From: Debbie Reese <d-reese>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 10:15:05 -0500

In addition to "growing the market" for literature by and about Native Americans, we might consider how to address other issues as well. My husband and our daughter (Liz, some CCBCers have met her) were in Washington DC yesterday (they'd gone to Richmond VA for a funeral). They went to the Museum of Natural History. Last night my husband told me that the Native American exhibit is in the Museum of Natural History, and noted that it was there with the animals rather than over in the American History museum.

I think Native Americans are part of what we call "cultural capital." There are referents to Native people in so many places in our everyday lives, but those referents firmly locate Native people as some thing (and I say "thing" deliberately) in the past. A few years ago, I asked child_lit members to note the number of times they came across a referent to Native Americans. My point was to increase awareness as to how often Native imagery is present in our everyday lives, and just to examine those images, be they positive or negative. I'd like to ask CCBCers to do the same. Note those images. What do they, in their totality, tell us?

Another referent that I noted, but my guess is that most others didn't note this one:

In Karen Hesse's book OUT OF THE DUST, there is a reference to the dust being as old as ancient Indian bones.

Her reference to bones didn't ruin my experience reading the book, but I did note it, as I note the Native American exhibit in DC...

Debbie Reese







_________________________________ Debbie Reese, Doctoral Student Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction College of Education, University of Illinois Champaign, IL 61820
               Telephone: 217$4?86 Fax: 217$4E72 Email: d-reese at uiuc.edu
Received on Sat 30 Oct 1999 10:15:05 AM CDT