Native Americans in children's literature
Encyclopedia
Native Americans
have been featured in numerous volumes of children's literature
. Some have been authored by non-indigenous writers, while others have been written or contributed to by native authors.
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
, and some are award winners, such as The Matchlock Gun
by Walter D. Edmonds
. These classics, however, contain images of American Indians that are biased, stereotypical, and inaccurate (Reese, 2008).
Numerous studies report the predominance of positive and negative stereotypes and the pervasive tendency to present a monolithic image of American Indians that is largely inaccurate. The majority of the books were written and illustrated by authors who are not themselves Native American, and studies of the ways they portray American Indians indicate they mirror popular culture more than history or reality of any Native tribal nation or group (Caldwell-Wood & Mitten, 1991; Dorris, 1982; Flaste, 1982; Hirschfelder, 1993; MacCann, 1993; Reese 2001; Slapin and Seale, 1982).
Author and illustrator Paul Goble
(and the adopted son of Chief Edgar Red Cloud) has written dozens of children's books that retell ancient stories. His book The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
won the Caldecott Medal
in 1979. Lakota scholar Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Cook-Lynn, 1998) and Lakota librarian Doris Seale find his retellings inaccurate. Displeasure in them led the American Indian Library Association to ask the American Library Association to withdraw "Native American Month" posters and bookmarks with his art on them in 2007. ALA complied with the request, signaling the respect accorded to scholars and practitioners who work with Native populations.
American Indian illustrators, too, sought to counter these stereotypical images. During the 1940s, the United States. Bureau of Indian Affairs
published a series of bilingual readers known as the “Indian Life Readers,” for use in the U.S. Government Boarding and Day Schools. Most of the books were written by non-Native author Ann Nolan Clark
, but illustrated by Native artists from the tribe the reader was about. For example, Hoke Denetosisie said:
"The nature of the series, being concerned with Navajo
life, called for illustration genuine in every sense of the word. I had to observe and incorporate in pictures those characteristics which serve to distinguish the Navajo from other tribes. Further, the setting . . . had to change to express local changes as the family moved from place to place. The domestic animals . . . had to be shown in a proper setting just as one sees them on the reservation. The sheep could not be shown grazing in a pasture, nor the horses in a stable, because such things are not Navajo." (Bader, 1976, p. 162)
One of the readers, initially called Third Grade Home Geography, was published by a mainstream press in 1941, retitled In My Mother’s House. It is about life in Tesuque Pueblo, and it is illustrated by Pueblo artist Velino Herrera
.
In the 1950s, other Native people wrote books for children. D’Arcy McNickle’s historical novel, Runner in the Sun, was published in 1954. It is about a teenager being trained to lead his people. McNickle was Chippewa Cree
. Pablita Velarde of Santa Clara Pueblo retold and illustrated stories told to her by her grandfather in Old Father, the Storyteller, published in 1960. She is also a world renowned artist.
During the 1970s, the American Indian Historical Society published a magazine for children titled The Wee Wish Tree. In it were short stories, poems, and essays written by American Indians, many of them children. Also during that time, the Council on Interracial Books for Children was instrumental in publishing the work of Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
, a Rosebud Sioux
. She wrote High Elks Treasure in 1972, When Thunders Spoke in 1974, and The Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman in 1975. Sneve was awarded the National Humanities Medal
in 2000.
Simon Ortiz’s prose poem The People Shall Continue was published in 1977. It covers the history of American Indians from creation to the present day, but also includes content omitted or glossed over in other narratives about the settlement of the United States. Ortiz includes the forced removal of Native peoples from their homelands, the brutal periods of early government-controlled boarding schools, and the social movements of the 1960s. Ortiz is from Acoma Pueblo
.
In the 1980s, the prolific Abenaki author, Joseph Bruchac
, began writing his books for children. In 1985, The Wind Eagle and Other Abenaki Stories was published. It was followed by picture books, traditional retellings, historical and contemporary fiction, biography and autobiographical works. His young adult thriller, Skeleton Man, received the Sequoyah Book Award
in 2004.
In the 1990s, many Native authored books for children were published, including the work of Michael Dorris
(Modoc), Louise Erdrich
(Ojibwa
), Joy Harjo (Creek
), Michael Lacapa (Apache
/Hopi
/Tewa), Gayle Ross (Cherokee
), Cynthia Leitich Smith (Creek), Joseph McLellan (Nez Perce), N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa
), Cheryl Savageau (Abenaki/Metis
), Jan Waboose (Anishinaabe
), and Bernelda Wheeler (Cree).
Of significance are the books Native authors write that portray the lives of modern day Native people. One author of this genre is Cynthia Leitich Smith
. Among her books are:
In 2007, Sherman Alexie
joined the growing list of Native authors writing for children with the release of his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
. Critically acclaimed, it won the National Book Award.
.
Another text is Paulette F. Molin's American Indian Themes in Young Adult Literature published in 2005 by Scarecrow Press.
Also see American Indians in Children's Literature, an Internet blog and resource maintained by Debbie Reese, a professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
have been featured in numerous volumes of children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
. Some have been authored by non-indigenous writers, while others have been written or contributed to by native authors.
Children’s literature about American Indians
There are a great many works of children's literature that feature American Indians. Some are considered classics, such as Little House on the PrairieLittle House on the Prairie (novel)
Little House on the Prairie is a children's novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder and was published in 1935. This book is the third of the series of books known as the Little House series....
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family...
, and some are award winners, such as The Matchlock Gun
The Matchlock Gun
The Matchlock Gun is a novel by Walter D. Edmonds that won the Newbery Medal for excellence as the most distinguished contribution to American children's literature in 1942.-Synopsis:...
by Walter D. Edmonds
Walter D. Edmonds
Walter "Walt" Dumaux Edmonds was an American author noted for his historical novels, including the popular Drums Along the Mohawk , which was successfully made into a Technicolor feature film in 1939 directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert.-Life:In 1919 he entered The...
. These classics, however, contain images of American Indians that are biased, stereotypical, and inaccurate (Reese, 2008).
Numerous studies report the predominance of positive and negative stereotypes and the pervasive tendency to present a monolithic image of American Indians that is largely inaccurate. The majority of the books were written and illustrated by authors who are not themselves Native American, and studies of the ways they portray American Indians indicate they mirror popular culture more than history or reality of any Native tribal nation or group (Caldwell-Wood & Mitten, 1991; Dorris, 1982; Flaste, 1982; Hirschfelder, 1993; MacCann, 1993; Reese 2001; Slapin and Seale, 1982).
Author and illustrator Paul Goble
Paul Goble
Paul Goble is an award-winning author and illustrator of children's books, mostly Native American stories. Goble has received a number of honors for his books including the prestigious Caldecott Medal.- Biography :...
(and the adopted son of Chief Edgar Red Cloud) has written dozens of children's books that retell ancient stories. His book The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses is a book by Paul Goble. Released by Bradbury Books, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1979.-Plot:...
won the Caldecott Medal
Caldecott Medal
The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children , a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The award was named in honor of nineteenth-century English...
in 1979. Lakota scholar Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Cook-Lynn, 1998) and Lakota librarian Doris Seale find his retellings inaccurate. Displeasure in them led the American Indian Library Association to ask the American Library Association to withdraw "Native American Month" posters and bookmarks with his art on them in 2007. ALA complied with the request, signaling the respect accorded to scholars and practitioners who work with Native populations.
Children's literature written or illustrated by American Indians
Like any people, American Indians have a long history of using the oral tradition to tell stories that pass along their history and culture from one generation to the next. As noted in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, in the entry "Native American Children's Literature," as far back as 1881, Native authors published stories for children, many that countered stereotypical portrayals. These stories appeared in magazines and books.- In January 1881, Susette LaFlesche of the OmahaOmaha (tribe)The Omaha are a federally recognized Native American nation which lives on the Omaha Reservation in northeastern Nebraska and western Iowa, United States...
tribe wrote “Nedawi” for a children’s magazine called St. Nicholas. Her Omaha name was Inshata Theumba, which translated into English, is Bright Eyes. Her story, “Nedawi” is about life in an Omaha hunting camp, told from the perspective of a young girl. - Several stories by Charles Alexander EastmanCharles EastmanCharles Alexander Eastman was a Native American physician, writer, national lecturer, and reformer. He was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry...
appeared in St. Nicholas in 1893 and 1894. They were later published in a book called Indian Boyhood (1902, 1933, 1971), which was a favorite in Boy Scout programs. Eastman was a DakotaSiouxThe Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
Indian, and his Dakota name was Ohiyesa. - In 1931, Luther Standing Bear’s autobiographical My Indian Boyhood (1931) was published. He was Lakota; his Lakota name was Ota K’te. He wrote two other books that describe traditional Lakota culture: My People the Sioux (1928) and Land of the Spotted Eagle (1939).
- I am a Pueblo Indian Girl (1939) was written by thirteen-year-old Louise Abeita, an Isleta PuebloIsleta PuebloIsleta Pueblo is an unincorporated Tanoan pueblo in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States, originally established around the 14th century.-Overview:...
girl known to her people as E-Yeh-Shure, which translates to Blue Corn. In it, she writes about daily aspects of PuebloPuebloPueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
Indian life and culture. The illustrations in the book were watercolors painted by Native artists like Allan HouserAllan HouserAllan Capron Houser or Haozous a Chiricahua Apache sculptor from Oklahoma. He was one of the most renowned Native American painters and Modernist sculptors of the 20th century....
whose work would eventually become renowned internationally.
American Indian illustrators, too, sought to counter these stereotypical images. During the 1940s, the United States. Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
published a series of bilingual readers known as the “Indian Life Readers,” for use in the U.S. Government Boarding and Day Schools. Most of the books were written by non-Native author Ann Nolan Clark
Ann Nolan Clark
Ann Nolan Clark, born Anna Marie Nolan was an American writer who won the 1953 Newbery Medal.-Biography:...
, but illustrated by Native artists from the tribe the reader was about. For example, Hoke Denetosisie said:
"The nature of the series, being concerned with Navajo
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
life, called for illustration genuine in every sense of the word. I had to observe and incorporate in pictures those characteristics which serve to distinguish the Navajo from other tribes. Further, the setting . . . had to change to express local changes as the family moved from place to place. The domestic animals . . . had to be shown in a proper setting just as one sees them on the reservation. The sheep could not be shown grazing in a pasture, nor the horses in a stable, because such things are not Navajo." (Bader, 1976, p. 162)
One of the readers, initially called Third Grade Home Geography, was published by a mainstream press in 1941, retitled In My Mother’s House. It is about life in Tesuque Pueblo, and it is illustrated by Pueblo artist Velino Herrera
Velino Herrera
Velino Shije Herrera , also known as Ma Pe Wi, was a Pueblo Indian painter.- Biography :Born in Zia Pueblo, New Mexico, Herrera attended the Santa Fe Indian School...
.
In the 1950s, other Native people wrote books for children. D’Arcy McNickle’s historical novel, Runner in the Sun, was published in 1954. It is about a teenager being trained to lead his people. McNickle was Chippewa Cree
Chippewa Cree
The Chippewa Cree Tribe is a mixed group of Native Americans in Montana, among the last to come into the state. They are descended from Cree that had come south from Canada, and from Chippewa that had moved west from the Turtle Mountains in North Dakota....
. Pablita Velarde of Santa Clara Pueblo retold and illustrated stories told to her by her grandfather in Old Father, the Storyteller, published in 1960. She is also a world renowned artist.
During the 1970s, the American Indian Historical Society published a magazine for children titled The Wee Wish Tree. In it were short stories, poems, and essays written by American Indians, many of them children. Also during that time, the Council on Interracial Books for Children was instrumental in publishing the work of Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve is an American writer of Children's literatureShe was a Sioux mother. She studied journalism at the South Dakota State University. She was an English language teacher in several public schools, editor at the Brevet Press in Sioux Fall, S.D...
, a Rosebud Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
. She wrote High Elks Treasure in 1972, When Thunders Spoke in 1974, and The Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman in 1975. Sneve was awarded the National Humanities Medal
National Humanities Medal
The National Humanities Medal honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens’ engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities.The award, given by the...
in 2000.
Simon Ortiz’s prose poem The People Shall Continue was published in 1977. It covers the history of American Indians from creation to the present day, but also includes content omitted or glossed over in other narratives about the settlement of the United States. Ortiz includes the forced removal of Native peoples from their homelands, the brutal periods of early government-controlled boarding schools, and the social movements of the 1960s. Ortiz is from Acoma Pueblo
Acoma Pueblo
Acoma Pueblo is a Native American pueblo approximately 60 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico in the United States. Three reservations make up Acoma Pueblo: Sky City , Acomita, and McCartys. The Acoma Pueblo tribe is a federally recognized tribal entity...
.
In the 1980s, the prolific Abenaki author, Joseph Bruchac
Joseph Bruchac
Joseph Bruchac is a writer of books relating to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a particular focus on northeastern Native American and Anglo-American lives and folklore. He has published works of poetry, novels, and short stories. He is from Saratoga Springs, New York, and is of...
, began writing his books for children. In 1985, The Wind Eagle and Other Abenaki Stories was published. It was followed by picture books, traditional retellings, historical and contemporary fiction, biography and autobiographical works. His young adult thriller, Skeleton Man, received the Sequoyah Book Award
Sequoyah Book Award
The Sequoyah Children's Book Award is given each year to the book that is selected by Oklahoma students in 3rd-5th grades as their favorite. The Sequoyah Young Adult Award , which is voted for by Oklahoma students in 6th-8th grades, was created in 1988...
in 2004.
In the 1990s, many Native authored books for children were published, including the work of Michael Dorris
Michael Dorris
Michael Anthony Dorris was a prominent American novelist and scholar. During his career he presented himself as Native American and this identity was a key part of his professional activities and his public reputation; but its factuality is in doubt...
(Modoc), Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich
Karen Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
(Ojibwa
Ojibwa
The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...
), Joy Harjo (Creek
Creek people
The Muscogee , also known as the Creek or Creeks, are a Native American people traditionally from the southeastern United States. Mvskoke is their name in traditional spelling. The modern Muscogee live primarily in Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida...
), Michael Lacapa (Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
/Hopi
Hopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
/Tewa), Gayle Ross (Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
), Cynthia Leitich Smith (Creek), Joseph McLellan (Nez Perce), N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
), Cheryl Savageau (Abenaki/Metis
Métis people (Canada)
The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
), Jan Waboose (Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...
), and Bernelda Wheeler (Cree).
Of significance are the books Native authors write that portray the lives of modern day Native people. One author of this genre is Cynthia Leitich Smith
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Cynthia Leitich Smith is a New York Times best-selling author of fiction for children and young adults. A member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, she writes fiction for children centered on the lives of modern-day American Indians. These books are taught widely by teachers in elementary, middle...
. Among her books are:
- Jingle Dancer (2000)
- Rain is Not My Indian Name (2001), and
- Indian Shoes (2002).
In 2007, Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie
Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. is a writer, poet, filmmaker, and occasional comedian. Much of his writing draws on his experiences as a Native American. Two of Alexie's best known works are The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven , a book of short stories and Smoke Signals, a film...
joined the growing list of Native authors writing for children with the release of his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is a novel for young adults written by Sherman Alexie. It is told in the first-person, from the viewpoint of Native American teenager and budding cartoonist Arnold Spirit, Jr....
. Critically acclaimed, it won the National Book Award.
Literary criticism
Native authors are working to counter stereotypical portrayals of American Indians. Alongside them are Native and non-Native scholars who critique classic, award-winning, best-selling books by and about American Indians. Two examples are Slapin and Seale’s Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children and Seale and Slapin’s A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children. Also see the Oyate website. A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books or Children is a recipient of a 2006 American Book AwardAmerican Book Award
The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
.
Another text is Paulette F. Molin's American Indian Themes in Young Adult Literature published in 2005 by Scarecrow Press.
Also see American Indians in Children's Literature, an Internet blog and resource maintained by Debbie Reese, a professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.