From: Beverly Slapin <oyate>
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 19:49:33 +0000

Debbie Reese wrote:

Thank you for bringing up this important issue, Debbie. For those who have not yet read our critical review of , it is in the section called "books to avoid" on Oyate's web site, www.oyate.org.

There has been a lot of conversation about stereotypes this month, but we haven't touched on the issue of authenticity and accuracy. In this regard, I am offering some new work we have done in researching the writing of . Readers will notice that in some cases, the author has taken pieces, word for word, from other books, three of them written by Indian authors in the early part of this century. In other cases, she has taken whole stories and changed details to fit her own perspective. (See, for example, the "turnip" story and the "Boston tea party" story.) We invite comments about and discussion of this important issue, and I would like to offer several questions:

In historical fiction, whose responsibility is it to see that the portrayal of a culture is authentic and accurate? The author's? The editor's? The publisher's? In historical fiction, whose responsibility is it to check the authenticity/accuracy of a book under review? The reviewer's? The journal's?

---------------------------Without attribution or acknowledgment, Ann Rinaldi has taken phrases, ideas, and entire passages from several books, and used them in <My Heart Is On the Ground>. (Scholastic, 1999). The books include the following:

Francis La Flesche (Omaha), <The Middle Five: Indian Schoolboys of the Omaha Tribe>. ? 1900 by Francis La Flesche. Lincoln: University of Nebraska (1978)

Richard Henry Pratt, <Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian: 186704>. Lincoln: University of Nebraska (1987)

Luther Standing Bear (Lakota), . ? 1928 by Luther Standing Bear. Lincoln: University of Nebraska (1975)

Zitkala-Sa (Dakota), . ? 1921 by Gertrude Bonin. Lincoln: University of Nebraska (1985)

This may or may not be legal, but it is certainly not moral. We want people to be aware of what Ann Rinaldi has done.


"Beneath our dormitory were the parlor and the bedroom of Gray?ard, our teacher and disciplinarian. This name was not inherited by him, nor was it one of his own choosing; the boys gave it to him because his beard was iron-gray?" ( , p. 6)

"Our teachers are not so nice. We have names for them. Mr. Graystone we call Gray Beard." ( , p. 13)


"[S]ome of the girls call me Cornbread and some call me Cornrat, so I do not like that name?" ( , p. 293)

"Some older boys call him Corn Bread. Others call him Corn Rat." (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 16)


"Maggie Stands Looking, a daughter of American Horse, a chief of the Red Cloud Sioux?" ( , p. 275)

"Maggie Stands Looking is daughter of American Horse who is a chief of the Red Cloud Sioux?" ( , p. 20)


"Maggie, you will keep your room in better order, won?t you?"
( , p. 275)

Maggie, you will keep your things in order, won?t you?" (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 20)


"Spotted Tail, you are a remarkable man. Your name has gone all over the United States. It has even gone across the great water." (<Battlefield and Classroom>, p. 222)

"Then Mister Captain Pratt tell Spotted Tail he is remarkable man. His name has gone all over Unit? States and even across the great water."
( , p. 25)


"The white people are all thieves and liars, and we refuse to send our children, because we do not want them to learn such things. The government deceived us in the Black Hills Treaty?. The government has always cheated us and we do not want our children to learn to do that way." ( , p. 222)

"At first ask Spotted Tail say no. He tell Mister Captain Pratt that the white people are all thieves and liars. They took all our land. And he will give no Sioux children to learn such ways." (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 25)


"We are going to give you all the children you want. I will give you five, Two Strike will give you his two boys, Milk will give you his boy and girl, and White Thunder will give you his boy and girl."
( , p. 224)

"After much big talk Spotted Tail gives five children, one who is Red Road. Others are younger boys. Two Strike gives two boys, Milk gives boy and girl, and my father White Thunder give me and my brother." (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 25)


 "Yes, little girl, the nice red apples are for those who pick them; and you will have a ride on the iron horse if you go with these good people." ( , p. 42)

 "You will see great trees with red apples. You will ride on the iron horse. You will wear a school dress." ( , p. 27)


"It did not occur to me at that time that I was going away to learn the ways of the white man. My idea was that I was leaving the reservation and going to stay away long enough to do some brave deed, and then come home again alive. If I could just do that, then I knew my father would be so proud of me." ( , p. 128)

"Then he says I must study and work and obey, and do one act of bravery. Then come home and tell him about it. I must bring him honor with this act." ( , p. 30)


"?I s?pose,? said Edwin, ?he means the Devil is like some of our big medicine men who can turn themselves into deer and elk, and any kind of animal, and the Devil can change himself into a hungry, howling lion and??" ( , p. 63)

"We learned about the Devil in Sunday school. I think he is like some of our medicine men. He can change his shape if he wishes." (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 40)


"?[T]hey would see buildings five times as high?" (<Battlefield and Classroom>, p. 203)

"?[Y]ou will see buildings that are five times as high?" (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 41)


 "It was the telegraph pole which strode by at short paces." (<American Indian Stories>, p. 48)

 "And the long poles of the tele-graph moved, also." (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 41)


 "Sometimes they took their forefingers out of their mouths and pointed at my moccasined feet. Their mothers, instead of reproving such rude curiosity, looked closely at me, and attracted their children?s further notice to my blanket." ( , p. 48)

 "I peeked through my blanket and saw people pointing at us and staring. I understood enough words to know they had never seen Indians before."
( , p. 42)


"Captain, thee is undertaking a great work here. Thee will need many things. Thee must remember if thee would receive thee must ask. Will thee take thy pencil and put down some of the things thee needs very much just now and the cost?" ( , p. 235)

"Thee is undertaking a great work here. Thee will need many things. If thee would receive, thee must ask. Will thee take thy pencil and put down some of the things thee needs very much and the cost?" (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 45)


 "Entering the house, I stood close against the wall. The strong glaring light in the large whitewashed room dazzled my eyes. My only safety seemed to be in keeping next to the wall. The noisy hurrying of hard shoes upon a bare wooden floor increased the whirring in my ears. As I was wondering in which direction to escape from all this confusion, two warm hands grasped me firmly, and in the same moment I was tossed high in midair." ( , pp. 49P)

 "When they brought us into the council house here many of us stood flat against the wall. Such brightness! Their lights were like so many suns!?. And the whiteness of the walls hurt my eyes. There was much noise, too. Everything echoed. What did the white people have on the ground? Not Mother Earth like inside our tipis. I looked for a way to run?. Then I felt two hands grabbing and pulling me." (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 46)


"Among our people, short hair was worn by mourners, and shingled hair by cowards!" ( , p. 54)

 "With my people you cut your hair when you mourn the death of a loved one. If I let them cut my hair surely someone I loved would die!" (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 48)


 "I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit." ( , pp. 55V)

 "I screamed, but they sat me down hard in the chair and began cutting. Never will I forget the sound of the scissor, the feel of it when I no longer had braids down my back. A deep loss came over me. My braids gave me comfort, strength. Now my head felt light, as if it might fall off."
( , p. 48)


"One day when we came to school there was a lot of writing on one of the blackboards. We did not know what it meant?. None of the names were read or explained to us, so of course we did not know the sound or meaning of any of them. The teacher had a long pointed stick in her hand, and the interpreter told the boy in the front seat to come up. The teacher handed the stick to him, and the interpreter then told him to pick out any name he wanted." ( , pp. 1367)

"The next day they made us pick new names. Names were carved on the boards that are black. They made us go in front of the class and pick up a long stick and point to a name that we liked. We could not read the names, so we just pointed." ( , p. 49)


"The ?Mericans are awfully fond of tea, and when they saw they?d have to pay the trader and the king, too, for their tea, they got mad; and one night, when everybody was asleep, they painted up like wild Indians, and they got into a boat and paddled out to the tea ship and climbed in. They hollered and yelled like everything, and scared everybody; then they spilted the tea into the ocean?.Well?the old king sat still for a long time, then he said to his soldiers, you go and fight those
?Mericans. And they did fight, and had the Rev?lution. That war lasted eight years, and the king?s soldiers got licked. Then the ?Mericans made General George Washington their President because he couldn?t tell a lie." ( , pp. 51R)

"Today is a holiday. The birthday of the white people?s great father, George Wash-ing-ton. Gray Beard told us about the Boston tea party. The Mericans dressed like Indians and threw all the tea in the water. Then the English king got very angry and sat for a long time. Then he told his soldiers, go and fight those Mericans. Bring me their scalps. So his warriors went out and there was a rev-o-lu-tion. Wash-ing-ton was a great chief of the Mericans. The war lasted eight years and the soldiers of the king lost their scalps and the Mericans won and made Wash-ing-ton their great father because he could not tell a lie." (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 55)


 "With fire in my heart, I took the wooden tool that the paleface woman held out to me. I stood upon a step, and, grasping the handle with both hands, I bent in hot rage over the turnips. I worked my vengeance upon them?. I saw that the turnips were in a pulp, and that further beating could not improve them; but the order was ?Mash these turnips,? and mash them I would! I renewed my energy; and as I sent the masher into the bottom of the jar, I felt a satisfying sensation that the weight of my body had gone into it. Just here a paleface woman came up to my table. As she looked into the jar, she shoved my hands roughly aside. I stood fearless and angry. She placed her red hands upon the rim of the jar. Then she gave one lift and stride away from the table. But lo! the pulpy contents fell through the crumbled bottom to the floor! She spared me no scolding phrases that I had earned. I did not heed them. I felt triumphant in my revenge, though deep within me I was a wee bit sorry to have broken the jar. As I sat eating my dinner, and saw that no turnips were served, I whooped in my heart for having once asserted the rebellion within me." ( , pp. 60a)

 "Today, I was so angry I drove my wooden spoon through the bottom of a jar of turnips. At our table we had no turnips for supper. Everyone likes turnips. I feel bad that I did this thing. (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 88)


"There were times when the pupils became very tired of their books, and longed to take a run over the prairies or through the woods. When this longing came upon them, they sought for ways and means by which to have the school closed, and secure a holiday?. All afternoon we chased pigs and had a glorious time?. [T]hen the superintendent thanked us for the good service we had rendered that afternoon!" ( , pp. 67h)

"Today we had much excitement. The boys were so tired of school, they wanted to go outside and run. So they thought of a way to have a day off from school. One let the pigs escape. Pigs were all over the yard. Running and squealing. From under the trees our class saw this and joined in the chasing of the pigs. All afternoon we chased pigs and had a wonderful time. When we were finished we were all full of dirt and laughing. Mr. Captain Pratt thanked us for saving the pigs." (<My Heart Is On the Ground>, p. 90)


"But Mr. Hayt, the commissioner, was insistent that I must go to Spotted Tail and Red Cloud, because the children would be hostages for the good behavior of their people." ( , p. 220)

"But the federal government said he must go to Spotted Tail?s and Red Cloud?s reservations because ?the children would be hostages for the good behavior of their people.?" ( , p. 178)


The following people have contributed their research to this piece: Tsianima Lomawaima, Jean Mendoza, Deborah Miranda, Paulette Molin, and Beverly Slapin.
--------------------------Beverly
______________ Beverly Slapin Oyate 2702 Mathews St. Berkeley, CA 94702
(510) 848g00
(510) 848H15 fax oyate at oyate.org www.oyate.org
Received on Wed 27 Oct 1999 02:49:33 PM CDT