Coming up: Native American Month 2012

We're about a week away from the month that the President of the United States designates as Native American Month. Below are suggestions on how you might get your library ready for parents, teachers and students who come into your library looking for materials on American Indians.

In this post, you'll find links to ALA's READ posters that feature Sherman Alexie, author of THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN. You'll also find links to the Indigenous Languages Development Institute, where you can buy a wall clock with numerals in a Native language, and READ posters in Indigenous languages, available from the Tulsa American Indian Resources Center:

Creating a Library Atmosphere that Welcomes American Indians:
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2012/10/creating-library-atmosphere-that.html

In these posts, you'll find recommended books about American Indians, by age group:

Top Board Books
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2011/04/top-board-books-for-youngest-readers.html
Top Ten Books for Elementary School
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-ten-books-recommended-for.html
Top Ten Books for Middle School
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-ten-books-recommended-for-middle.html
Top Ten Books for High School
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-ten-books-recommended-for-high.html

If you want some guidance on how to help students do research on American Indians, using encyclopedias and websites, see

Resources for Projects on American Indians
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2007/03/resources-for-american-indian-research.html

If you're looking for books and materials about boarding schools for American Indians, here's some:

Boarding Schools for American Indians
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2008/02/as-more-resources-and-books-are.html

If you want guidelines on how to evaluate the content of a Native site, here's an excellent page about that:

Guidelines for Evaluating American Indian Web Sites
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~ecubbins/webcrit.html

And, if you want to develop your understandings of the ways that American Indians are not "multicultural" or "people of color", see:

We Are Not "People of Color"
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/p/we-are-not-people-of-color.html

If you're looking for a Question/Answer book about American Indians, this one by the National Museum of the American Indian is outstanding:

Do All Indians Live In Tipis?
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2007/10/do-all-indians-live-in-tipis.html

Did you know that "papoose" is not the American Indian word for baby?

Papoose?
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2008/02/papoose.html

Did you order Louise Erdrich's newest book in the Birchbark House series? If not, do it today! Chickadee is terrific!

Louise Erdrich's Chickadee

http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2012/08/louise-erdrichs-chickadee.html

I'll close with this:

Too many people think that American Indians died off, due to warfare and disease. When the emphasis in library displays is American Indians of the past, you inadvertently contribute to that idea. Librarians are a powerful group of people. You can help Americans be less-ignorant about American Indians.  

Research studies show that American Indian students drop out at exceedingly high rates. Scholars attribute this, in part, to their experience with curricular materials in school. Materials set in the past, materials that stereotype American Indians, and materials that are factually incorrect or highly biased against American Indians, cause Native students to disengage from school. Libraries can interrupt that disengagement, or, they can contribute to it...

As human beings, we love to see reflections of ourselves and our hometowns. They can a source of pride or a boost to the self-esteem. But---that is only true if they are accurate. Native people want that, too, but American society has a long way to go to get there. 

Libraries can get us there, but we'll need your help year-round, not just in November. I hope the resources I shared in this post will be ones that you spread out, all year long.

See also Creating a Library Atmosphere that welcomes American Indians

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.]

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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. 

*

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. 

*

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. 

*

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

*

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. 

*

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. 

*

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. 

*

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.

*

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

*

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.

*

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.

*

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. 

*

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. 

Alexie's YA Novel Nominated for National Book Award

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

~~~~

Sherman Alexie's outstanding YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, was nominated for a National Book Award in the category, Young People's Literature. The finalist list was released on Wednesday.

In that category, Louise Erdrich's Birchbark House was nominated in 1999.

I think the winner will be announced mid November...

Visit Alexie's website for reviews and info, and a link to an mp3 audio excerpt of the book. Yes, he is the reader of the audio book.

The photo I uploaded is from the press page of his website. Curious... the photo on the publisher's website is a reverse image of the same photo!

Update, Sunday, October 14th:

• Beverly Slapin's review of the book was posted here on Wed, April 15, 2007. Click here to read her review.
• I posted links to newspaper articles on September 16, 2007. Click here to go to the list.
• Roger Sutton, editor at Horn Book, reviewed the book in September. Read his review here.

With November approaching---the month that features and confines us (American Indians) as people of the past---Alexie's book will counter that misperception. Get your copies from Oyate.
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Jeff Berglund's response to "Desecrations and Desires: White Male Fantasy in Will Hobbs' BEARSTONE

Jeff Berglund, a friend and colleague at Northern Arizona University, wrote this essay in response to Jane Haladay’s essay, “Desecrations and Desires: White Male Fantasy in Will Hobbs’ Bearstone.” Jeff is an Associate Professor in the Department of English.

_________________________

Jeff Berglund's Response to Jane Haladay’s essay, “Desecrations and Desires: White Male Fantasy in Will Hobbs’ Bearstone"

I bring in young adult novels in all of my Native literature courses, particularly because many of my students are English Education majors, but also because it recalls for students so many of the previous renderings of Native peoples and cultures in books they read in junior high and high school, books like Bearstone, Touching Spirit Bear, Sign of the Beaver, Sing Down the Moon, and so forth.

Thanks, Jane, for doing (and recording) the real-world sort of work many of us are called to in our local communities. What I like about Jane's work is that it provides a model to all of us of how we might engage in these debates *and* set the terms of our participation.

So many teachers have basic questions and limited time and resources for doing ground-up investigations on their own. I ask my college students to consider donating copies of Birchbark House and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian so I can donate, on their behalf, reading sets (5-7 books) to schools. In paperback, these books are between $7-10 and give back barely $1-2 in sellback at the bookstore, so many students are willing to donate these.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of guest-lecturing in Jennifer Denetdale's graduate course at Dine College for Dine' educators. In the group of 15 students, all of whom are practicing teachers, not one, as a child, had read a book about the Navajo Long Walk. Two had seen the recent books by Dine' writers, but all were eager to find more. That's not surprising. What is surprising is that everyone had lots of basic questions: how do we figure out what books are the best quality? How can we trust authors to tell us the truth? Of course, Jennifer and I referred them to Debbie's blog, to Oyate, and we then proceeded to look at a number of books with evaluative criteria, such as those listed below in order to remind everyone that we all have to engage in the evaluative/comparative process of critical reading:

Questions to Consider When Purchasing New Books:

1. Does the author have a connection to Native peoples, communities, or is the author a member of a tribal culture? What stake does the writer have in the lives of indigenous children?
   
2. When was this book written? Does the author reflect his or her own time period and contemporary thinking about cultural and ethnic diversity?
3. Whose story is being told? Do the centering principles of the story reflect the diversity and complexity of this culture and honor this culture’s principles as a means of understanding history or traditions?
4. Are Native people represented as fully human—full of joy, wonder, wisdom, beauty, sorrow, pain, pleasure? Or, are they rendered as anthropological subjects, distanced from the contemporary world or assumed to be separate from all implied readers?
5. If different viewpoints could be represented, do the authors or illustrators make efforts to include these different ideas?
6. If stories are retellings of traditional narratives, is there information about how the author has come to the source information or come into a position to represent such information?

These are starting points that lead to pretty involved discussions.

[Note from Debbie: See my review of Jennifer Denetdale's nonfiction book on the Long Walk.]

Christians and Indians: Comenius and Alexie

Over on the email discussion list for YALSA-BK (an ALA listserv for people who work with young adult literature), there is a discussion going on about Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Specifically, the discussion is about Alexie's inclusion of masturbation. I gather that librarians in Christian-based schools are considering not ordering the book. Most of the discussion suggests that the librarians in those schools should let kids make their own decisions. Masturbation is a very real part of teen life.

I don't think it is a Christian versus American Indian situation. I do think we're past that.

There was a time, though, way back when (and maybe not so way-back), Christians called us pagans and heathens with no morals... Take, for example, Orbis Pictus.



Back in 1657, John Amos Comenius wrote Orbis Pictus, an encyclopedic picture book for children that is now commonly identified as the first picture book for children. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) established a nonfiction book award, and named it the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children.

Comenius was, according to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, a Czech educational reformer, a Protestant minister.

In his book, Comenius includes a section about religion. Therein he says

The Indians, 10. even at this day, worship the Devil, 11.

The numeral 10 refers to the illustration, shown here, that accompanies this section. It corresponds to a figure meant to be an Indian. Likewise, the numeral 11 corresponds to a figure meant to be the Devil.

The illustration of the Gentiles is in two parts. The larger of the two is an indoor setting. It looks like a gallery of statues, each one in its own arched enclosure. The smaller illustration is set outside. I draw your eye to the figures on the right side of the smaller illustration. To the building with a shingled, pitched roof, in front of which sits the devil. The Indian is on his knees in front of the devil. The devil's right arm is raised over the Indians head, and its left arm is touching the Indians shoulder.

Here, in Comenius's words is the text that begins on page 185 of the book published in 1887 (viewed at Amazon using the "search inside" option):

Hence are divers Religions
whereof IV. are reckoned
yet as the chief.

Gentilism.

The Gentiles feigned
to themselves near upon
XIIM. Deities.

The chief of them were

Jupiter, 1. President, and
petty-God of Heaven;

Neptune, 2. of the Sea;

Pluto, 3. of Hell;

Mars, 4. of War;

Apollo, 5. of Arts;

Mercury, 6. of Thieves,
Merchants,
and Eloquence;

Vulcan, (Mulciber)
of Fire and Smiths;

Aeolus, of Winds;

and the most obscene of
all the rest, Priapus.

They had also
Womanly Deities:
such as were Venus, 7.
the Goddess of Loves,
and Pleasures, with
her little son Cupid, 8.

Minerva (Pallas), with
the nine Muses of Arts;

Juno, of Riches and Wed-
dings; Vesta, of Chastity;

Ceres, of Corn;

Diana, of Hunting,
and Fortune;

and besides these Morbona,
and Febris her self.

The Egyptians,
instead of God
worshipped all sorts
of Beasts and Plants,
and whatsoever they saw
first in the morning.

The Philistines offered
to Moloch, 9. their Children
to be burnt alive,

The Indians, 10. even to
this day, worship the
Devil, 11.

I said, above in parens, "maybe not so way-back" because there are still plenty of Christian missionaries out there, moving amongst Native people on the reservations, trying to get them to church.

When I was in first grade, I think, I went to catechism, memorized prayers, and made my "First Holy Communion." Course, in the summer, we'd all pile into the very cool VW bug and bus driven by the Baptist folks who took us to summer day camp. I don't recall it being called Bible School, but that is what it was. I loved it. I don't recall learning prayers or teachings from the Bible. What I loved was the crafts we did. Those plaster of paris items that we'd paint... Were they of Jesus? Mary? I don't recall. It was the activity itself that I remember. I had a good time. In contrast, I hated catechism. I really liked the watch I got as a present when I did the "First Holy Communion." It was a Cinderella watch, sold on a ceramic Cinderella figurine. That figurine, and those plaster casts.... I can almost feel their cool smooth surfaces. But am I a Christian? No.

This post is a bit meandering... What is swimming through my thoughts are Christian perceptions of what is good, what is right. In Alexie's book, fear of sex. In Comenius and in my childhood, a perceived need to Christianize us, to stop our ways of worship.

As someone who studies and writes about images of Indians in children's books, Comenius is an important work to note and think about. If his book is the first book for children, then his image of an Indian is the first non-Native produced image of an Indian in a book for children. As such it stands as a book-end of sorts that I will be thinking of as I continue my research.
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Alexie on Charlie Rose, 1998

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

Knowing teachers spend a fair amount of time developing background to teach certain novels, I'm providing this interview of Sherman Alexie. He was on Charlie Rose, 1998, talking about his then-released film SMOKE SIGNALS. If you're going to teach Alexie's book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, you may consider viewing SMOKE SIGNALS, too. Preview it first, though. Make sure it will fare well in your school's video policy.

Thumbs up to some titles on CBC Diversity's Goodreads Bookshelf

Update on Sep 30 2023: I (Debbie Reese) no longer recommend Bruchac's work. For details see Is Joseph Bruchac truly Abenaki? As you read through this post you will see I have struck thru references to Bruchac.

A few days ago, I gave a thumbs down to some titles on CBC Diversity's Goodreads Bookshelf. Today, I want to give a thumbs up to the inclusion of Native authors whose books are on CBC list:

The Christmas Coat: Memories of My Sioux Childhood by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
The Porcupine Year by Louise Erdrich
Chickadee by Louise Erdrich
The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich
Bearwalker by Joseph Bruchac
Wolf Mark by Joseph Bruchac
Squanto's Journey by Joseph Bruchac (Update, 10/26/1028: I do not recommend Squanto's Journey.)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Update, 10/26/1028: I do not recommend Alexie's books.)

Update: February 4, 2013 

Returning to the post above to do a more complete observation of the CBC Diversity's "native-american-inuit" bookshelf:

Lakota author/artist S.D. Nelson is on the list. He's done several books. I really like his Greet the Dawn the Lakota Way. I'm not as keen on his Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story.

I'm glad to see Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky on the list. It is a book of poems, edited by Timothy P. McLaughlin and illustrated by S.D. Nelson. McLaughlin is not Native. He's worked extensively with students at Santa Fe Indian School, taking them to national competitions.

Thomas M. Yeahpau's book, X-Indian Chronicles: The Book of Mausape, is on the list, too. I have to read that one again. It set me back on my heels when I read it the year it came out.

The list has several books on it by Linda Little Wolf. I have never come across her name or her books before. Under "Accomplishments" at the Author's Den website, info provided says that she is of Cherokee and Lakota Sioux heritage. It doesn't say she's enrolled in either one. It says she's one of the foremost educators and speakers on Plains Indians, so her name ought to be familiar to me, either through gatherings of Native writers, or writings by Native literary critics, but I don't know who she is. I'll see what I can learn.

Moving on to writers who are not Native, I'm really pleased to see Debby Dahl Edwardson's My Name Is Not Easy on the list. It wasn't there before (I made a pdf of the bookshelf back in January), and it being there now tells us the list is in development. That's terrific. Debby is married to an Inupiat man and they've got several children. I spent time with Debby and her daughter in Anchorage, in August of 2012. It is one of my cherished memories.

K.V. Flynn's ON THE MOVE

There's a lot to like about K.V. Flynn's On The Move. As far as I know, Flynn is not Native. His main character, Callum, isn't Native either, but a Native kid named Obbie figures prominently in this middle grade story set in California. He's not the sidekick who will be the first to die. He's the real deal. That is, a Native kid who is grounded in his identity as a Native kid. It is a natural part of who he is--which is, one of several boys who hang out together. They are skateboarders.

In the first three chapters, we learn that Obbie is Native and that he spends his summers on the reservation with his dad. This is done quite naturally. We learn it through the boy's conversations.

In chapter four, we get a closer look at his Native identity. By that, I mean that we see how he thinks about sovereignty. The group of boys are on their way to skate. They're talking about school, in particular, Obbie's essay for English. Mateo says (Note: I'm reading an ebook; no page numbers):

"You cannot use The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian for Kroos's final, Obbie." Mateo was sure that Ob was about to make a critical error and not make it out of eighth grade English alive. "Your book has to be set entirely outside the U.S."

Obbie replies that his book is set on the reservation (he says "rez", which is fine). The boys try to tell him that the reservation is by Spokane, in the state of Washington, and therefore, the book can't be eligible for the essay. Obbie says:

"But it's on the reservation," Obbie explained with his last bit of patience. "That's a sovereign nation."

The boys tell him it doesn't matter, because it is still in the U.S. Obbie replies:

"You guys laugh all you want. But I'm telling Miss Kroos an Indian rez is not America, and that's the book I read." 

Though Obbie was out of patience, it is a friendly exchange (these guys like each other a lot) that is told as a flashback in Callum's memory. Let me back up.

The book itself opens with Callum, Levi, and Apollo at a skateboard camp, shortly after the school year has ended. They've said their good-bye's to Obbie and Mateo. Out of the blue, the United States is attacked. Major cities are bombed. The boys at camp worry about their parents, and, they worry about Obbie and Mateo, too. Did Obbie make it to the reservation? Most of the story is about the kids and their efforts to be reunited with friends and family.

I gotta say that all the skate talk flew right over my head. There's a lot of it and I'm sure it'll be a hook for kids who spend hours on skateboards, trying this or that ramp or trick. The obvious hook for me is Obbie, but I like intriguing stories where teens deal with catastrophic events (like Matt de la Pena's The Living), and stories where science and technology are woven into the plot.

I like Obbie and I like how Flynn has developed and presented him. He doesn't talk much about the reservation during the school year. It is boring there, he says. I've heard plenty of kids at home (on our reservation) say that, too. Obbie pretty much has to go up there to see the Native side of his family (his mom isn't Native) because they don't go down to California much. From Flynn's website, I learned that this is the first of three books about these boys. I'm wondering if we'll learn more about Obbie's parents. How did his Native dad and his white mom meet? What caused them to split up?

But...  Back to the story in On The Move...

The boys desperately want to communicate with parents and friends using their cell phones and computers (when they can find one) but the bombs have destroyed a lot of the infrastructure that makes that communication reliable. Connections are fleeting and old school (they learn what dial-up is and how to use it) but good enough for them to learn that Obbie is with his cousin, Suri. They are fine. The four boys make a plan to meet up and head north together. Most everyone that survived the bombings, they learn, is headed north.

Callum, Levi, and Apollo head north on their skateboards. When they meet up with Suri (she has a truck) and Obbie, they pile into the truck and keep going north. Before long they come to checkpoint of sorts, set up by some bandits. They ask Suri what she's doing with this bunch of kids, and she says that she and Obbie are Yakama and headed to the Yakama Reservation to join their family, and that they found the kids and are keeping them safe. One of the bandits, it turns out, is Native, too. He's told to "get rid of them." Callum thinks that means its all over, but he lets them go instead, keeping their money.

They jump back into the truck, turn around, and find another route, again, heading north.

They get lot of help at places where people are seeking refuge. At one place, a guy is showing Suri a safe route on a map. She says:

"D'you mean here, by the Pyramid Lake Reservation?"

It is a small thing, but a meaningful one. It is one of many moments where a reference to Native people or culture is just dropped in, seamlessly. The map above/right shows the location of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe in Nevada and the Yakama Reservation in Washington.

At one point as they drive, Mateo asks Obbie if his family has "teepees and stuff" on the reservation. Obbie says

"Nah, that was a hundred years ago. They have houses and cars. A school. Normal stuff." 

Callum asks why Obbie's family moved there. Obbie replies:

"They're from there! We were always there. Our tribe is native around that area, they say. Oregon, Washington, those parts. What, d'ya think Lewis and Clark actually discovered some place empty?"

There's more in that conversation, with Obbie telling the boys about his family. Callum laughs about how one-sided history is taught, and Mateo wonders if there had been Indians in area they're passing through. Obbie says:

"Yeah, until the gold rush. Then all those miners came. Brought measles and smallpox galore. I think, like, ninety percent of Native people around here died."

Obbie goes on:

"The rest were captured by the Californios. Used as slaves and stuff. Especially the little kids. The new miners thought the Native Americans were competition, and they were so frantic for all this gold, that the settlers brought a lot of violence, too. Raided the villages. Sold the women. Seriously bad news."

Obbie knows a lot of history and doesn't hesitate to share it. This is more than the one or two lines that Lynn drops in, seamlessly, but it works, too. There's more, too, when they get to a town with a community college. Suri and Obbie head over to it, thinking that the Native American students there, in the First Nations Student Union, would have information about their reservation.

When On the Move draws to a close, the kids are reunited with their families. I should note that there's a bit of a mystery throughout having to do with one friend who dies early in the story. I'll leave that alone, so as not to divulge everything that happens in this story.

In short, I liked Flynn's On the Move. Published in 2014 by Wynnpix Productions, I think there's plenty in it for Native and non-Native kids to grab on to, and I look forward to more from Flynn.

NATIVE WRITERS: VOICES OF POWER, by Kim Sigafus and Lyle Ernst

Editors note on Oct 2, 2018: This volume includes Joseph Boyden, a writer whose claim to Native identity has been challenged. When that news broke, I wrote about it at Dear Teachers: Do you teach Joseph Boyden's THREE DAY ROAD?  It also includes Sherman Alexie, who has been accused of inappropriate behaviors that led the American Indian Library Association to withdraw its award to him for his ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN. For information, see An Open Letter about Sherman Alexie. 

_____

Native Writers: Voices of Power by Kim Sagafus and Lyle Ernest is part of the Native Trailblazers Series published by 7th Generation Native Voices. Here's the cover:

And here's an excerpt from the Introduction that I do not remember seeing before in a book meant for young readers:

There have been entirely too many falsehoods and myths written about the Native people of the United States and Canada. The depiction of Native people depends entirely on the writer's perspective. For example, a 1704 French and Indian raid on colonial settlers in the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts, was described as a massacre, whereas the annihilation of a village of sleeping Cheyenne Indians in 1864 was celebrated as a victory over "hostiles." Both are examples of the European American historical perspective, which has also been prevalent in movies, making Hollywood one of the biggest sources of distorted facts and stereotypes about Indians.

Teachers and librarians who use this book to do author studies... make sure you spend time with that intro! If you're into contests, challenges, or research investigations, you might ask students to look for examples of biased language.

Those of you familiar with Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie will recognize their photos on the cover. There is a chapter for both of them. I'm sure you've got their books, but you ought to have books by the other others, too. They are:

Joseph Boyden, Ojibwe (see editors note at the top of this page)

N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa and Cherokee

Marilyn Dumont, Cree and Metis

Tomson Highway, Cree

Joseph Bruchac, Abenaki

Maria Campbell, Metis

Nicola Campbell, Interior Salish of Nle7Kepmx and Msilx/Metis

Tim Tingle, Choctaw

For each author, there's several pages of biographical information, followed by a list of "Selected Works" and Awards. The works range from children's books to those for adult readers, but the audience isn't included, so you'll want to make sure you do a bit of research before ordering to make sure the book will work for your classroom or library. Though Native Writers is what is called "a slim volume" (just over 90 pages), it is packed with info. I highly recommend it, but don't assume it is complete...  To the authors it includes, I'd add Cynthia Leitich Smith and Richard Van Camp. Both are at the very top of my lists.

Order it directly from 7th Generation.

2010: Best Books Recommended for High School

If I was starting a library in a high school, these are the first ten books I'd buy.  In reading these books, students would be reading stories Native writers create about Native people and places.  The books I list here include fiction, historical fiction, poetry, short stories, and, prose.

Update on Feb 24, 2018: I am doing a strike-thru on Alexie's book. Given the news reports about harassment, I no longer recommend his book. When news stories break, I will be back to post the links here.

• Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
• Broker, Ignatia. Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway Narrative
• Carlson, Lori Marie (ed.). Moccasin Thunder: American Indian Stories for Today
• Deloria, Ella C. Waterlily
• Kenny, Maurice (ed.). Stories for a Winter's Night: Fiction by Native American Writers
• King, Thomas. One Good Story, That One
• Ortiz, Simon J. Men on the Moon: Collected Short Stories
• Tapahonso, Luci. Blue Horses Rush In: Poems and Stories
• Taylor, Drew Hayden. The Night Wanderer
• Van Camp, Richard. The Lesser Blessed

For annotations, see my Native Voices article in School Library Journal.

See also:
Top Ten Books for Middle School
Top Ten Books for Elementary School

Download a pdf with all three lists:
Selecting Children's and Young Adult Literature about American Indians

Brianne Grant's thesis on Education in YA Lit

Back on July 9th, 2007, I blogged about Brianne Grant's article "Opening the Cache of Canadian Secrets: The Residential School Experience in Books for Children."

Today, I point you to Grant's thesis: Where Hope Lives: An Examination of the Relationship Between Protagonists and Education Systems in Contemporary Native North American Young Adult Fiction.

She considers educational systems as portrayed in four novels:

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
• The Porcupine Year, by Louise Erdrich
• Good for Nothing, by Michel Noel
• No Time to Say Goodbye: Children's Stories of Kuper Island Residential School, by Sylvia Olsen, written with Rita Morris and Ann Sam

I'm partway through it (gotta stop and do some writing of my own) and look forward to sitting down with it when I have more time. Her thesis may prove perfect for my History of American Indian Education course next spring.

Presentation of American Indian Library Association Youth Lit Award

If you're attending the American Library Association's Annual Conference this summer (June 26-July) in Anaheim, get a ticket for the American Indian Library Association's Youth Literature Award presentation. It'll be on Monday, June 30, 5:30 to 7:00. Tickets are $25.

Accepting awards there will be:

Joseph Medicine Crow, for Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond

Sherman Alexie, for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Tim Tingle and Jeanne Rorex Bridge, for Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom

To order tickets, send a check or money order made out to:

Lisa Mitten
32 Stewart Street
New Britain CT 06053

Research Study on Effects of Subtle Discrimination

Yesterday, a comment was submitted to "Jan Brett and Sherman Alexie" posted here on December 31, 2007. In that post, I compared Brett's The Three Snow Bears to Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Both were on the New York Times best seller list. Brett's book objectifies and dehumanizes American Indians; Alexie's book does not. In his book, readers come to know the life of a Native teen, with its ups and downs, its richness and its hardships. Beautiful, brutual, honest.

Teresa (the person who submitted the comment yesterday) did not like the critique of Brett's book. Here's what she said:

You mention, "in The Three Snow Bears, we have another book in which an author/illustrator puts Native clothing on animals, effectively de-humanizing American Indians." Animals and cartoon characters are constantly pictured in clothing worn by Americans of all races. I don't feel dehumanized by animals in children's books wearing jeans and t-shirts. Nor do I think you would even blink if you saw a book in which animals were dressed in traditional European, African, or Asian clothing. I'm a big fan of Sherman Alexie's books and also of Jan Brett's beautiful illustrations. Your over-sensitivity loses me here.

Her comments reflect how difficult it is to recognize subtle forms of racism. I hasten to say that I don't think Teresa is racist. She is not able to see what I am trying to help her see, but that does not mean she is racist.

This morning in ScienceDaily I read an article about a study on subtle discrimination that may help understand why it is hard for some to see problematic depictions of American Indians as inappropriate or hurtful. The article is called "Racism's Cognitive Toll: Subtle Discrimination is More Taxing on the Brain." It summarizes research done by Jessica Salvatore and J. Nicole Shelton, two psychologists at Princeton. Here's a couple of key excerpts:

The problem is that we have limited cognitive resources, so when we are solving one problem, we have difficulty focusing on another at the same time. Some psychologists reason from this that subtle racism might actually be more, not less, damaging than the plain antipathy of yesterday, sapping more mental energy. Old-fashioned racism--a "No Negroes Allowed" sign, for example--is hateful and hurtful, but it's not vague or confusing. It doesn't require much cognitive work to get it. But if you're the most qualified candidate for a job, and know it, and still don't get the job for some undisclosed reason--that demands some processing.

That last line, about being qualified for a job, points to the research study itself. Participants in the study were either black or white. The researchers created a situation in which participants observed fair and unfair hiring decisions and then took the Stroop test that tests capacity for mental effort. Salvatore and Shelton's research question was to see if experiencing subtle racism interfered with mental capacity:

It did, at least for blacks, and more than the overt racism did. As reported in the September issue of Psychological Science, black volunteers who had witnessed unfair but ambiguous hiring decisions did much less well on the Stroop test, suggesting that they were using all their mental resources to make sense of the unfairness.

Interestingly, white volunteers were more impaired by overt racism than by the more ambiguous discrimination. Salvatore and Shelton figure this is because whites rarely experience any racism; they do not even notice the subtle forms of racism, and are thrown off balance when they are hit over the head by overt acts. Many blacks, by contrast, have developed coping strategies for the most hateful kinds of racism; it's the constant, vague, just-below-the-surface acts of racism that impair performance, day in and day out.

So. Let's go back to Teresa's comment, and let's think about children in classrooms, observing racism in books, classroom materials, etc.

Teresa can't see the problems in Jan Brett's book. It takes work to subtle forms of racism. Again, this is not an attack on Teresa. Her comments are representative of a lot of people (I'd say the majority of people) who resist critiques like those found on this site.

Racism, whether it is overt or subtle, is costing us in ways we may not realize. Research studies like the one by Salvatore and Shelton may help us revisit and rethink our views about books like The Three Snow Bears.

What does this mean for the classroom?

A lot of people argue that we should teach books like Little House on the Prairie because it allows us to talk about attitudes people had "at that time." I think that is a good use of the book, but only with students who are much older. I suggest that book be read in high school and college, not elementary school. And I will also note that the majority of lesson plans on LHOP do not address the racist attitudes in the book.

I do wonder, though, if upon the conclusion of a discussion of LHOP, the Stroop test were given, how the students would fare?

UPDATE, MARCH 31, 2009 - 4:30 CST
Mitali Perkins has an article about race in the April issue of School Library Journal. Anticipating push-back on her article, she blogged about it today, referencing my post. If her article is accessible online, I'll link to it here.

Sherman Alexie on THE SNOWY DAY

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

~~~~

Earlier this year, in "I come to school for this class," I wrote about a terrific project in Arizona through which students at Westwood High School in Mesa, Arizona read literature by American Indian writers. The project was developed by James Blasingame and Simon Ortiz at Arizona State University.

I was pleased to see more about the project in "The Answer Sheet" --- a blog in the Education section of the Washington Post. Blasingame was their guest blogger. His wide ranging "An unusual introduction to Native American YA lit" touches on the writing of Joseph Bruchac and Sherman Alexie.

In his post, Jim points to one of his articles published in the Winter 2008 volume of The ALAN Review. Titled "From Wellpinit to Reardan: Sherman Alexie's Journey to the National Book Award, the article includes a lot of extensive quotes from Alexie. Here's one:

I have a vivid memory of when I was six years old and pulled The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats, off the shelf in the elementary school library. On the cover was a dark boy in a red coat out in the snow. I instantly figured he was Indian, he wasn't, but I thought he was. I connected to that main character almost instantly in a lot of ways.

Alexie won the National Book Award for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. There's a lot in the book that I really like because I connect with the character, the setting, the experiences...  It is real and brutally honest. In one sense, I find it a bit too real, and I wonder if it didn't need to be quite that way...  I'm thinking of his character's use of "faggot." I hear kids back home at Nambe toss that word around and I look at the young boys and wonder how that feels to those who may be gay?

Anyway, I am glad to learn that Alexie identified with the little boy in The Snowy Day and that he shared that memory with Jim. At the start of each semester, I ask students to bring in a book they remember. Tomorrow, I'll let them know about Alexie and his memory of The Snowy Day.

2008 Children's Literature Association Conference

I spent the last couple of days at the 2008 Children's Literature Association (ChLA) Conference. I met many people (professors) with whom I've had email with over the last ten or so years. Among them are Michael Joseph, Tammy Mielke, Kara Keeling, and June Cummins. A lot of people there read this blog and encourage their students to read it, too. It was terrific, too, to meet Tom Crisp, a student in Teacher Education at Michigan State, and talk with Ben Smallwood, at Illinois State.

There were several presentations on Sherman Alexie's YA novel, and one on Bruchac's Dark Pond and Skeleton Man. Ben Smallwood talked about Tim Tingle's books. All were thoughtful papers, not romanticizing the writers or their books, but posing good questions. I am intrigued by Adrienne Kertzer's challenge over whether or not the illustrations in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian support the text, and will return to the book to consider her challenge.

In my presentation, I talked about three books I've written about on this blog (McDermott's Arrow to the Sun, Pollock's Turkey Girl, and Rodanas Dragonfly's Tale,) none of which I recommend.

Conferences are time well-spent. Meeting people, hearing others thoughts in person. Next year's conference is in Charlotte, North Carolina. A special thanks to Linnea Hendrickson for encouraging me to attend ChLA.

Books by and about American Indians: 2007

According to the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin...

In 2007, approximately 5000 children's books were published. CCBC received approximately 3000 books for review. Here are stats:

Forty-four of the 3000 books they received were about American Indians. Of those 44, 6 were written by Native authors. Looking at stats they compile by year:


Year---Number of bks---About Amer Ind---By Native writer
2002--------3,150--------------------64-----------------------6---------------
2003--------3,200--------------------95----------------------11--------------
2004--------2,800--------------------33-----------------------7--------------
2005--------2,800--------------------34-----------------------4--------------
2006--------3,000--------------------41----------------------14-------------
2007--------3,000--------------------44-----------------------6--------------

If you go here you can see stats I laid out above, and stats for other groups, too: African/African Americans, Asian Pacific/Asian Pacific Americans, and Latinos.

One of the publications you can get from CCBC is CCBC Choices. You get it by becoming a Friend of the CCBC. In the 2007 essay (included in the 2007 CCBC Choices) is this:

These statistics represent only quantity, not quality or authenticity. Additionally, a significant number—well over half—of the books about each broad racial/ethnic grouping are formulaic books offering profiles of various countries around the world.

The statistics, of course, tell only one part of the story. Throughout the year, it wasn’t the numbers but individual books that made a profound impact on us— compelling, vivid works that represent some of the finest creative output of authors and artists in 2007: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie...

As readers of this blog know, I've written about Alexie's book several times. It's a huge hit and is being used in literature classes across the country, from high schools to universities.