From: Debbie Reese <debreese_at_illinois.edu>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:55:05 -0600

Subject: Paucity of Native American books From: Suzanne McIntire Date: Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:32:31 -0500 X-Message-Number: 1

"Given the paucity of books by Native Americans available in libraries and in bookstores"

I've been occasionally following the discussions of books about/by Native Americans. I also have noticed that books by/about Native Americans have disappeared from libraries and particularly from bookstores. The topic has apparently nearly disappeared from local school curriculums as well (I live in Virginia).

I had been working on a children's biography of a lesser-known Indian chief, but finding that Caucasians are unwelcome as biographer/ writers, and feeling that I could never satisfy the kind of criticism I see here, and I put the book aside and will probably never finish it.

I think that is one of the big reasons why biographies etc of Native Americans have disappeared. Very sad. My heart breaks for the situation.

Suzy McIntire Arlington VA

Suzy's experience is one that writers have expressed before. Among the more recent readings my students discussed is Joel Taxel's "Multicultural Literature and the Politics of Reaction." It was published in 1997 in Teacher's College Record. A pdf of the article is at Joel's website: (Note that this version has a few errors in it that I think came about due to the article being scanned by a not-very-good scan technology.) In it, he talks about Kathryn Lasky being told she couldn't do a bio of an African American (Lasky is not African American herself). Around the same time, the article points out, a work of historical fiction by Lasky (Afr Amer story) was being released. I think the point of Taxel's article, and by others that he cites, is that the perception is not the reality. People who are not American Indian, African American, Latino/a American, or Asian American continue to write books about these populations, and their books get published. An example of that is Ann Rinaldi. Her latest book LEIGH ANN'S CIVIL WAR is a mess. The reviewer at Kirkus nailed the review. s-leigh-anns-civil-war.html

Is there a paucity of books? Yes, but as CCBC stats show, the greater paucity is Native writers. And of all the books that get published, CCBC lists very few of them in CHOICES. For those of you who don't have a copy of CHOICES, I excerpted some of it here:

d-about-american-indians.html

Suzy, I'd be a fool not to recommend a book by someone who is not Native, just because its author is not Native. If it is well done, I'll recommend it. I do, however, push books by Native writers. In my "Focus On" column at SLJ last year (November), I listed Native writers. I want teachers, librarians, children, and teens to know that Native people are still here, and that some of us are writers. Holding up one of those books for a booktalk gives the librarian or teacher a chance to do two things: Call attention to a well-written book, AND, call attention to the author, sharing that author's tribe, info about where that tribe is located, where that tribe WAS located (if it is one of the tribes that was removed from their homelands).

I understand that my commitment to emphasize books by Native writers means I'm also not giving the same attention to a non-Native writer and his or her book, but, my commitment is to the well-being of Native Nations. That means doing all I can to highlight Native writing.

Good books will get plenty of attention by the mainstream journals. So, if your book, Suzy, is well done, it should fare just fine. I found the post submitted yesterday by fondrie_at_gmail to be very well-said, and encourage others to study it. Here's fondrie's last paragraph:

It's very much a matter of white privilege. As a white writer or reviewer, I don't operate under the high-stakes system that writers and reviewers who identify with historically marginalized cultures do. If I make a mistake--in my white privilege existence--it won't hurt me much. If my research is faulty or shallow, it might damage my reputation as a writer, but it won't add to a cultural burden or history of oppression related to my marginalized group. Not so for other folks. Every review that overlooks stereotype, bias, hurtful images, or even honest research errors adds to the ongoing oppression, whether the author intends to or not.

That leads me back to the reviewing discussion. Richard Peck's book got rave reviews. So did PETER PAN IN SCARLET. I truly don't understand why the reviews did not note the Indian "throat-slitters." To me, that and all the other stereotypical information in that book could have been noted, but it wasn't. A lot of people feel that PPIS is well written, in the style of Barrie. As such, it meets a literary standard that professional reviewers adhere to. With that as the standard, books like PPIS will continue to be well reviewed. I wish that other aspects of the book carried equal weight in the reviewing community.

Debbie

Visit my Internet resource: American Indians in Children's Literature

Debbie A. Reese (Nambй O'-ween-ge') Assistant Professor, American Indian Studies University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Native American House, Room 2005 1204 West Nevada Street, MC-138 Urbana, Illinois 61801

Email: debreese_at_illinois.edu TEL 217-265-9885 FAX 217-265-9880
Received on Tue 10 Nov 2009 08:55:05 AM CST