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Re: ccbc-net digest: February 24, 2014
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From: Helen Frost <helenfrost_at_comcast.net>
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 13:43:05 -0500
Dear friends, I've set the list to Digest while I'm traveling this week, so I've just caught up with the past couple of days' posts, and the conversation will have moved on even further by now. I'd actually prefer to jump in on the Beatles conversation, but I'm feeling the need to backtrack a bit.
I made a somewhat cryptic comment about being "forbidden" to include Native Americans in my writing, and my concern that that can contribute to the invisibility we've also been discussing. I'm sorry I used that word (forbidden), and I'd like to try to say what I mean a little more clearly.
First, it would be polite to introduce myself before jumping in with both feet like that. People who don't know me could easily think I'm coming in on the side of the right of White people to take anything we find and use it for own purposes. I've been on the opposite side of that argument for a very long time, in many contexts.
Because my husband is a linguist whose work often brings us in contact with Native Americans, and because I was the only non-Native person in a small (25 people) community in interior Alaska for 3 years in the early eighties, I have many close friends in Native American communities. When we moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana about 20 years ago, I felt the absence of the Miami (Myaamia, as it is spelled in their language) people in a palpable way, felt it as invisibility, but knew there had to be some Myaamia people here, and found ways to meet them. After 20- some years, my husband and I are now considered "friends of the tribe" (which of course means friendships with individuals of different ages, genders, etc.) and we both think about how we can best offer whatever we have to offer, when we are asked.
It's in that spirit that I wrote a book that includes a Myaamia family, as I imagined a particularly difficult time in our shared history, the War of 1812. In conversations with Myaamia friends, over many years, it became clear that I was trusted (requested) to put whatever skills I have into this work, and use whatever influence I had in getting it published. Frances Foster and others at FSG worked their magic to be sure it was the best it could be, and listened to any concerns I raised about respect and authenticity as it went through editing and design; it was published last summer as SALT: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War.
A couple of little stories from the past few weeks: In local school visits with 4th graders, I've been asking children what they knew about the Miami Indians before they read SALT, and what they've learned in their reading. I talk with them about the use of past and present tense, and include in my presentation pictures of contemporary Myaamia children in jeans and t-shirts and baseball caps. ("Those kids are Miami Indians?!" "Yes, that girl is your art reacher's niece.") I tell them about the language, which has been asleep for a few decades and is now being woken up. These conversations are mostly with non-Native audiences, but I'm always aware that in my audience (readers or listeners) there are probably Native American children, who sometimes self-identify when they feel it is safe to do so. I'll adjust this presentation as appropriate in places outside of Fort Wayne.
And the other story is of a Myaamia child who read SALT after I gave her a copy in the context of a Myaamia culture day-camp (that is, associated with tribal activities, which some children keep in a separate "mental space" from school). She read the book on her own time last summer, and recently came home from school and told her mother that she'd seen it in her school library and it was an AR book--in other words, it counts in a "school way" where much of her cultural experience may not.
So I'm not, believe me, denying the basic premise that invisibility is a problem. I'm saying it's not an absolute, that I, for one example, see people outside of my cultural background, and look for ways to let children know I see them.
I also think it's essential for books by people of many cultural backgrounds to be written, published, and promoted. I do my best to help new authors find their way to that goal, understanding that it can be a long and difficult road, but not impossible.
As for "what I want," high on my list is that when people tell me, "Debbie Reese is my friend," I want to say, "She's my friend too," without adding, "She just doesn't know it yet."
Now I'll go back to humming "Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" while I wait for this long-delayed flight to Chicago on the way to Seattle for AWP, where I hope I may meet some of you.
Thanks to everyone for this good and obviously necessary conversation.
Helen Frost www.helenfrost.net
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 13:43:05 -0500
Dear friends, I've set the list to Digest while I'm traveling this week, so I've just caught up with the past couple of days' posts, and the conversation will have moved on even further by now. I'd actually prefer to jump in on the Beatles conversation, but I'm feeling the need to backtrack a bit.
I made a somewhat cryptic comment about being "forbidden" to include Native Americans in my writing, and my concern that that can contribute to the invisibility we've also been discussing. I'm sorry I used that word (forbidden), and I'd like to try to say what I mean a little more clearly.
First, it would be polite to introduce myself before jumping in with both feet like that. People who don't know me could easily think I'm coming in on the side of the right of White people to take anything we find and use it for own purposes. I've been on the opposite side of that argument for a very long time, in many contexts.
Because my husband is a linguist whose work often brings us in contact with Native Americans, and because I was the only non-Native person in a small (25 people) community in interior Alaska for 3 years in the early eighties, I have many close friends in Native American communities. When we moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana about 20 years ago, I felt the absence of the Miami (Myaamia, as it is spelled in their language) people in a palpable way, felt it as invisibility, but knew there had to be some Myaamia people here, and found ways to meet them. After 20- some years, my husband and I are now considered "friends of the tribe" (which of course means friendships with individuals of different ages, genders, etc.) and we both think about how we can best offer whatever we have to offer, when we are asked.
It's in that spirit that I wrote a book that includes a Myaamia family, as I imagined a particularly difficult time in our shared history, the War of 1812. In conversations with Myaamia friends, over many years, it became clear that I was trusted (requested) to put whatever skills I have into this work, and use whatever influence I had in getting it published. Frances Foster and others at FSG worked their magic to be sure it was the best it could be, and listened to any concerns I raised about respect and authenticity as it went through editing and design; it was published last summer as SALT: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War.
A couple of little stories from the past few weeks: In local school visits with 4th graders, I've been asking children what they knew about the Miami Indians before they read SALT, and what they've learned in their reading. I talk with them about the use of past and present tense, and include in my presentation pictures of contemporary Myaamia children in jeans and t-shirts and baseball caps. ("Those kids are Miami Indians?!" "Yes, that girl is your art reacher's niece.") I tell them about the language, which has been asleep for a few decades and is now being woken up. These conversations are mostly with non-Native audiences, but I'm always aware that in my audience (readers or listeners) there are probably Native American children, who sometimes self-identify when they feel it is safe to do so. I'll adjust this presentation as appropriate in places outside of Fort Wayne.
And the other story is of a Myaamia child who read SALT after I gave her a copy in the context of a Myaamia culture day-camp (that is, associated with tribal activities, which some children keep in a separate "mental space" from school). She read the book on her own time last summer, and recently came home from school and told her mother that she'd seen it in her school library and it was an AR book--in other words, it counts in a "school way" where much of her cultural experience may not.
So I'm not, believe me, denying the basic premise that invisibility is a problem. I'm saying it's not an absolute, that I, for one example, see people outside of my cultural background, and look for ways to let children know I see them.
I also think it's essential for books by people of many cultural backgrounds to be written, published, and promoted. I do my best to help new authors find their way to that goal, understanding that it can be a long and difficult road, but not impossible.
As for "what I want," high on my list is that when people tell me, "Debbie Reese is my friend," I want to say, "She's my friend too," without adding, "She just doesn't know it yet."
Now I'll go back to humming "Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" while I wait for this long-delayed flight to Chicago on the way to Seattle for AWP, where I hope I may meet some of you.
Thanks to everyone for this good and obviously necessary conversation.
Helen Frost www.helenfrost.net
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Received on Tue 25 Feb 2014 12:44:01 PM CST
