us that magúu is a Hidatsa word that means grandmother).

We learn that they live in a city and that Kara and her family are moving from the city to the Rez. They'll see each other in a year. A year! In subsequent pages we see the two, both feeling alone while doing the same activity. Amanda is at a powwow in the city (we see tall buildings in the background), holding her doll close as she sits on a folding chair. Kara is at a powwow on the Rez (we see low hills in the background). Her mom offers her some fry bread but she just hugs her doll and shakes her head.  

Throughout, Nelson's illustrations set the story very much in the present day. That's especially evident on the page where the two girls talk to each other using a video platform on their cell phones. Like anyone, we use all the forms of literacy and communication available to us! I like that but I also like the page where Amanda gets a post card from Kara. Finally it is time for Amanda and her family to hit the road! It'll take two days to get to the Rez. Nelson shows us their joy when they cross a state border. That made me smile. When we drove from Illinois to Nambé, we'd cheer just like that when we crossed from Texas into New Mexico! 

Amanda and her family arrive at the reunion, and after some initial shyness, the cousins have a great time and we see the families gathered while a new baby gets his Hidatsa name. It is then time to say their goodbye's. 

The story Goodluck and Nelson share in the pages of Forever Cousins is a joy to read and look at. Like the recent books by Native writers, it has an extensive Author's Note that provides teachers with information that helps them understand why Amanda and Kara and their families aren't on the reservation when the story starts. In her note, Goodluck says that the characters in her book represent her and her cousins growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in the Bay Area suburbs of California. She shares some background about her family and cousins and how the city and the Rez were both home and community. She says:

As a matter of fact, we are dual citizens: first enrolled members of sovereign Tribal Nations and then citizens of the United States. The term "sovereign nation" means a Tribal Nation that governs itself. If it is federally recognized, then it has a governmental relationship with the United States as a nation with a nation.

Those of you who know me probably guess that my heart is soaring as I read those sentences! Teachers: download Affirming Indigenous Sovereignty: A Civics Inquiry by Sarah B. Shear, Leilani Sabsazlian, and Lisa Brown Buchanan. It'll provide you with ideas on how you can incorporate tribal sovereignty into your classroom. 

In the portion of her note titled "From the Reservation to the City" she tells us that her parents moved from their reservation to the city because of the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. It was a federal program that was described as a way for Native people to move to cities and get vocational job training--but there was more to it than that. Goodluck writes:

In actuality, the federal government wanted to erase Native culture by moving Native people to cities so they would adapt to the lifestyles of white people. 

I am so glad to see that sentence in this book! This is the honesty that ought to be in every book! 

She goes on to say that her parents were able to get jobs in the city, but that the government promise of a job did not work for most tribal people. They endured discrimination and racism. I have uncles and aunts who moved to cities for jobs. Some got those jobs and stayed in those cities, others came back very soon. I suggest you read Indian No More because it, too, is about this relocation program. 

I'm sharing the final paragraph in the note because it is so very powerful:

The treatment of Native Americans in the United States was and sometimes still is despicable. But as with the family in this story and with my own family, unjust experiences forge tight bonds between us and make us strong. Our resiliency is rooted in our ceremonies and culture. We have a deep love of home. The land reminds us of our ancestors, storytelling helps us make good decisions, and we continue to have love and loyal family connections that are unbreakable.

Forever Cousins is tribally specific. Both, the author and illustrator, are Native. The story is set in the present day. It can--and should be--read year-round (not confined to a heritage month or day). It is getting a 'highly recommended' label from me, but my enthusiasm for the book is much more than a 'highly recommended' label conveys. With this story and the note, Goodluck and Nelson give teachers or parents information that they can carry with them when they close this book and choose another one that features Native people. They see us as people who live in a city or on a reservation. They can see us as people whose identities and lives as Native people are central to who we are, and who share the same sorts of joys and fears that kids of other cultures do, too. 

Forever Cousins is one of the best books I've read. I'm delighted to read it, to write about it, and to recommend it to everyone.

Milestones: Indigenous Peoples and Children's Literature

Indigenous Milestones in Children's Literature

Compiled by Debbie Reese (Nambé Owingeh) and Jean Mendoza (White)

American Indians in Children's Literature

In Milestones for Diversity in Children's Literature and Library Services (published in the fall 2015 issue of Children and Libraries) Kathleen T. Horning lays out significant developments in children's literature. In the article she makes the point that progress "is often measured by firsts--the first Newbery Medal given to an author of color" and so on. 

Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Owingeh) launched American Indians in Children's Literature in 2006 with the intent of sharing what she learned as she researched, analyzed, and wrote about representations of Indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books. In some places she has written about key moments that mark progress, but she has not gathered them together in a list of milestones--until now. 

With this post on July 21, 2021, American Indians in Children's Literature begins our effort to bring forth a list of milestones. It includes general milestones (like when the Newbery Medal was established) but its focus is on milestones of achievement--for Native peoples in children's literature. Its focus is on Indigenous Peoples of the Tribal Nations in what is currently known as the United States. Please submit comments about items that can be added, and corrections that need doing! Anything--by anyone--that attempts to list milestones is a work-in-progress. We find new things, and those milestones shift! What we share below is accurate to the best of our knowledge. When we learn that a milestone we've listed is not "a first" as we describe, we will make a correction. [Note: this post will be copy/pasted into a Page that you can see in the menu bar beneath AICL's logo. When updates are done, they will be made there rather than here.]

****

1881

"Nedawi"--a short story written by Susette LaFlesche (Omaha) is published in the children's magazine, St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks. For the author's name, the magazine used "Bright Eyes" -- an English translation of her Omaha name. It is the first Native-authored story to be published in that magazine.

1900

The Middle Five: Indian Boys at School by Francis LaFlesche (Omaha) is published by Small, Maynard & Company. The cover illustration was by Angel De Cora (Hōcąk Nīšoc Haci [commonly known as Ho-Chunk]). The original printing of the book is available online through Google Books. the book is an account of the author's life as a student in a Presbyterian mission school in Nebraska. On page 93, Robert is asked to read aloud from their reading lesson for the day. He reads "Come, come, come, the Summer now is here." That poem appears on page 17 of My Little Hymn Book published in 1850. For more on boarding schools run by the churches or the US government where the goal was to "kill the Indian, save the man" and to "civilize and Christianize" Native people, see AICL's list of recommended materials (children/YA books/college-level texts, websites, videos) on boarding and residential schools. The Middle Five was used at the Day School at Santa Clara Pueblo (day schools were part of the US government's boarding school system), in 1904. 

1902

Indian Boyhood by Charles Alexander Eastman (Dakota) is published by McClure, Philips & Co. Illustrated by E. L. Blumenschein (not Native). It is based on stories Eastman published in St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks in 1893.  Indian Boyhood was used at the Day School at Santa Clara Pueblo (day schools were part of the US government's boarding school system), in 1904. 

1922

The Newbery Medal is established by the American Library Association, with the intent of encouraging distinguished writing for children. 

*

TayTay's Tales, illustrated by Fred Kabotie (Hopi) and Otis Polelonema (Hopi) is published by Harcourt, Brace and Company. Written by Elizabeth Willis DeHuff (not Native), it is advertised in Volume 130 of The Atlantic Monthly. Kabotie became known around the world for his art. In the preface, DeHuff writes that "Taytay" means "grandfather." It is, in Debbie's view, a phonetic spelling for the Tewa word for grandfather and is the word she used when speaking to her Hopi grandfather. Some of the stories in the book are from the pueblos that speak Tewa; some are not. Also in the preface, DeHuff calls the stories "folktales" but we disagree with that label, when applied to origin or creation stories told by Native peoples. We have not analyzed the stories for authenticity. 

1936

Feast Day in Nambe is published by the Office of Indian Affairs, Department of Interior, with illustrations by students who attended Santa Fe Indian School, including Emilio Sanchez, Ben Quintana, Paul Lucardio, and Seferino Pino. It is the first in a series of primers for use with Native children. The Report of the Department of the Interior for 1936 states the primers were printed as student projects by the Haskell Institute and Chilocco printing department, that the selections were written by Native children (and were edited "only slightly"). 

School Days in San Juan is published by the Office of Indian Affairs, Department of Interior, with illustrations by students who attended Santa Fe Indian School: Jose Dolores Pecos, Tom Jay, Lorenzo Garcia, Margaret Naranjo, Clarence Gutierrez, Joe Aguilar, Marie Trujillo, Tomacita Vigil, and Ben Quintana. It is the fourth booklet in the primer series published at Haskell Institute. It includes writings by children at San Juan Pueblo (currently known as Ohkay Owingeh). 

*

Third Grade Home Geography is published by Tesuque Printers. Five children at Tesuque Pueblo's day school were the Tesuque Printers. Their teacher was Ann Nolan Clark. They made seven copies of the book in their classroom. The entries in Third Home Geography were written by Clark, based on the children's writings about their homes. Over the next years, Clark went on to do similar books for children at other U.S. boarding schools. Some of the books were also available in a tribal language. One example is Singing Sioux Cowboy / Lak'ota pte'ole hoksila lowansa, published in 1945. Written by Clark, it was translated by Emil Afraid-of-Hawk and illustrated by Andrew Standing Soldier. 

 

1937

The Caldecott Medal is established by the American Library Association, to recognize the most distinguished American picture book. 

1939

I Am A Pueblo Indian Girl a picture book written by E-Yeh-Shure (English name: Louise Abeita) of Isleta Pueblo was published by William Morrow and Company (founded in 1926 and now an imprint of HarperCollins). Illustration's were done by Allan C. Houser (Chiricahua Apache). E-Yeh-Shure was thirteen at the time of the book's publication. 

 

1942

Velino Herrera of Zia Pueblo, wins a Caldecott Honor for illustrations in In My Mother's House. It was first published as part of a series of readers for Native children. In that series, its title was Third Grade Home Geography (for more details see the entry for 1936). 

1954

Runner in the Sun: A Story of Indian Maize, written by D'Arcy McNickle (Flathead), illustrated by Allan C. Houser (Apache), is published by John C. Winston Company. It was listed in Anna Lee Stensland's Literature by and about the American Indian: An Annotated Bibliography for Junior and Senior High School Students, published in 1973 by the National Council of Teachers of English and we include it here as the first middle grade book published by a Native writer.

1966

Summer Water and Shirley by Durango Mendoza, Muscogee, takes the Mahan Short Fiction Award at University of Missouri, Columbia. It is the first work by a Native writer to win this award. Mendoza's story has appeared in anthologies used with high school students.

1972

Jimmy Yellow Hawk, written by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (Rosebud Sioux) and illustrated by Oren Lyons (Seneca) is published by Holiday House. Sneve's publication was the outcome of advocacy by the Council on Interracial Books for Children, founded in 1965 to promote literature that better reflected society. In 1969, the Council on Interracial Books for Children sponsored its first writing contest, designed to locate and encourage previously unpublished African American, Asian American, and Native American writers. Sneve was among the people CIBC selected. 

1977

Simon Ortiz (Acoma) and Sharol Graves's (Absentee Shawnee) epic history, The People Shall Continue, is published by Children's Book Press. It is the first use of the word "Nation" in a book for children. A 40th Anniversary edition was published by Lee and Low in 2017.

1981-1982

Acoma Partners in Basics, a writing workshop funded by VISTA (a federally funded program created in 1964, called Volunteers in Service to America) to develop materials for instructional use in tribal communities like Acoma Pueblo, publishes two booklets for children of Acoma: Simon Ortiz's Little Blue and Little Red (illustrated by Hilda Aragon) in 1981 and in 1982, The Importance of Childhood.  Unlike the primers written by Ann Nolan Clark in the 1930s, these books are written by a tribal member.  

1983

Homer Little Bird's Rabbit by Limana Kachel is published by the Montana Council for Indian Education. Illustrated by Northern Cheyenne children from Lame Deer School, and from Labre Indian School, it is the first children's picture book about boarding school. 

1989

W. W. Norton & Co. publishes New Worlds of Literature  (Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter, eds.) its first intentionally "multicultural" anthology of US literature. The Norton anthologies were/are widely used in literature survey courses, as they both reflected and (to an extent) determined the canon encountered by freshman and sophomore university students. New Worlds features work by several Native-identified writers, including Lance Henson (Cheyenne), Carter Revard (Osage), Louise Erdrich (Ojibway), Simon J. Ortiz (Acoma), Linda Hogan (Chickasaw), Wendy Rose (Hopi/Miwok), Paula Gunn Allen (Sioux-Laguna), Peter Blue Cloud (Mohawk), Ray A. Young Bear (Meskwaki), Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), Nora Dauenhauer (Tlingit), N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa), Durango Mendoza (Muscogee).

 

1999

The Birchbark House written and illustrated by Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain) is a finalist for the National Book Award. Set in 1847 on Lake Superior, it is followed by several books that chronicle the story of an Ojibwe family through decades of life as they grow older and adjust to Europeans who come onto their homelands. They are The Game of Silence, The Porcupine Year, Chickadee, and Makoons.

2001

Our Journey written by Lyz Jaakola (Ojibwe) and illustrated by Karen Savage-Blue (Ojibwe) is the first board book written and illustrated by Native people. A bilingual book, it is published by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

2006

The American Indian Library Association presents its first biennial American Indian Youth Literature Awards (AIYLA) at the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color. The awards honors the very best writing and illustration by Native Americans and Indigenous Peoples of North America in three categories. The inaugural award winning books are Beaver Steals Fire: A Salish Coyote Story in the Best Picture Book category; Birchbark House in the Best Middle Grade Book category, and Hidden Roots in theBest Young Adult Book category. 

2008

Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns by Richard Van Camp (Dogrib) is gifted to every baby born in British Columbia that year. It is the first mass distribution of a book by a Native writer. 

2012

Super Indian by Argon Starr (Kickapoo) is published. It is the first comic to be written and illustrated by a Native woman.

2018

The American Indian Library Association's Executive Board and its Youth Literature Award Committee rescinds the youth literature award it bestowed on Sherman Alexie in 2008 for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian due to allegations of sexual misconduct. It is the first time a children's literature award has been rescinded. Their statement reads, in part, 

"The books we select represent the very best for our kids and our communities. We believe that writers are members of our communities who we can look to as role models for our youth.  We cannot, therefore, recommend Mr. Alexie's books, and we have decided to rescind our 2008 Best YA Book Award for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. In rescinding this award, we hope to send an unequivocal message that Alexie's actions are unacceptable."

2019

Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek) appointed to be U.S. Poet Laureate. She is the first Native poet appointed to that honor, and was appointed again in 2020 and in 2021. 

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Debbie Reese (Nambé Owingeh) is selected to deliver the 2019 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture by the Association of Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. 

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HarperCollins launches Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint. It is led by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Creek) and Rosemary Brosnan (white). Its logo is designed by Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson (Inupiaq).

2020

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story written by Kevin Maillard (Seminole) is the first book by a Native writer to win the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal. 

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Marcie Rendon, citizen of the White Earth Nation, is the first Native writer to win the McKnight Distinguished Artist award. 

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When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry edited by Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek), is the first Norton anthology edited by a Native writer, and that contains only Native poets. 

2021

We Are Water Protectors illustrated by Michaela Goade (Tlingit) is the first book by a not-white woman to win the Caldecott Medal. Authored by Carole Lindstrom (Turtle Mountain) We Are Water Protectors is published by Roaring Book Press. Goade's acceptance speech is published in Horn Book on June 28, 2021 and is viewable at the ALA YouTube channel: 2021 Newbery-Caldecott-Legacy Virtual Banquet. 

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Apple (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth (Onondaga) is the first Native author to win a Michael L. Printz Honor. The Printz awards exemplify literary excellence in young adult literature. It was established in 2000. 

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Jo Jo Makoons: The Used-To-Be Best Friend written by Dawn Quigley (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) and illustrated by Tara Audibert is the first chapter book series for early readers. 

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Sharice's Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman, written by Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk) and Nancy K. Mays (non-Native) and illustrated by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley (Ojibwe) is the first picture book about one of the first Native women elected to the U.S. Congress.

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The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature,  is the first publication of an anthology of all-Navajo literature.  

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Healer of the Water Monster, written by Brian Young (Navajo) and illustrated by Shonto Begay (Navajo) is the first book for middle grade readers, written and illustrated by two people of the Navajo Nation. It is published by HarperCollins.

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Sisters of the Neversea, written by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee) and illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Muscogee), and published under the Heartdrum imprint of Harper Collins, is the first book written and illustrated by two people of the Muscogee Nation.

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Josie Dances, written by Denise Lajimodiere (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe) and illustrated by Angela Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe) is the first book written and illustrated by two people of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe Nation. 

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The first young adult hardcover to debut at the #1 spot on the New York Times best-selling books list is Angeline Boulley's (Ojibwe) Firekeeper's Daughter.