It is no surprise to anyone that a majority of UIUC students voted yes last week "in support of Chief Illiniwek as the official symbol of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign."

The outcome of the vote reflects the lack of leadership at the university. When the mascot ("symbol" if you prefer) was retired in 2007, the university failed to fully address the ignorance that kept it in place for so long.

Instead of calling it a race-based or racist or stereotypical mascot, they blamed the NCAA for its end, saying they were ending it due to the NCAA policy about these mascots.

Instead of instituting broad campus-based educational efforts to help students and alums learn what is wrong with such mascots, they did nothing.

Instead of making a clean break with it, they let it live on in the hearts and minds of students and alums by way of the "Three In One..."

Pre 2007, when the mascot danced, it did so to a piece of music called the "Three In One." It has Hollywood "Indian" music that people mistakenly associate with American Indians. Post-retirement, that music was/is still played at halftime of basketball and football games. Fans solemnly rise when that music starts, and they cross their arms in front of them like the mascot did,

and they imagine the mascot doing its dance on the court/field. As with the mascot, they speak of how this behavior "honors" American Indians. Someday, some of them will look back on all of this, and feel a bit embarrassed.

Students and alum ought to feel indignant that an institution of higher learning allowed/allows ignorance to go unchecked. I believe the people who created that mascot meant well. I believe they and most of those who embrace that mascot today really mean to honor American Indians, but the way they're doing it is wrong. So wrong, in fact, that the two tribal nations the pro-chief group tried to get support from, issued statements condemning it. So have local and national Native associations and organizations. The American Indian Studies program at Illinois has several pages of information about it.

Rather than revere a stereotyped romantic image, students and grads can do something meaningful, like learning about why the Violence Against Women Act is important to us, or why Native people don't want the Keystone Pipeline on our lands.

Fans could spend time studying misrepresentations of American Indians that they've seen since early childhood, too. It starts with dressing up as Indians for birthday parties and Halloween:





 and continues through the play-Indian activities done at summer camps and by young men in the Order of the Arrow.



Seeing all of it from a critical vantage point can help fans understand why they embrace the mascot. Reading research studies on stereotypes, racism and bias can help fans develop their understanding of the origins and impacts of stereotypes.

Learning to think critically can help fans become informed allies of American Indians as we are, not as fans imagine us to be. I believe people must own their own ignorance, but I'm also aware that learning can't happen in a vacuum. The university has done nothing about that vacuum. It is a shame, and it reflects poorly on an institution of higher learning.

The current chancellor, Phyllis Wise, issued a statement letting students know that their referendum will not bring the mascot back, but she must do much more to help students and grads move past their current state of ignorance.

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Editor's Note: A few weeks ago, I gave an online lecture (via Skype) to the Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums (TLAM) class at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, School of Library and Information Science. Here's a description of TLAM from their website: 

In its fifth year at the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS), TLAM is an experimental project to bring indigenous information topics to LIS education through service-learning, networking, and resource sharing with Wisconsin’s tribal cultural institutions. The TLAM Project currently encompasses a graduate topics course; the Convening Culture Keepers mini-conference series for Wisconsin tribal librarians, archivists, and museum curators; numerous community engagement projects with our partners; and a brand new TLAM Student Group.

Today's post on AICL is by Katelyn Martens, a student in the TLAM class. Published on the TLAM blog, I'm pleased to be able to share it here, too. Thanks, Katelyn! And check out her post about Sherman Alexie, too.  

Debbie highly recommends JINGLE DANCER

• Books giving information in contemporary society
• Tribally specific texts
• Books affirming American Indian cultures – these must be well researched

• Know at least one nation in-depth through reading and research
•  Visit tribal websites with children in order to learn about their everyday lives
•  Speak up for great children’s books so they stay in print
•  Speak out on problematic texts in order to promote better alternatives

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On Wednesday, March 6th, I spoke at Cal State Polytechnic University in Pomona. The next day (March 7th, 2013), I spent the day at Redlands University and Sherman Indian School. My hosts at Redlands were Heather Torres and Nora Pulskamp of the Native American Student Programs office. Here we are at the end of the day:

In the morning, I gave a guest lecture to a Women's Studies class at Redlands University. I talked about depictions of Native women in the media and children's books. The students were engaged and engaging. I showed them "What Makes the Red Man Red" from Disney's Peter Pan. Their response was similar to the ones I get when I ask teachers and librarians to read aloud from selected passages of Little House on the Prairie. Surprise, that is, at how racist the depictions are, and that they do not remember those depictions from when they viewed/read these two items as children. We focused on the sexualization of Tiger Lily, and talked about the Violence Against Women Act.

From there, Heather and Nora drove us out to Sherman Indian School where I spent an hour with Native students. I talked with them about mascots, showing them photos of "Chief Illiniwek" (the former mascot at the University of Illinois) and stereotypes in children's literature. They were very attentive. When I showed them the photo of "Chief Illiniwek" doing the splits in mid-air, they exclaimed aloud at how ridiculous it is.

I also talked about the need to have books about American Indians, written by Native authors. My favorite example is Cynthia Leitich Smith's Jingle Dancer. I love showing that book to Native students, no matter how young or old they are. I was delighted that it slowly made its way through the group of 30 or so students, as they pored over the pages. Clearly, Cynthia's book touched them in a good way. After class was over, one young woman approached me to say she wants to be a writer. Her English teacher was also there and praised her work.

I was inspired by the students on both campuses. From them, I gained a strong sense of optimism and hope for the future.

The public lecture on campus last night reminded me that certain segments of society will not welcome them or the work they wish to do. That lecture drew Native people who live in the Redlands area, and Redlands students who tutor Native youth. All took note of the woman who entered the lecture hall wearing a "Chief Illiniwek" jacket. When she took her jacket off, I noticed she had one of the newer shirts fans of "Chief Illiniwek" wear. When the mascot was retired at Illinois, private vendors designed and sold several different kinds of shirts, including the one she wore. It has the word CHIEF in large bold letters across the front of the shirt. The woman sat alone and quiet throughout the lecture, but at the end, told us she is a Fulbright scholar who studies cultural genocide, and that "Chief Illiniwek" is not a violent mascot like the one at Florida State. She was belligerent and loud and said in her 30 years of being at Illinois, she never saw anything violent about it.

Her decision to be there, to dress as she did, to proclaim her credentials, and argue as she did, was puzzling to me. What motivated her to do that? Hate? Privilege? Both?!

Though I'm certain there are administrators at the University of Illinois who wish the mascot was still there, I think they would have been embarrassed at the behavior of this woman. She is, whether she realizes it or not, the embodiment of racism.

The students at Redlands and Sherman Indian School will encounter people like her. Change--for the better--will happen. It is never easy work, but change does happen. "Chief Illiniwek" no longer dances at Illinois because Native people and our allies fought to get rid of it. I leave California with the faces of the students in my head, inspired by each one of them.

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On Tuesday, I flew in to California to give two lectures and visit some classes.

Before the first talk, I had lunch with two groups. One group was comprised of students who tutor Native students, and the other group was Native men and women of the San Manual Band of Mission Indians. We talked about the significance of our nations and identities as Native people, and we talked about how we are misrepresented in the materials our children are given at school. Amongst us are powerful stories of parents who stand by their children.

After lunch we headed over to the student center for my lecture, Native (Mis)Representations, which was primarily about mascots.

It is always heartening to organizers when crowds of people are streaming in and they have to call for more chairs. Irvin Harrison, the Director of the Native American Student Center at Cal State Polytechnic University, organized my two-day visit.

Here's a post-lecture photo of Irvin, myself, and Dr. Joely Proudfit. She's the Director of the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center at Cal State University, San Marcos. We had a long conversation, sitting in the warm California sunshine, talking about youth, research, sovereignty and the work we're committed to doing.

In the lecture, I showed many examples in which someone is playing Indian. I started with mascots, pointing out the stereotypical aspects of it. We watched Trail of Cheers and What Makes the Red Man Red, noting stereotypes in it, too. That Disney clip is available online in several different languages, including French, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, and German! Sheesh!

I shifted, then, to playing Indian in a historical context.

Americans have been playing Indian a long time. Primary example: colonists dressing up as Indians at the Boston Tea Party. The thing is, they didn't wear feathers or face paint... but that is how that moment in history is shown. What they did was blacken their faces with soot from the fireplace and wear blankets around their shoulders.

I showed photographs of playing Indian in Thanksgiving reenactments in elementary school, and dressing up like Indians for Halloween and summer camps. For each one, I also showed an illustration from a children's book.

Then I showed a photo of how boy scouts in Order of the Arrow play Indian. THAT, it turned out, was the image that drew the ire of one person in the audience. He came up after the talk and kept trying to get me to say that it was ok for them to do that, because they were honoring and educating others about Native people. He is the perfect example of someone unwilling to consider the research I presented, the voices of Native people, and the misinformation perpetuated by their Order of the Arrow activities.

I asked him some questions about why they do it, and he said something like "because you [Indians] really know how to take care of the earth and do things..." I interrupted him (getting impatient) and said "some of youguys [not-Indians] know how to do that, too. That's not knowledge that belongs or belonged exclusively to us. Why don't you celebrate who you are?" And he said "but more of you do it than anyone else."

He (they?!) clearly have us on a pedestal. He may think that is honoring and respectful, but it is dehumanizing to do that to an entire group of people.

I don't want that kind of honoring or respect. What I'd rather he do is stop playing Indian and seeking ways to justify it, and start lobbying Congress. We've all--Native and not--got to write and call our Senators and Representatives and stop that Keystone Pipeline.

I may add more to this post later. For now, I've got to head off to the Redlands University. Time to start day 2.

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This week, I'll be giving two free public lectures in which I'll talk about misrepresentations of American Indians (dates/times/locations listed at bottom of this post). In both lectures, I'll draw connections between the stereotypes of American Indians in children's/young adult literature and mascots.

While I'm out there doing that, the University of Illinois student body will be voting 'yes' or 'no' on this question:

Do you support Chief Illiniwek as the official symbol of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign?

For those of you who are new to AICL, here's "Chief Illiniwek" (I use quotes around that phrase because I do not want to convey any idea whatsoever that I think the mascot ought to have that title):



See the words at the bottom of the photo? The organization "Save the Chief" was active in a campaign to stop the university from getting rid of the mascot. It was/is only one of many similar organizations that, in one way or another, keep up the idea that mascots like "Chief Illiniwek" honor American Indians. They do that in spite of the fact that Native organizations, associations, and tribes have called for an end to the use of Native imagery in this way. And, thank goodness, the university chancellor said that the university will not bring it back because the university wants to go forward in being inclusive, not backward.

It is hard to chip away at the embrace of this kind of stereotyping.

American's are taught to have an affinity for this stereotype. This starts when they're young. Do you remember Clifford the Big Red Dog? Dear, dear, Clifford... I like him, too, but not when Emily Elizabeth thought he could be an Indian for Halloween:



Are you a fan of the Berenstain Bears books? Do you remember the one where Brother Bear and Sister Bear go to camp and listen to Grizzly Bob tell stories dressed this way?



I plan to incorporate research on the harm of such stereotyping in my talk. Research studies show its detrimental impact on Native students, and, its impact on non-Native students, too.

The University of Illinois finally got rid of its mascot, but it wasn't due to any concerns about it as a stereotype. It was retired because if it continued, the university would not be able to hold NCAA championships on its campus. I'm certain that some of the people responsible for actually making the decision to get rid of it understood the harm of stereotyping, but too many people did not, and too many people do not understand it.

I believe that children's books play a role in maintaining the illusion that such stereotypes are honorable.

I hope you can attend one of the talks! Please let your child's teachers know about the talks, too. And the school librarian! Displacing stereotypes with factual information about who American Indians were--and are--is going to require that more people understand stereotyping and its harm.

Wednesday, March 6, 1:00 PM
Bronco Student Center - Centaurus
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Thursday, March 7, 6:30 PM
Hall of Letters, 100
University of Redlands

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Over at SLJ's 100 Scope Notes, Travis Jonker posted a infographic about books that have won the Newbery Medal. I like infographics. They are way cool, and I want to learn how to make them.

Here's a blown-up chunk of the infographic:

Island of the Blue Dolphins is making a lot of money for its publisher, but should any teacher be using it as though it is a reliable story about anyone who is in the book? The Aleuts? The people of San Nicolas?  Learning, as Jonker reports, that it is the all-time bestselling Newbery Medal winning book helps me understand why its publisher wants it listed on CBC Diversity's Bookshelf of "diverse" books. Having a "diversity" stamp on it gives it some credibility it does not deserve.

Lets take a look at some of the "knowledge" the book imparts. Check out this video, titled "Massacre on the Island of the Blue Dolphins" in which one student poses as a reporter who is "reporting live from San Nicolas Island." She is interviewing Kimki, who she says may be the next leader of the Ghalas-at people.


The massacre the reporter is talking about is one in which the Aleut people kill the Ghalas-at people.  One reason the book is a best seller is that it fits with what most people "know" about Indigenous people as warring savages who killed each other as a matter of course, but that's not the case.

There's always more to the story.

More context is vital to understand any warfare or killing. In this case, the Aleut men who worked on the Russian ships were enslaved and if they didn't do as they were told, their women and children would be killed. Whether or not O'Dell knew that when he wrote his book doesn't matter. What does matter is what kids "learn" by reading it today.

In reading Island of the Blue Dolphins, kids "learn" that Aleuts killed all these Ghalas-at people.

That alone is enough reason for me to say that IF it is going to be taught, it should be taught in a critical framework wherein children question what O'Dell wrote.

My source for the info about enslaved Aleuts is Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia, published in 1996 by Garland Publishing.

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The Tucson Festival of Books is coming up next month (March). If you're going (I wish I was!!!), check out this panel:

Destiny & Identity: Girls in Native American Literature
Sunday, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Education Building, Room 349

Joy Harjo and S.D. Nelson will be on that panel, talking about their books. Though I can't say for sure, I imagine Harjo will talk about For A Girl Becoming. 

And, Nelson will definitely be talking about his new book, Buffalo Bird Girl.

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The subject of most biographies of Native women are Pocahontas and Sacajawea. I did a search of the Comprehensive Children's Literature Database to get a rough sense of how many books there are about each one. I limited the search to those published between 2000 and now. I got 188 on Pocahontas, and 192 on Sacagawea. Quite a lot, don't you think? Some critics say those two women are heralded by those who seek to celebrate figures in U.S. history because they helped Europeans. Some say they were diplomats; others say they were traitors.

My point in sharing those publication numbers is to say that I think publishers would do well to publish biographies of other Native women!

With S. D. Nelson's Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story, Abrams has scored a big win. It is racking up starred reviews by the mainstream review journals and by those who look more critically at the portrayals of American Indians. It is, for example, on the Cooperative Center for Children's Books CHOICES 2013 list.

Nelson's art invites the reader to pick up the book. Once inside, there's a mix of his art and photographs of Hidatsa people. The back matter provides a timeline that teachers will find helpful when using the book in the classroom. With the Common Core thrust upon them, this biography will surely get lot of use in classrooms.

I agree with the praise the book is receiving, but have one quibble. I wish that the book cover and text featured her Hidatsa name, Waheenee, which means Buffalo Bird Woman, instead of "Buffalo Bird Girl." I'm guessing the change from woman to girl was a strategy to help young readers identify with Waheenee as a girl, but I think Nelson's illustrations make that point quite well.

Some background

Nelson tells us that his source for this biography is Waheenee: An Indian Girl's Story; Told by Herself to Gilbert L. Wilson.  Wilson's book was published in 1921.


Scholars in American Indian Studies and American Indian Literatures point out that the audience for these early books was not a Native one. As evidence, we point to text in the books, where the author is speaking directly to the reader. Consider, for example, Wilson's Myths of the Red Children published in 1907. In the Foreword, Wilson wrote that fairy tales from Europe were delightful, but that with Myths of the Red Children, America's "little reading folk" could develop "a kindly feeling for a noble but vanishing race" (p. vi). I think it is fair to say he was not thinking of Native children as readers of Myths of the Red Children. 

Take note, too, of Wilson's use of "vanishing race." Wilson was part of the research efforts of the late 1800s and early 1900s that sought to document Native cultures before we died out. A major problem with that research effort is that many of the researchers did their work largely unaware of their own perspective, which is an outsiders perspective. Many did not understanding much of what they observed. A year after Myths of the Red Children was published, Wilson began his work with the Hidatsa people.

One outcome of that work was Waheenee. Like Myths of the Red Children, it was written for a child audience. Its final pages (beginning on page 183), speak directly to that young reader:

Young Americans who wish to grow up strong and healthy should live much out of doors; and there is no pleasanter way to do this than in an Indian camp. Such a camp you can make yourself, in your back yard or an empty lot or in a neighboring wood.

Following that passage are instructions for making a pole hunting lodge and several pages of recipes. I think it fair to say that Wilson was keen on playing Indian.


Nelson is wise not to echo Wilson on that point. His careful use of Wilson's material is important in other ways, too.


Buffalo Bird Woman was born in 1839 and died in 1932. She lived through a lot of changes. The Hidatsa were part of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. Subsequent violations of the treaty resulted in a huge loss of their land. During her lifetime, they were moved to a reservation. There were several devastating smallpox epidemics.

Of those significant events, only smallpox is included in Wilson's book. On page 9 of his book, Wilson says: "Then smallpox came." We all know that smallpox came from Europeans, but that information isn't provided anywhere in Wilson's book. In his picture book, Nelson does indicate the source for smallpox (p. 3):

It arrived with the coming of the white men. They did not bring the sickness on purpose, but Indians could not fight off this disease--they had no immunity to the dreaded evil spirit.

During Waheenee's lifetime, her people experienced tremendous loss of land and were moved onto a reservation, but these things aren't included in Wilson's book. When the word 'enemy' appears in the book, it is used only to describe other tribes. Doesn't that strike you as curious? Biased, perhaps? It seems to me that Wilson wanted his readers (remember, this book was written for white children) to develop a viewpoint of Indians as aggressors.

Nelson talks about enemy tribes, too, but doesn't leave out reservations. On page 39 of his Buffalo Bird Girl, Nelson (in Buffalo Woman's voice) writes:

Like-a-Fishhook is gone now. There are no buffalo left to hunt, and the fur trade ended long ago. The government of the United States said my people had to move from our village. They promised to provide rations of food and clothing if we lived on a reservation. The government built roads, schools, and churches. They told us that our children had to learn to live the white man's way. So we Hidatsa, as well as the Mandan and Arikara people, gave up our round earth lodges and began living in square cabins on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

I would have loved to see one more page about the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara people... In the "Today and the Future" section of the Author's Note, Wilson writes this:

The Hidatsa people are still here, as are the Mandan and the Arikara. They remain one sovereign nation. Each member of the nation has the same freedoms as every citizen of the United States. Like all other human beings, they face the many challenges of a rapidly changing world. Today they govern themselves with self-determination. Their words and actions give shape to their lives and hope for their children. 

I want teachers who use the book to put that information front and center of their use of Buffalo Bird Girl. Introduce students to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation website. Teach the book by teaching children about Waheenee's people---as they are today. Teach them what sovereign nation means! Show them the pictures on the site! And while you're at it, teach them about Nelson's tribe, too. Visit the website of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation!

We need more books like this one, by authors like S.D. Nelson. Thanks, Mr. Nelson, and you, too, Abrams, for Buffalo Bird Girl. 

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On AICL, there's a page of "the foul among the good" that catalogs books in which Native people are stereotyped, objectified, and mocked in celebrated or popular children's books. Some of the images there are in old books that are still being published, and some are from newly published books. I've got another new one to add...

John Segal's Pirates Don't Take Baths is about a pig (kid) who does not want to take a bath. The pig proclaims "No! No! No! I'm not taking a bath. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Never." The pig parent says "Never?" 

From there, kid-pig imagines him/herself (gender not specified) as "someone else." Here's the summary from the publisher's page:

For any young child (or pig), there are few things more excruciating, more traumatic, more torturous than bathtime. And this little pig is putting his hoof down. No. More. BATHS. But how can he possibly accomplish this? Well, by being someone else, of course. After all, everyone knows that pirates, astronauts, and knights in shining armor - just to name a few - never, EVER take baths. Now if only he can convince his mother . . .

In his hilarious new picture book that is sure to become an integral part of bathtime routines, John Segal documents one particular skirmish in this never-ending battle of wills.

With each "someone else" pig-kid comes up with, pig-parent counters with a reason why the "someone" won't work. For example, pig-parent tells pig-kid that pig-kid can't be a pirate, because pig-kid gets seasick. So, pig-kid moves on to another "someone."

Most of the suggestions pig-kid comes up with are things someone can choose to be.

Astronaut? A job one might choose... Knight in shining armor? Ditto. Cowboy? Again, a choice. Same thing for treasure hunter.

In the midst of all this someone-elsing is Eskimo.

Pig-kid says "I'm an Eskimo. They can't bathe. Its TOO COLD."

Pig-parent says "Yes, but do you know what Eskimos eat? Whale blubber and walrus liver." To which pig-kid says "Blubber and liver? That's gross."





Come on, John Segal! Eskimos--who prefer Inuit, Inupiaq and their own names for who they are--take baths. You're having fun at their expense, and you're contributing to misinformation about people who Americans know so little about!

I'm curious, Mr. Segal...

You've got kid-pig playing Cowboy on one page, but you don't have the usual playing Indian alongside it. I wonder why you didn't do that? I'd like to think you knew better, but the Eskimo page tells me otherwise. Playing Eskimo is just as bad as playing Indian.

And---what's up with making fun of food Alaska Natives eat?! As Erin (a librarian who works with Inupiaq children) writes in her review at Goodreads,

The Iñupiaq people practice a subsistence lifestyle that many people may regard as “gross” because it is unfamiliar. Bowhead whales are harvested and used to feed the entire community. 

Erin writes that she's sending the book back to the publisher. I wonder if she included a letter stating why. I hope so! And, I wonder what would happen if ten people did that?

Segal's choice to make light of Alaska Natives backfires. For a thoughtful essay on humor, take a few minutes to read Uma Krishnaswami's article at Horn Book: "No Joke! Humor and Culture in Middle-Grade Books." Though her essay focuses on middle-grade books, her words apply to picture books, too.

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Last night (Feb 21, 2013), I joined a Readers Advisory chat on Twitter. Held every first and third Thursday evening at 8:00 PM Eastern Time, #readadv is hosted by Liz Burns @LizBurns, Kelly Jensen @catagator, and Sophie Brookover @sophiebiblio.

Last night's topic was weeding. It was a fascinating discussion, with participants being asked to respond (if they wanted to) to a series of questions. I learned that the process of weeding ranges from an individual doing it with no guidelines at all to individuals who are responsible for developing lists that are then used at libraries in a particular system. It was enlightening and lighthearted, too.

At one point in the discussion, participants were asked to name a book they'd recently removed from the collection. Among those named was Dances With Wolves: A Story for Children. I gotta say, I was glad to know it was weeded! I also gotta say that I'm not surprised the movie prompted a book for children. Money, you know. MONEY.

I know a lot of people love that movie, but.... Though you see Native people in it all over the place, who is the story about? Its really a love story about a white guy (Costner) and a white woman who lived with the Indians since childhood. Native people are just the backdrop for that romance.

Costner's film is derided enough within Native circles that its part of a joke we tell about the "B.C.'s" Native people have had more than just that one "B.C." We've had three. "Before Christ, Before Columbus, and, Before Costner." When Avatar was released, people added "Before Cameron" to the joke.

When I got up this morning, I saw that my daughter (she's working on a Master's degree at the University of Cambridge in the UK) had posted David Sirota's approropriately titled, Oscar loves a white savior article on my Facebook wall. Sirota's article is terrific. Among the films he critiques are Dances With Wolves and Avatar.  

So! Dances With Wolves: A Story for Children. Amazon tells me that James Howe adapted it for Scholastic in 1991. I can get a used copy for a penny... Shall I?

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Richard Van Camp has another terrific book out... I've written before about his board books, his picture books, and his young adult novel, The Lesser Blessed. That guy has a gift with words. He does not disappoint. Richard, by the way, is Dogrib (Tlicho) Dene from Fort Smith, Northwest Territory, Canada. Check out his page at Goodreads.

Little You is his third board book. This one is illustrated by Metis artist, Julie Flett. I wrote about her alphabet book, Owls See Clearly at Night. Her work is gorgeous.

His words and her art. Stunning. Here's the cover:

And here's just one page from inside:

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The most powerful stories are those that pull you in such that you feel the emotions of the character(s) in the story and when you come to the end, you let loose a big sigh. When I Was Eight did that to me when I read it a few days ago.

Published in 2013 by Annick Press, the authors of When I Was Eight are Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton. The story told in When I Was Eight is one from Margaret's childhood. Margaret is Inuit. Christy is her daughter-in-law.

Here's the first line from the book:

I knew many things when I was eight. I knew how to keep the sled dogs quiet while Father snuck up on caribous, and to bring the team to him after a kill. I knew the sun slept in the winter and woke in the summer. And I knew that when the sun-warmed Arctic Ocean shrugged off its slumbering ice, we would cross it to trade furs with the outsiders.

Those words are quite evocative. Ocean shrugging of ice! Wow! I like thinking about that image.

And, did you notice the word "outsiders" in the last sentence? Margaret's family traded with the outsiders, and as we turn the page, we learn more about the outsiders. We see two Inuit girls. One is reading to the other. The older one is Rosie, and the younger one is Olemaun (Margaret's Inuit name). Olemaun wants to read, too, like her sister does. But, that means going to the outsiders' school...

Olemaun's dad finally agrees to let her go. Once she gets there, though, we see and read about what happens to her.



Cutting their hair and taking their traditional clothing from them was the first step in stripping Native children of their identity once they got to boarding schools. Some schools, like the one in When I Was Eight, were mission schools.

The words and the art in When I Was Eight convey a frightful but honest story about perseverance.  Olemaun learned to read, in spite of the obstacles she encountered at school.

Some of us might like children's books to be light and pretty, but for many of us, life isn't always that way. Denying that reality and that history is a disservice to everyone. According to Amazon, it'll be available on February 26th. Look for it. Order it. Share it.

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On May 3rd and 4th, 2013, the Newberry Library in Chicago will host a seminar titled "Why You Can't Teach U.S. History without American Indians." Here's the illustration they're using on the promotional materials:

Benjamin West. "William Penn's Treaty with the Indians when he founded the Province of Pennsylvania in North American," 1771. Photo edited by Catherine Gass, Newberry Library.

Pretty eye-catching, isn't it?  Here's the accompanying description of the symposium:

For generations U.S. historians wrote the nation’s story as if Indians did not exist, or at best, they marginalized Indian peoples as unimportant actors in the national drama of revolution and democratic state formation. Despite the large number of faculty trained in American Indian history very little has changed and most college level students who enroll in large survey courses in U.S. history learn about Indians during the initial stages of encounter and then, Indians are often depicted as succumbing to epidemic diseases or being pushed of their lands by westward expansion.

Th e mission of this symposium is to change how historians teach U.S. history. Today, we are fortunate to have a large number of faculty who teach American Indian Studies and the knowledge base that these scholars possess is profound, thoroughgoing, and expansive. These new perspectives need to be better incorporated into the interpretation and writing of history. Repeatedly, we hear faculty proclaim that they would include Indians if they were more central to mainstream history. Th is symposium intends to challenge that perspective and to provide a new expanded resource for college level faculty.

Here's the line-up of panelists for the two-day session:

Session One: Land, Borders, and Sacred Spaces

• Mikal Brotnov, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Margaret Jacobs, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “Teaching American History as Squatter Imperialism”

• Juliana Barr, University of Florida. “Borderlands”

• Kiara M. Vigil, Amherst College. “Sacred Spaces: American Indians and National Parks in U. S. Cultural History, 1877 to Today”

• COMMENTATOR: Scott Lyons, University of Michigan

Session Two: Religious Freedom, Citizenship, and Education

• Jacob Betz, University of Chicago. “In the Eye of the Storm: American Indians and Religious Freedom in U.S. History”

• Jeffrey D. Means, University of Wyoming. “Native Americans and Concepts of American Citizenship: American and Oglala Lakota Identity and Citizenship, 1848-1934”

• Phillip H. Round, University of Iowa. “America’s Indigenous Reading Revolution”

• COMMENTATOR: Ray Fogelson, Emeritus, University of Chicago

Session Three: Colonial to Early Republic

• James D. Rice, SUNY Plattsburgh. “Rethinking ‘The American Paradox’: Bacon’s Rebellion, Indians, and the U.S. History Survey”

• Sarah Pearsall, Cambridge University. “Re-Centering Indian Women in the American Revolution”

• Margaret Newell, Ohio State University. “American Indians and Economic History”

• Susan Sleeper-Smith, Michigan State University. “Rethinking the Fur Trade As a Culture of Exchange”

• COMMENTATOR: Daniel Usner, Vanderbilt University

Session Four: The Opening of the West

• Robert Miller, Lewis & Clark Law School, Oregon. “Lewis and Clark and the Doctrine of Discovery” 

• Adam Jortner, Auburn University. “Cartography, Pedagogy, and the Indian Nations of the Early Republic: Remapping Diplomacy and Power on the Antebellum Frontier”

• Jeani O’Brien, University of Minnesota. “The California Gold Rush: Mineral Strikes in Indian History”

• COMMENTATOR: John Hall, University of Wisconsin

Saturday, May 4, 2013, 9 am – 3 pm

Session Five: The Civil War Era

• Paul T. Conrad, Colorado State University-Pueblo. “Why You Can’t Teach the History of U.S. Slavery without Indians”

• Luke C. Ryan, Georgia Gwinnett College. “Indians in Bleeding Kansas: Tribal Survival and the Coming of the Civil War”

• Scott Manning Stevens, The Newberry Library. “American Indians and the Civil War”

• COMMENTATOR: Dave Edmunds, University of Texas at Dallas

Session Six: Reconstruction and the Progressive Era

• Jeffrey Ostler, University of Oregon. “Indian Warfare in the West” 

• Malinda Maynor Lowery, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “Race between Reconstruction and Civil Rights” 

• Brenda Child, University of Minnesota and John Troutman, University of Louisiana – Lafayette. “American Indian Education from Reconstruction to the New Deal”

• COMMENTATOR: Fred Hoxie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Session Seven: From the Indian New Deal to the Postwar Era

• Mindy J. Morgan, Michigan State University. “’Working’ from the Margins: Documenting American Indian Participation in the New Deal Era”

• Sierra Adare-Tasiwoopa ápi, SUNY Buffalo. “Overcoming Barriers, Battles, and the Home Front: American Indians Helping to Win the War”

• Andrew Needham, New York University. “Powering American Indian Energy and Postwar Consumption”

• COMMENTATOR: Cathleen Cahill, University of New Mexico

Session Eight: Civil Rights, Indigenous Rights

• David Beck, University of Montana. “The Civil Rights Movement and Indians” 

• John J. Laukaitis, North Park University. “Positioning American Indian Self-Determination Movement in the Era of Civil Rights”

• K. Tsianina Lomawaima, University of Arizona. “Exploding Federalism: Native Nations as Sovereign Partners”

• Chris Andersen, University of Alberta. “Global Indigeneity”

• COMMENTATOR: Robert Warrior, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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1. What does the CBC diversity group have as qualifications to recommend books and what is the personal background on each member?
2. What process does CBC use to vet the books on the Good Reads shelf?
3. If books on the Good Reads shelf are not representative of a particular group will the CBC take them off the list?

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What are you doing on March 6, 2013, at 1:00 PM Pacific Time? If you're near Cal State Polytechnic University in Pomona, consider attending my lecture. It is open to the public, and there's no charge for it! I'll be speaking at the Bronco Student Center - Centaurus. Here's the flyer:

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Upon learning that Champaign Public Library's 110 Books for Every Child included books with blackface and that stereotype American Indians, Creek author Durango Mendoza wrote that children and their families "could feel ambushed by the foul among the good."

I'm going to ask him if I can use that phrase as a label for any time that I write about a book in which a child--Native or not--might be ambushed by the foul in a book that has received much acclaim by others.

Today's post is about three of those books.

First is Harry Allard's The Stupids Step Out. Though the text never mentions American Indians, James Marshall decided to put Kitty, their dog (so named because they're stupid), in a headdress:

In The Stupids Have A Ball, Marshall presents Kitty in a headband with one feather (leaf?!) in it:



The Stupids series is very popular. Scholars who write about how best to engage reluctant readers point to these books as ones teachers should use. Teachers that use those two books with Native children are likely giving then more reasons to be reluctant to read! And anyone with insight into stereotyping and why it is wrong will have found the foul among the good that Durango Mendoza expressed.

We can do better! If The Stupids books were the last books on earth, we might have to use them, but they aren't. We can set them aside, can't we?

And while you're in the 'setting aside' mode, take a look at Marshall's George and Martha, Encore. In it, he's got George playing Indian...





Why would we, in 2013, use books that stereotype American Indians? Doing so affirms (or introduces) playing Indian, and we don't affirm or introduce playing ______ (fill in the blank), do we?

__________________
Stupids Step Out, first published in 1974, by Houghton Mifflin
Stupids Have A Ball, first published in 1978, by Houghton Mifflin
George and Martha, Encore, first published in 1973, by Houghton Mifflin

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The people who established International Book Giving Day asked me to recommend books for their book giving project. Their post with recommended books went up today (Feb. 7, 2013):

See Birchbark House on the top left of the collage of book covers they created? I love the title of the page "More children should have the opportunity to read these books." Head over there to see other books on their list. Sign up to participate, too! They have several ways people can participate.

The international component of the project is important, because stereotypes of American Indians are everywhere, including children's books published in other countries. Take a look at a few of them.

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February 6, 2013

Dear Librarians at Champaign Public Library,

While reading The News Gazette yesterday, I read that you had prepared a list of books called "110 Books for Every Child." When I read "every child," I wondered if you were thinking about all children in the area. Were you thinking about American Indian children, too? We are part of the Champaign-Urbana community.

When I clicked on the link and opened the list, I was glad to see some titles on it, like Bud Not Buddy and The Giver and Poppy. But I am disappointed that it also includes Little Town on the Prairie. 

On page 257, Laura is amongst the crowds gathered in the schoolhouse, waiting for the "Literary" (performance) to begin. Here's an excerpt:

Then up the center aisle came marching five black-faced men in raggedy-taggedy uniforms. White circles were around their eyes and their mouths were wide and red. Up onto the platform they marched, then facing forward in a row suddenly they all advanced, singing, "Oh, talk about your Mulligan Guards! These darkies can't be beat!"

The five men take the stage (p. 258):



Here's the text on that page, just above the illustration:

When the dancing stopped, the jokes began. The white-circled eyes rolled, the big red mouths blabbed questions and answers that were the funniest ever heard. Then there was music again, and even wilder dancing.

Darkies? Big red mouths?!

Earlier in the book, Laura and Mary listen to Pa tell them a story about how, when he was a little boy, he'd pretend he was hunting Indians (page 53):

When I was a little boy, not much bigger than Mary, I had to go every afternoon to find the cows in the woods and drive them home. My father told me never to play by the way, but to hurry and bring the cows home before dark, because there were bears and wolves and panthers in the woods.

One day I started earlier than usual, so I thought I did not need to hurry. There were so many things to see in the woods that I forgot that dark was coming. There were red squirrels in the trees, chipmunks scurrying through the leaves, and little rabbits playing games together in the open places. Little rabbits, you know, always have games together before they go to bed.

I began to play I was a mighty hunter, stalking the wild animals and the Indians. I played I was fighting the Indians, until all woods seemed full of wild men, and then all at once I heard the birds twittering 'good night.'

Stalking wild animals and Indians?!

I'm not calling for this book to be removed from the library, but I do think it ought not be endorsed as a "good book" for "every child." I don't think its good for any child at all!

Imagine reading it aloud to an African American or an American Indian child. How would you manage those particular excerpts?

I know people who say that reading these books lets kids know that there was racism in America's past, but, isn't endorsing them in 2009 as "good books" a bad idea? Children should learn about racism in the past and present, too, but might that be better done in another way?

See--if you're reading this book aloud to a child, you're probably doing it in a way that will cause them to like the characters. And then you're going to interrupt the reading to explain that, essentially Pa was either a racist, or, engaged in racist thinking. It seems a better idea (to me) to select a book to enjoy that doesn't do that sort of thing.

I wonder how many people actually take time to explain those passages as racist?

My guess is that a lot of people just blow right past them, thereby inserting racist ideology into the minds of the children that are being read to, and/or affirming the already-existing racist ideology that has crept into that child's world view.

And---if a child is reading this book alone (without an adult to mediate it), how will that child make sense of those excerpts?

I have similar concerns about other books on the list and am sharing brief notes on them:

The Indian in the Cupboard is very popular, but it makes people into the playthings of children. This is especially troubling because of the identities of the characters. In it, you have a white child manipulating the life and death of an Indian man.

Island of the Blue Dolphins has stereotypes in it and the information it provides is outdated. Today, we know so much more about the people involved in this story. This book doesn't accurately portray them. Shouldn't we set it aside in favor of terrific stories that don't misrepresent someone, especially when that someone is a group for which most American have little substantive knowledge?

We keep recycling romantic and stereotyped ideas and images of American Indians. Maybe that is what makes it possible for a book like Walk Two Moons to win awards. It, unfortunately, has a great many stereotypes of American Indians in it.

As I noted earlier, I'm not asking you to remove the books from the library, but I do think their place on a list of "good" books ought to be reconsidered. Perhaps if they were removed from the list, you could replace them with award-winning books that provide children with accurate knowledge about American Indians. Given our proximity to the Great Lakes, Louise Erdrich's The Birchbark House and its sequels would be terrific additions to the list.

Sincerely,
Debbie Reese
American Indians in Children's Literature

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In 1964, Jeff Brown introduced readers to a character named Flat Stanley:

Flat Stanley's name is actually Stanley Lambchop, but a bulletin board fell on him, turning him from a three-dimensional boy into a flat one. Much beloved, Flat Stanley evolved into a very popular project through which schoolchildren would make a Flat Stanley and mail it to friends and family in far off places.

A huge success, it also evolved into a series of early readers. Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures: The Mount Rushmore Calamity is one of those readers.



In it, Flat Stanley and his family go to Mount Rushmore. While there, they meet a tour guide's daughter. Her name is Calamity Jasper:



The interesting thing about Calamity Jasper is what she says about herself on page 48:



See? She is "part Lakota Sioux." In addition to knowing "useful things" about plants and hunting (can you say STEREOTYPE?), she knows how to send smoke signals (come on, say it again: STEREOTYPE). Course, because Stanley is FLAT, they use him as the blanket to send those smoke signals:



The stereotypes are bad, but there's more.

Look again at page 48 when Calamity tells us she's part Lakota Sioux. See the words "Gold Rush" in the previous sentence? Calamity Jasper is out looking for gold in a gold mine. A gold mine located in the Black Hills, and she is determined to get some of that gold for herself...

Let's consider what the Lakota Nation has on its website about the Black Hills:

In 1874 George Armstrong Custer led the U.S. Army Black Hills Expedition, which set out on July 2 from Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory, with orders to travel to the previously uncharted Black Hills of South Dakota. Its mission was to look for suitable locations for a fort, find a route to the southwest, and to investigate the potential for gold mining. His discovery of gold was made public and miners began migrating there illegally.

"Custer's florid descriptions of the mineral and timber resources of the Black Hills, and the land's suitability for grazing and cultivation ... received wide circulation, and had the effect of creating an intense popular demand for the 'opening' of the Hills for settlement. "Initially the U.S. military tried to turn away trespassing miners and settlers. Eventually President Grant, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of War, "decided that the military should make no further resistance to the occupation of the Black Hills by miners."These orders were to be enforced "quietly", and the President's decision was to remain "confidential."

As more settlers and gold miners invaded the Black Hills, the Government determined it had to acquire the land from the Sioux, and appointed a commission to negotiate the purchase. The negotiations failed, as the Sioux resisted giving up what they considered sacred land. The U.S. resorted to military force. They declared the Sioux Indians "hostile" for failing to obey an order to return from an off-reservation hunting expedition by a specific date, but in the dead of winter, overland travel was impossible.

The consequent military expedition to remove the Sioux from the Black Hills included an attack on a major encampment of several bands on the Little Bighorn River. Led by General Custer, the attack ended in the overwhelming victory of chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse over the 7th Cavalry Regiment, a conflict often called Custer's Last Stand.

In 1876 the U.S. Congress decided to open up the Black Hills to development and break up the Great Sioux Reservation. In 1877, it passed an act to make 7.7 million acres (31,000 km2) of the Black Hills available for sale to homesteaders and private interests. In 1889 Congress divided the remaining area of Great Sioux Reservation into five separate reservations and defined the boundaries of each in its Act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 888.

At the end of the book, there's a section called "What You Need to Know to Be a Black Hills Gold Miner." I'm guessing this information is what led the reviewer for School Library Journal to call the book "educational":

Native Americans have lived in the Black Hills for more than 9000 years. Some Lakota believe the Black Hills are the sacred center of the world.

The Black Hills Gold Rush began in 1874, when Colonel Custer led a thousand men into the western part of South Dakota to investigate reports that the area contained gold. That's the same Custer who later had his Last Stand against Sitting Bull at the Battle of Little Big Horn. 

One of the most famous cowgirls of the Black Hills was named Calamity Jane. She was a good friend of the famous lawman Wild Bill Hickock.

Gold was first discovered in the Black Hills just a few miles from where Mount Rushmore was later built.

Some would-be miners get tricked by "fools gold," which looks a lot like the real thing. If you want to tell the difference, try pressing your fingernail into the surface. If it leaves a small indent, you've found gold!

The heads on Mount Rushmore are as tall as a six-story building. If you matched them with bodies, the men with those heads would be three times as tall as the Statue of Liberty. 

Some of the individual items the reader needs to know to be a "Black Hills Gold Miner" are odd. Why would you tell the child that the Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota people?! You've just read a story about mining for gold... on sacred land? I don't get the logic. How would the story itself be different if the author included the sacred nature of that land within the story? Maybe the author would abandon the project. Maybe the author didn't write these last pages!

Though the reviewer for School Library Journal called this book "educational and fun," I beg to differ. Stereotypes are not fun, and I don't think the book is educational, either. Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures: The Mount Rushmore Calamity was published in 2009 by Harper. The author is Sara Pennypacker, and the illustrations are by Macky Pamintuan.

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Over at BuzzFeed, Leonora Epstein posted 15 Unbelievably Racist Valentine's Day Cards. I'm sharing two of them in this post. Before I do that, though, let's take a look at the subtitle for her post. She writes "This collection of V-Day cards circa 1900 to 1930 or so will make you wish Valentine's Day never existed." With that subtitle, she suggests that times are different. I think she's not paying attention to mascots like the ones for the Washington Redskins or the Cleveland Indians. She must not know about the Gwen Stefani video either.

Let's take a look at two of the cards:

Problems:
"Ugh ugh" - I'd love to know who it was that first put down "ugh ugh" as words or speech of Native people!

The headdress itself - One of the common stereotypical ways that a headdress is drawn.

The geometric trim around the heart - I guess this could be traced to textiles Native artists weave on looms. But don't artists from other groups also use looms in creating their woven items?

Wondering about his "give me" line. What do you think about that?

And or course, he is playing Indian. The artist didn't intend you to think the boy is actually Native. That's different (mostly) from the other Valentine's Day cards in the BuzzFeed article...


Here's the second one:

Problems:
"How" - Another utterance someone attributed as the way that Indians say hello. You remember it from Disney's Peter Pan?

The headdress - Another of the common ways that a headdress is drawn...

Given her skin tone, we can speculate that the artist meant her to actually be Native, but that's not likely. Like the boy in the card above, she's most likely playing Indian, too.



If you want to see more, check out the ones Adrienne K. has been posting each year at Native Appropriations. As far as I know, makers of the Valentine's day cards no longer use these stereotypes. I wish authors and illustrators of children's and young adult literature would stop, too!

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In the closing pages of Girl Meets Boy: Because There Are Two Sides to Every Story, we learn that Joseph Bruchac wrote "Falling Down to See the Moon" and that after reading his story, Cynthia Leitich Smith wrote "Mooning Over Broken Stars."

Joe and Cyn are two of my favorite writers. I recognize the places they write about, and as a Native kid/teen who grew up at Nambe Pueblo, I recognize the characters they developed for their stories in Girl Meets Boy. I know/knew guys like Bobby Wildcat and girls like Nancy Whitepath. They were my classmates when I was in school at Pojoaque (a public school that serves four different pueblos).

And they were my students when I taught Native kids in New Mexico and Oklahoma. Nancy Whitepath is a basketball player. When I taught at Santa Fe Indian School, my husband and I went to a lot of basketball games, cheering for our students. SFIS has won many state championships (source: Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper):

In the stories they wrote for Girl Meets Boy, we aren't told what tribe either character belongs to. Most of the time, the omission of that detail would be a serious flaw. Tribal identity is one of the things I look for when evaluating a story. But, because Joe and Cyn are who they are, I didn't need that detail. I was with them right away. I want to spend time thinking about what that means...

For now, I'm just going to recommend that you get Girl Meets Boy (published in 2012 by Chronicle Books).

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Nancy Larrick's article, The All White World of Children's Book, was published in 1965. I wondered what I might find if I did a search in the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database, using "Indian" as the search term and limiting the search for fiction published from 1955 to 1965. What, I wondered, were her options for books about American Indians? She was, for those who don't know, looking particularly at depictions of African Americans and was very troubled by what she found. Hence the title of her article "all white."

I ran the search and got 337 titles. I am pasting the results below. As you scroll through the list, you'll see duplicates and you'll see books that obviously don't belong on the list (for example, The Elephant that Galumphed).  

Some observations:

There aren't any authors on the list that I recognize as being Native.

I see that James Fenimore Cooper is on it several times. I'm thinking we can likely credit him with being responsible for a wide range of stereotyping. Good Indians, bad ones, ones who disappear into the mists of time...

Looks like there are several stories of whites who befriend Indians, and, stories of whites who are captured by Indians...

And how 'bout that Bread and Butter Indian by Anne Colver? Interesting title, don't you agree? Wondering what that one is about, I did a quick look-see at Google Books, learned that the illustrations are by Garth Williams! Here's the cover:

And here's the summary of the book:

A little girl named Barbara befriends a hungry Indian, offering him the bread and butter. Later she is kidnaped by a strange Indian. The story describes how the "bread-and-butter" Indian comes to her rescue.

What do you think? Is that Indian on the cover the hungry one? Or the strange one!

Some books on the list make me shudder because they are over-the-top in how they present Native characters (borrowing Rudine Sims Bishop's words about early books about African Americans) as objects of ridicule. Let's take a look at a few of them.

Check out Syd Hoff's Little Chief, the lonely Indian boy with an upside-down feather who finds friends among a wagon load of white kids:



Little Chief was/is an early reader. I don't think its still being published. Thank goodness for that, but believe it or not, Benchley's Red Fox and his Canoe, illustrated by Arnold Lobel, is still being marketed and used as an early reader. Here's an illustration from Red Fox and his Canoe:




Another one still in publication is Good Hunting, Little Indian by Peggy Parrish. But wait! The title is now Good Hunting, Blue Sky! I'll have to see if I can find the older copy so I can compare text and illustrations. For now, here's the covers. The original publication was in 1962, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard. The one with a new title has new illustrations, by James Watts.




Here's a page from inside Good Hunting, Blue Sky:



I'll wrap this up for now and do more analytical work with the list. One thing I'll probably do for a more closely aligned comparison, is limit the search to the specific years of Larrick's study. She looked at books published in 1962, 1963, and 1964.

Before I close, though, I'm going to suggest that no child in your classroom or library gains anything useful by reading Little Chief or Good Hunting, Blue Sky.  Please consider setting them aside.

Sources cited:

Bishop, Rudine Sims. (2012). "Reflections on the Development of African American Children's Literature," Journal of Children's Literature, 38(2), pp. 5-13.

Larrick, Nancy. "The All White World of Children's Books," Saturday Review, September 11, 1965, pp. 63-65+

CLCD Search

Use your browser's save and print functions to save or print this report.
Use the Back button to return to your search results.Search was for: The word Indian (All Fields).
Singular and plural forms were searched.
Search restricted to books published between 1955 and 1965.
Only works of fiction were retrieved.

AUTHOR	TITLE	YEAR	PUBLISHER	ISBN	ANNOTATIONS
Harrington, M. R.	The Indians of New Jersey; Dickon among the Lenapes,	1963	Rutgers University Press		First ed. published in 1938 under title: Dickon among the Lenape Indians.;
Cooper, James Fenimore	The deerslayer : or, The first war-path	1962	Collier Books
Stoutenburg, Adrien.	The mud ponies : based on a Pawnee Indian myth	1963	Coward-McCann
Kendall, Lace.	The mud ponies : based on a pawnee Indian myth	1963	Coward-McCann
Ward, Nanda Weedon.	The elephant that ga-lumphed,	1959	Ariel Books.		After a series of misadventures a noisy baby Indian elephant learns to walk quietly. Grades 1-3.;
Adams, Audrey	Karankawa boy.	1965	Naylor Co.
Adams, Audrey.	Karankawa boy.	1965	Naylor
Allen, T. D.	Tall as great standing rock.	1963	Westminster Press
Allen, Terry.	Tall as great standing rock	1963	Westminster
Cooper, James Fenimore	The last of the Mohicans : a narrative of 1757	1956	Scribner		While guiding a small party of English settlers to the protection of a fort during the French and Indian War, Hawkeye, a frontier scout, and his two Indian friends, the remaining braves of the Mohican tribe, struggle against the evils of Uncas who desires a white maiden for his wife.;
Cooper, James Fenimore.	The deerslayer, or, The first warpath	1963	New American Library
Cooper, James Fenimore	The last of the Mohicans	1957	Washington Square Press
Annixter, Jane.	Buffalo chief	1958	Holiday
Annixter, Jane.	Buffalo chief	1958	Holiday
Annixter, Jane.	Buffalo chief	1958	Holiday
Annixter, Jane.	Buffalo chief	1958	Holiday
Annixter, Jane.	Buffalo chief	1963	E. M. Hale
Annixter, Jane.	Windigo	1963	Holiday House
Armer, Laura (Adams)	Waterless mountain	1963	D. McKay Co.
Armer, Laura Adams.	Waterless mountain	1959	David McKay
Armer, Laura Adams.	Waterless mountain	1959	McKay
Arnold, Elliott.	White Falcon	1958	Knopf
Arntson, Herbert E.	Two guns in old Oregon	1964	Watts, F.
Whipple, Mary Anne	The first Californians	1962	Shinozaki Shorin		Title on cover: The first Californian.;
Overholser, Wayne D.	The Meeker Massacre,	1964	Cowles	0402141016 ; 9780402141013	Two boys, one Indian and one white, become involved in the growing conflict between an inflexible Indian agent and a Ute tribe.;
Baker, Betty.	Killer-of-death	1963	Harper & Row
Baker, Betty.	Killer-of-Death.	1963	Harper & Row
Baker, Betty.	Little Runner of the longhouse	1962	Harper & Row	0005091829 ; 9780005091821
Baker, Betty.	Little Runner of the longhouse.	1962	Harper	0060203412 (lib. bdg.) ; 9780060203412	A young Indian boy, too young to join the older boys in part of the New Year celebration, celebrates his own way with his family.; Reading Counts-Scholastic; Interest Level K-2; Reading Level 2; Title Point Value 2; Lexile Measure 430; 0430; 00 01 02; 020; 002;
Baker, Betty.	Little Runner of the longhouse.	1962	Harper
Baker, Betty	Walk the world's rim.	1965	Harper & Row	0060203811 (lib. bdg.) ; 9780060203818	Bibliog; As they journey to Mexico, Chakoh, a young Indian boy, and Esteban, a Spanish Negro slave, become friends and teach each other their ways;
Baker, Betty.	Walk the world's rim	1965	Harper & Row	0064400263 ; 9780064400268	Bibliography: p. [169];
Balch, Glenn	Little Hawk and the free horses.	1957	Crowell
Balch, Glenn	Spotted horse.	1961	Crowell
Baldwin, Clara.	Little Tuck.	1959	Doubleday		An undersized frontier lad, anxious to grow up and share the chores and fun of his big brothers, catches his own turkey, helps shear sheep, finds honey, befriends an Indian, and kills a bobcat.;
Baldwin, Clara.	Little Tuck.	1959	Doubleday		An undersized frontier lad, anxious to grow up and share the chores and fun of his big brothers, catches his own turkey, helps shear sheep, finds honey, befriends an Indian, and kills a bobcat.;
Ball, Zachary	Joe Panther	1961	E. M. Hale		In an endeavor to earn money for school, an industrious Seminole becomes a deck hand on a tourist boat and accidently is involved in a smuggling ring.;
Bannon, Laura.	Hop-High, the goat.	1960	Bobbs-Merrill		A Navajo Indian family comes back from town with a new stove and a naughty, spoiled goat that causes many troubles before he becomes useful as leader of the flock of sheep.;
Bannon, Laura.	Hop-High, the goat.	1960	Bobbs-Merrill		A Navajo Indian family comes back from town with a new stove and a naughty, spoiled goat that causes many troubles before he becomes useful as leader of the flock of sheep.;
Bealer, Alex W.	Picture-skin story	1957	Holiday
Beatty, Patricia	Indian canoe-maker	1960	Caxton Printers
Beckhard, Arthur J.	Black Hawk.	1957	J. Messner		Includes bibliography.; A biography of Black Hawk, the Sauk Indian who became chief of his tribe in 1788 and whose refusal to yield his tribal lands to the white man resulted in the Black Hawk War.;
Beckhard, Arthur J.	Black Hawk.	1957	J. Messner		Includes bibliography.; A biography of Black Hawk, the Sauk Indian who became chief of his tribe in 1788 and whose refusal to yield his tribal lands to the white man resulted in the Black Hawk War.;
Beebe, B. F.	Coyote, come home.	1963	D. McKay Co.		A coyote, orphaned as a pup, is rescued and befriended by an old Apache seeking companionship, and provides the aged Indian with loyalty and affection which protects them both.;
Beebe, Burdetta Faye.	Chestnut cub	1963	McKay
Benchley, Nathaniel.	Red fox and his canoe / (paper)	1964	Harper & Row	0064440753 ; 9780064440752	A young Indian boy receives a larger canoe along with some unforseen complications.; Accelerated Reader; Interest Level Lower Grade; Book Level 2.2; Accelerated Reader Points 0.5; Accelerated Vocabulary, Recorded Voice Quizzes; 00 01 02 03; 022; 000; Lexile, MetaMetrics, Inc.; Lexile Measure 260; 0260; Reading Counts-Scholastic; Interest Level K-2; Reading Level 3; Title Point Value 2; Lexile Measure 260; 0260; 00 01 02; 030; 002;
Benchley, Nathaniel.	Red fox and his canoe	1964	Harper & Row	0060204761 ; 9780060204761	A young Indian boy receives a larger canoe along with some unforeseen complications.;
Benchley, Nathaniel	Red fox and his canoe.	1964	Harper & Row		A young Indian boy receives a larger canoe along with some unforseen complications.;
Benchley, Nathaniel	Red fox and his canoe.	1964	Harper & Row		A young Indian boy receives a larger canoe along with some unforseen complications.;
Benchley, Nathaniel	Red fox and his canoe	1964	Scholastic Book Services		A young Indian boy receives a larger canoe along with some unforseen complications.;
Berry, Erick.	Valiant captive ...	1962	Chilton Co.
Berry, Erick	Valiant captive; a story of Margaret Eames, captured in 1676 by the Indians from the New Settlement, which later became Framingham, Massachusetts	1963	Chilton
Booker, Jim.	Trail to Oklahoma	1959	Broadman Press
Borland, Hal Glen	When the legends die. (paper)	1963	Lippincott	0553113380 ; 9780553113389
Borland, Hal Glen.	When the legends die	1963	Lippincott	039700303X: ; 9780397003037
Borland, Hal, Glen	When the legends die	1963	Lippincott	0553257382 (pbk.) ; 0881030570 (Econo-clad) ; 9780553257380 ; 9780881030570	Cover: A Bantam starfire book.; Accelerated Reader; Interest Level Upper Grade; Book Level 5.2; Accelerated Reader Points 13; Accelerated Vocabulary, Literacy Skills; 09 10 11 12; 052; 013; Lexile, MetaMetrics, Inc.; Lexile Measure 850; 0850; Reading Counts-Scholastic; Interest Level 6-8; Reading Level 6; Title Point Value 20; Lexile Measure 850; 0850; 06 07 08; 060; 020;
Borland, Hal	When the legends die	1963	Bantam Books
Borland, Hal	When the legends die.	1963	Lippincott
Borland, Hal	When the legends die.	1963	Lippincott		An orphaned Ute Indian boy wins stardom on the rodeo circuit, but becomes disillusioned by the new ways and searches for his identity in the old ways of his ancestors.;
Borland, Hal	When the legends die	1964	Bantam Books	0553257382 (pbk.) ; 0553226428 (pbk.) ; 9780553257380 ; 9780553226423	"A Bantam Starfire book."; An orphaned Ute Indian boy wins stardom on the rodeo circuit, but becomes disillusioned by the new ways and searches for his identity in the old ways of his ancestors.; Accelerated Reader; Interest Level Upper Grade; Book Level 5.2; Accelerated Reader Points 13; Accelerated Vocabulary, Literacy Skills; 09 10 11 12; 052; 013; Lexile, MetaMetrics, Inc.; Lexile Measure 850; 0850; Reading Counts-Scholastic; Interest Level 6-8; Reading Level 6; Title Point Value 20; Lexile Measure 850; 0850; 06 07 08; 060; 020;
Borland, Hal	When the legends die	1964	Bantam Books	0812416945 (Cover Craft) ; 0553257382 (pbk.) ; 0881030570 (Econo-clad) ; 0881030570 (Econoclad) ; 9780812416947 ; 9780553257380 ; 9780881030570 ; 9780881030570	Cover: A Bantam starfire book.; Accelerated Reader; Interest Level Upper Grade; Book Level 5.2; Accelerated Reader Points 13; Accelerated Vocabulary, Literacy Skills; 09 10 11 12; 052; 013; Lexile, MetaMetrics, Inc.; Lexile Measure 850; 0850; Reading Counts-Scholastic; Interest Level 6-8; Reading Level 6; Title Point Value 20; Lexile Measure 850; 0850; 06 07 08; 060; 020;
Borland, Hal	When the legends die	1965	Bantam Books		An orphaned Ute Indian boy wins stardom on the rodeo circuit, but becomes disillusioned by the new ways and searches for his identity in the old ways of his ancestors.;
Bowers, Gwendolyn.	Journey for Jemima.	1960	Walck, H.Z.
Breedlove, Caroline H.	Billy Black Lamb	1958	U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs		"Developed in the Workshop in Navajo Education, Arizona State College, Flagstaff, Arizona, May 26-June 6, 1958.";
Brick, John.	Captive of the Senecas.	1964	Duell
Brick, John.	Captives of the Senecas.	1964	Duell, Sloan and Pearce
Brick, John.	Captives of the Senecas.	1964	Duell
Brick, John.	Eagle of Niagara; the story of David Harper and his Indian captivity.	1955	Doubleday
Brick, John.	Tomahawk trail.	1962	Duell
Buff, Mary (Marsh)	Dancing Cloud : the Navajo boy	1957	Viking
Buff, Mary (Marsh)	Dancing Cloud, the Navajo boy.	1957	Viking Press
Buff, Mary	Dancing Cloud, the Navajo boy.	1957	Viking Press
Buff, Mary.	Hah-Nee of the Cliff Dwellers [by] Mary and Conrad Buff.	1956	Houghton Mifflin
Bulla, Clyde Robert.	Indian Hill	1963	Crowell
Bulla, Clyde Robert.	John Billington, friend of Squanto.	1956	Crowell		A young Pilgrim boy is always causing trouble for Plymouth Colony until one day his mischief results in more friendly relations with the Indians.;
Bulla, Clyde Robert.	John Billington, friend of Squanto.	1956	Crowell		A young Pilgrim boy is always causing trouble for Plymouth Colony until one day his mischief results in more friendly relations with the Indians.;
Bulla, Clyde Robert.	John Billington, friend of Squanto	1956	Crowell		A young Pilgrim boy is always causing trouble for Plymouth Colony until one day his mischief results in more friendly relations with the Indians.;
Butterfield, Marguerite Antoinette	Little Wind	1963	Lyons & Carnahan
Butterfield, Marguerite Antoinette	Morning Star,	1963	Lyons & Carnahan
Carroll, Ruth	Tough Enough's Indians,	1960	H. Z. Walck		While Pa is off fighting a forest fire, Beanie and his brothers and sisters go off to hunt fire-wood, find refuge from the fire under a waterfall, and seek help from a Cherokee Indian family.;
Carroll, Ruth	Tough Enough's Indians,	1960	H. Z. Walck		While Pa is off fighting a forest fire, Beanie and his brothers and sisters go off to hunt fire-wood, find refuge from the fire under a waterfall, and seek help from a Cherokee Indian family.;
Carse, Robert	Friends of the wolf; a novel.	1961	Putnam
Chandler, Edna Walker.	Charley Brave.	1962	A. Whitman
Chandler, Edna Walker.	Cowboy Sam and the Indians	1962	Beckley-Cardy
Chandler, Edna Walker.	Cowboy Sam and the Indians	1962	Benefic Press
Chandler, Edna Walker.	Cowboy Sam and the Indians	1962	Benefic Press
Christensen, Gardell Dano.	Buffalo Horse	1961	Nelson
Christensen, Gardell Dano.	Buffalo kill	1959	Nelson
Christie, Caroline.	Silver Heels : a story of Blackfeet Indians at Glacier National Park	1958	Winston
Clark, Ann (Nolan).	Little Indian basket maker	1957	Melmont Pubs.
Clark, Ann Nolan	Little Indian pottery	1955	Melmont
Clark, Ann Nolan.	Medicine man's daughter	1963	Farrar, Straus
Clark, Electa.	Osceola, young Seminole Indian.	1965	Bobbs-Merrill		Bibliography: p. 198.;
Clymer, Eleanor	Chipmunk in the forest	1965	Atheneum Pubs.
Coatsworth, Elizabeth,	Indian encounters : an anthology of stories and poem/	1960	Macmillan,
Coatsworth, Elizabeth.	Indian encounters : an anthology of stories and poems	1960	Macmillan
Colver, Anne.	Bread-and-butter Indian	1964	Holt
Conrader, Constance.	Blue wampum.	1958	Duell, Sloan and Pearce
Cooper, James Feinmore.	The last of the Mohicans	1964	Parents' Magazine
Culp, John H.	The bright feathers.	1965	Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Nevin, Evelyn C.	The river spirit and the mountain demons	1965	Van Nostrand
Davis, Russell G.	Chief Joseph, war chief of the Nez Percâe	1962	McGraw-Hill
De Leeuw, Cateua	Fear in the forest	1960	T. Nelson		A young orphan boy, whose father was killed by marauding Indians, manages to overcome his morbid fear of the forest when he joins a pack-horse train which travels through the dense forests of Ohio. ;
Dick, Trella Lamson.	Bridger's boy	1965	Follett
Dolch, Edward W.	Once there was a dog	1962	DLM Teaching Resources		Short tales about dogs from the folklore of Poland, Africa, Korea, Yucatan, China, and the American Indian.;
Dolch, Edward W.	Once there was a dog,	1962	Garrard Pub. Co.		Short tales about dogs from the folklore of Poland, Africa, Korea, Yucatan, China, and the American Indian.;
Dolch, Edward W.	Stories from Alaska	1961	DLM Teaching Resources		Folk tales representative of the northernmost state of the United States, from its two native peoples, the Indians and the Eskimos.;
Downey, Fairfax Davis	General Crook: Indian fighter.	1957	Westminster Press
DuBois, Theodora.	Tiger burning bright.	1964	Ariel Bks.
Dwight, Allan.	Guns at Quebec.	1962	Macmillan
Simms, William Gilmore	The Yemassee; a romance of Carolina.	1964	Twayne Publishers
Edmonds, Walter Dumaux.	Wilderness clearing	1963	Dodd		In a wilderness clearing in Western New York State when Indian attack threatened and the British attack was expected, sixteen year old Dick Mount proved to Maggie Gordon that he could meet peril.;
Emmons, Della Gould.	Leschi of the Nisquallies.	1965	T. S. Denison
Wood, Kerry	The great chief, Maskepetoon : warrior of the Crees	1959	Canadiana Co. Ltd.
Evans, Katherine	One good deed deserves another.	1964	A. Whitman		A story of a robber who plans to repay a good deed with evil, but who is tricked by a small boy, based on a theme that is common in animal tales told by Indians of the Southwest and Mexico.;
Evans, Katherine	One good deed deserves another.	1964	A. Whitman		A story of a robber who plans to repay a good deed with evil, but who is tricked by a small boy, based on a theme that is common in animal tales told by Indians of the Southwest and Mexico.;
Evans, Katherine	One good deed deserves another.	1964	A. Whitman		A story of a robber who plans to repay a good deed with evil, but who is tricked by a small boy, based on a theme that is common in animal tales told by Indians of the Southwest and Mexico.;
Fall, Thomas	Edge of manhood	1964	Dial Press
Fall, Thomas.	Edge of manhood	1964	Dial Press
Fernald, Helen Clark.	The shadow of the Crooked Tree.	1965	McKay
Fiedler, Arkady	Orinoko.	1961	Iskry
Firethunder, Billy.	Mother Meadowlark and Brother Snake : an Indian legend	1963	Holt
Fisher, Clay.	Valley of the Bear : a novel of the North Plains Sioux	1964	Houghton
Foltz, Mary Jane.	Awani	1964	Morrow
Franklin, George Cory.	Indian uprising	1962	Houghton
Franklin, George Cory.	Indian uprising	1962	Houghton
Franklin, George Cory	Pioneer horse	1960	Houghton
Franklin, George Cory	Pioneer horse	1960	Houghton
Friskey, Margaret Richards	Indian Two Feet and his horse	1959	Children's		LOCATED IN PICTURE BOOK SECTION;
Friskey, Margaret	Indian Two Feet and his horse	1959	Childrens Press	0516035010 ; 0590424297 (Scholastic : pbk.) ; 9780516035017 ; 9780590424295
Furman, A. L.	Young readers nature stories.	1959	Lantern Press		Nine short stories about animals, like coyotes and raccoons, or men in encounters with them, as an Indian boy in a buffalo hunt, a ranch boy seeking to separate the ranch's horses from a band of wild horses, or a boy who cared for an injured sea gull.;
Gage, Wilson.	Secret of the Indian mound	1958	World Pub.
Garst, Shannon	James Bowie and his famous knife.	1955	J. Messner		A biography of a famous Indian fighter and reputed inventor of the defensive Bowie knife, from his childhood on the Louisiana bayou to his death defending the Alamo.;
Garst, Shannon	John Jewitt's adventure.	1955	Houghton Mifflin		Based on the journal of John Jewitt, published in 1807.;
Garst, Shannon	John Jewitt's adventure.	1955	Houghton Mifflin		Based on the journal of John Jewitt, published in 1807.;
Garst, Shannon	Red eagle	1959	Hasting House
Garst, Shannon.	Red Eagle	1959	Hastings House
Gendron, Val.	Behind the Zuni masks	1958	Longmans
George, Jean Craighead.	La tierra que habla / (paper)	1959	Ediciones, Alfaguara	084410728X ; 9780844107288
Giles, Janice Holt.	Johnny Osage / by Janice Holt Giles. --	1960	Houghton Mifflin	0395077354 : ; 9780395077351
Giles, Janice Holt.	Johnny Osage / by Janice Holt Giles.	1960	Houghton Mifflin
Giles, Janice Holt.	Johnny Osage	1960	Houghton
Gipson, Fred	Savage Sam	1962	Harper & Row Publishers		The son of Old Yeller helps his owners escape from the Apaches in East Texas during the 1870's;
Gipson, Fred.	Savage Sam.	1963	Pocket Books
Grant, Bruce	Pancho : a dog of the plains	1958	World Pub
Gringhuis, Dirk.	Young voyageur	1955	McGraw
Haines, Francis.	Red Eagle and the Absaroka.	1960	Caxton Printers
Hall, Gordon Langley.	Peter Jumping Horse at the stampede	1961	Holt
Hall, Gordon Langley.	Peter Jumping Horse at the stampede	1961	Holt
Hall, Gordon Langley.	Peter Jumping Horse	1961	Holt
Harris, Christie.	West with the White Chiefs	1965	Atheneum Pubs
Hayes, John F.	Buckskin colonist	1960	Copp Clark
Hays, Wilma Pitchford.	Easter fires	1959	Coward-McCann	069830067X ; 9780698300675	A fictional account of the first Indian tribes to hear and accept Christianity and of the great fires they lit to celebrate Easter.;
Hays, Wilma Pitchford.	Easter fires	1959	Coward-McCann.
Hays, Wilma Pitchford	Easter fires	1959	Coward-McCann
Hazletine, Alice Isabel	Red man, white man; legends, tales and true accounts of the American Indians,	1957	Lothrop, Lee & Shepard
Heiderstadt, Dorothy.	Marie Tanglehair	1965	McKay
Heiderstadt, Dorothy.	Marie Tanglehair	1965	McKay
Heinzman, George.	Only the earth and the mountains, a novel of the Cheyenne Nationa. --	1964	Macmillan
Henderson, Le Grand	How baseball began in Brooklyn	1958	Abingdon		A humorous story giving one version "of how baseball was started. It all happened when Pieter Denbooms and his nine brothers met up with nine Canarsie Indians." McClurg. Book News.;
Henty, G. A.	With Wolfe in Canada.	1961	Walker		When young James Walsham leaves England unexpectedly in 1755 and finds himself in America fighting in the French and Indian War, he discovers that he must still contend with the treachery of his old rival.;
Hill, Monica	Rin Tin Tin and the lost Indian	1956	Simon and Schuster
Hoff, Syd.	Little Chief	1961	Harper	0004292669 ; 9780004292663	An Indian boy's kindness encourages a group of frontiersmen to settle in the same green valley as the Indians.;
Hoff, Syd	Little Chief,	1961	Harper		An Indian boy's kindness encourages a group of frontiersmen to settle in the same green valley as the Indians.;
Hoffine, Lyla.	Jennie's Mandan bowl	1960	McKay
Hood, Flora Mae.	Something for the medicine man.	1962	Melmont Publishers
Hood, Flora Mae.	Something for the medicine man	1962	Melmont Pubs.
Howells, Anne Molloy	Captain Waymouth's Indians.	1956	Hastings House		Published in 1968 under title: Five kidnapped Indians.;
Hurley, William.	Dan Frontier goes exploring.	1963	Benefic Press		Dan Frontier helps Ranger Jack Finley explore the wooded land inhabited by Indians near the Ohio River.;
Hurley, William.	Dan Frontier goes exploring.	1963	Benefic Press		Dan Frontier helps Ranger Jack Finley explore the wooded land inhabited by Indians near the Ohio River.;
Hurley, William.	Dan Frontier scouts with the Army.	1962	Benefic Press		Dan Frontier becomes an army scout when Indians threaten to attack Fort Detroit.;
Hurley, William.	Dan Frontier scouts with the Army.	1962	Benefic Press		Dan Frontier becomes an army scout when Indians threaten to attack Fort Detroit.;
Icaza, Jorge	Huasipungo. The villagers, a novel.	1964	Southern Illinois University Press
Icaza, Jorge	Huasipungo	1960	Editorial Losada
Furman, A. L.	Young readers nature stories.	1959	Lantern Press		Nine short stories about animals, like coyotes and raccoons, or men in encounters with them, as an Indian boy in a buffalo hunt, a ranch boy seeking to separate the ranch's horses from a band of wild horses, or a boy who cared for an injured sea gull.;
Saurel, Louis.	Le Hardouin chez les Hurons	1960	âEditions Fleurus		Pour enfants.;
Jackson, Helen Hunt	Ramona, a story.	1959	Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club at the Plantin Press
James, Harry Clebourne	Hopi Indian butterfly dance	1959	Melmont Pubs.
Karney, Beulah.	The listening one.	1962	Day
Keith, Harold	Komantcia. --	1965	Crowell
Keith, Harold	Komantcia. --	1965	Crowell
Keith, Harold	Komantcia. --	1965	Crowell
Keith, Harold	Komantcia	1965	Crowell
Keith, Harold	Komantcia.	1965	Crowell
Keith, Harold	Komantcia	1965	Thomas Y. Crowell		Captured by Comanches at fifteen, a sensitive Spaniard learns to accept their way of life and becomes a leader among them.;
Kjelgaard, Jim	Wolf Brother	1957	Holiday House		An Apache brave who has been educated among the white men returns to his tribe, now confined to the reservation, and is forced, by an unfortunate meeting with an American Army sergeant, to take refuge with an infamous renegade band.;
Kjelgaard, Jim	Wolf Brother.	1957	Holiday House		An Apache brave who has been educated among the white men returns to his tribe, now confined to the reservation, and is forced, by an unfortunate meeting with an American Army sergeant, to take refuge with an infamous renegade band.;
Kjelgaard, Jim	Wolf Brother	1962	E. M. Hale		An Apache brave who has been educated among the white men returns to his tribe, now confined to the reservation, and is forced, by an unfortunate meeting with an American Army sergeant, to take refuge with an infamous renegade band.;
Kubaésta, Vojtéech	The Day of the bison hunt.	1962	Bancroft & Co.		Caption title.; Ill. signed: V. Kubasta.; Lower cover is a double-page which opens into a pop-up color illustration of an Indian village with tepees, a totem, and men in ceremonial costumes.;
La Farge, Oliver	Laughing Boy	1957	Houghton Mifflin	00812416031 (Covercraft) ; 9780081241608
Lampman, Evelyn (Sibley)	Navaho sister	1956	Doubleday
Lane, Neola Tracy.	Secret of the silver spoons.	1963	Bobbs-Merrill		Paul tries to establish his grandmother's true identity by locating the silver spoons she remembers hiding when she was a little girl.;
Lauritzen, Elizabeth M.	Shush'ma,	1964	Caxton Printers		Bibliography: p. 188.; The life and habits of a bear reflect her sensitivity to the loss of peace and harmony on the land that is home for her and the Navajo. Based on documented information.;
Hoffmann, Eleanor	The charmstone	1964	McNally and Loftin		Shuku, son of Chief Islay of Helo, fights the plots of his wicked stepmother, Ojai, and her equally wicked son, Mogi.;
Leckie, Robert	Danger at Mormon Crossing	1959	Simon and Schuster		While on a camping and hunting trip in the Idaho mountains, Sandy Steele and his friends become involved in a mystery concerning their Indian guide.;
Lenski, Lois	Little Sioux girl,	1958	Lippincott
Lomask, Milton.	Cross among the tomahawks	1961	Douleday
Longstreet, Stephen.	War in the golden weather	1965	Doubleday
James, Harry Clebourne	A day in Oraibi, a Hopi Indian village	1959	Melmont Pubs.
Stinetorf, Louise A.	A charm for Paco's mother	1965	Day
James, Harry Clebourne	A day with Honau, a Hopi Indian boy.	1957	Melmont Publishers
MacLeod, Robert.	The medicine bull.	1963	Day
Marriott, Alice Lee.	The black stone knife. Illustrated by Harvey Weiss.	1957	Crowell
Marriott, Alice Lee	Black stone knife	1957	Crowell
Marriott, Alice Lee	Black stone knife	1957	Crowell
Marriott, Alice Lee	Indian Annie : Kiowa captive.	1965	McKay
Marriott, Alice Lee	Indian Annie, Kiowa captive.	1965	McKay
Marriott, Alice Lee	Indian Annie: Kiowa captive	1965	McKay
McGaw, Jessie Brewer.	Little Elk hunts buffalo : as Little Elk tells it in Indian picture writing	1961	T. Nelson
McGiffin, Lee	Pony soldier.	1961	Dutton
McNamee, James.	My Uncle Joe	1963	Viking
Molloy, Anne Stearns Baker	Captain Waymouth's Indians.	1956	Hastings House		Published in 1968 under title: Five kidnapped Indians.;
Montgomery, Rutherford George	The capture of West Wind. --	1962	Duell, Sloan and Pearce
O'Dell, Scott	Island of the blue dolphins [sound recording]	1960	Recorded Books	1556904673 ; 9781556904677	Unabridged.; Narrated by Christina Moore; Tells the true story of an American Indian girl who lived alone on an island for eighteen years.;
O'Dell, Scott.	Island of the blue dolphins [sound recording]	1960	Recorded Books		Unabridged.; Tells the true story of an American Indian girl who lived alone on an island for eighteen years.;
O'Dell, Scott	La Isla de los Delfines Azules	1964	Noguer	8427931085 (pbk.) ; 9788427931084	Translation of: Island of the Blue Dolphins.; Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.; Accelerated Reader; Interest Level Middle Grade; Book Level 5.4; Accelerated Reader Points 6; Accelerated Vocabulary, Literacy Skills; 04 05 06 07 08; 054; 006; Lexile, MetaMetrics, Inc.; Lexile Measure 1090; 1090;
O'Dell, Scott	La Isla de los Delfines Azules	1964	Noguer	8427931085 ; 9788427931084	Translation of: Island of the Blue Dolphins.; Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.; Accelerated Reader; Interest Level Middle Grade; Book Level 5.4; Accelerated Reader Points 6; Accelerated Vocabulary, Literacy Skills; 04 05 06 07 08; 054; 006; Lexile, MetaMetrics, Inc.; Lexile Measure 1090; 1090;
O'Dell, Scott	Island of the Blue Dolphins.	1960	Dell
O'Dell, Scott	Island of the Blue Dolphins.	1960	Houghton Mifflin	0395069629 ; 9780395069622	Records the courage and self-reliance of an Indian girl who lived alone for eighteen years on an isolated island off the California coast when her tribe emigrated and she was left behind.; Reading Counts-Scholastic; Interest Level 6-8; Reading Level 6; Title Point Value 12; Lexile Measure 1000; 1000; 06 07 08; 060; 012;
O'Dell, Scott	Island of the Blue Dolphins.	1960	Houghton Mifflin
O'Dell, Scott	Island of the Blue Dolphins.	1960	Houghton Mifflin
Nicholson, John D.	The white buffalo,	1965	Platt & Munk
Rhoads, Dorothy.	The corn grows ripe	1956	Viking		Tigre, a twelve-year-old Mayan boy living in a modern-day village in Yucatâan, must learn to be a man when his father is injured.;
Conrad, Joseph	The nigger of the "Narcissus"	1965	Printed by the Ward Ritchie Press for the members of the Limited Editions Club		Limited ed. of 1,500 copies, signed by the artist.; Issued in slipcase.; Newman & Wiche. Great and good books,; 372; Limited Editions Club. Bibliography of the fine books published by the Limited Editions Club, 1929-1985,; no. 372;
Allsopp, Joy.	The tale of Teddy the toucan : a story for children	1960	Govt. Information Services		"This story is one of a series of stories based on some of the legends of the Amerindian tribes of British Guiana.";
Parish, Peggy.	Good hunting, Little Indian	1962	Young Scott Bks.
Patrick, Pearl Haley	O'po of the Omaha. Illustrated by Dan Jacobson.	1957	Caxton Printers
Provan, Eldoris Angel.	Drummer for the Americans.	1965	Chilton Bks.
Provan, Eldoris Angel.	Drummer for the Americans.	1965	Chilton Books
Radau, Hanns.	Illampu : adventure in the Andes	1961	Abelard-Schuman
Radau, Hanns.	Illampu : adventure in the Andes	1961	Abelard-Schuman
Rainbow, Elizabeth.	Concha and the silver star	1965	Duell
Ramâirez, Pablo.	Wa O'Ka,	1961	Bobbs-Merrill		A young Indian brave accomplishes three seemingly impossible tasks to win the chief's daughter for his bride.;
Ranney, Agnes V.	Flash of Phantom Canyon.	1963	Criterion Bks
Ray, Ophelia.	Daughter of Tejas.	1965	New York Graphic Society Pubs.
Ray, Ophelia.	Daughter of the Tejas.	1965	New York Graphic Societ Pubs.
Reilly, Robert T.	Massacre at Ash Hollow	1960	Bruce Pub. Co.
Ressler, Theodore Whitson.	Treasury of American Indian tales	1957	Association
Richter, Conrad.	The light in the forest.	1963	Bantam Books
Roberts, Helen M.	Mission tales,	1963	Pacific Books
Roberts, Kenneth Lewis	Northwest passage	1961	Doubleday
Roberts, Kenneth Lewis	Northwest passage	1963	Fawcett Crest/Ballantine,	0449213838 (pbk.) ; 9780449213834	Saga of French and Indian war heroics in which Major Robert Rogers is the leader of the Rogers' Rangers.; Lexile, MetaMetrics, Inc.; Lexile Measure 1010; 1010;
Robinson, Barbara.	Across from Indian Shore	1962	Lothrop
Robinson, Barbara.	Trace through the forest.	1965	Lothrop
Rowland, Florence Wightman.	Pasquala of Santa Ynez Mission	1961	Walck, H.Z.
Davis, Russell.	The Choctaw code	1961	Whittlesey House
Cooper, James Fenimore	The last of the Mohicans	1961	Scribner	0553213296 (Bantam : pbk. : 1981) ; 0808519735 (Econoclad) ; 9780808519737	While guiding a small party of English settlers to the protection of a fort during the French and Indian War, Hawkeye, a frontier scout, and his two Indian friends, the remaining braves of the Mohican tribe, struggle against the evils of Uncas who desires a white maiden for his wife.;
Cooper, James Fenimore	The Pathfinder	1964	Airmont Publishing Co., Inc.
Nelson, May.	The Redbirds are flying	1963	Criterion Bks.
Steele, William O.	The Year of the Bloody Sevens	1963	Harcourt
Steele, William Owen.	The year of the Bloody Sevens	1963	Harcourt
Capron, Louis.	The red war pole	1963	Bobbs
Tavo, Gus.	The buffalo are running	1960	Knopf
Lauritzen, Jonreed.	The legend of Billy Bluesage	1961	Little, Brown
Sandoz, Mari.	The Story Catcher	1963	Westminster Press
Oberreich, Robert.	The blood red belt	1961	Doubleday
Jones, Weyman.	The talking leaf	1965	Dial Press
Clark, Margaret Goff.	The mystery of the buried Indian mask	1962	Watts, F.
Surany, Anico.	The golden frong	1963	Putnam
Lobdell, Helen.	The fort in the forest	1963	Houghton
Lobdell, Helen.	The fort in the forest	1963	Houghton
Haig-Brown, Roderick Langmere Haig	The whale people	1963	Morrow
Haig-Brown, Roderick Langmere Haig	The whale people	1963	Morrow
Hollmann, Clide.	The eagle feather	1963	Hastings House
Hollmann, Clide.	The eagle feather	1963	Hstings House
Sandoz, Mari	The horsecatcher.	1957	Westminster Press		Unable to kill, a young Cheyenne is scorned by his tribe when he chooses to become a horse catcher rather than a warrior.;
Sandoz, Mari	The horsecatcher.	1957	Westminster Press		Unable to kill, a young Cheyenne is scorned by his tribe when he chooses to become a horse catcher rather than a warrior.;
Sandoz, Mari	The horsecatcher.	1957	Westminster Press		Unable to kill, a young Cheyenne is scorned by his tribe when he chooses to become a horse catcher rather than a warrior.;
Sandoz, Mari	The horsecatcher.	1957	Westminster Press		Unable to kill, a young Cheyenne is scorned by his tribe when he chooses to become a horse catcher rather than a warrior.;
Sandoz, Mari	The horsecatcher.	1957	Westminster Press		Unable to kill, a young Cheyenne is scorned by his tribe when he chooses to become a horse catcher rather than a warrior.;
Sandoz, Mari	The horsecatcher.	1957	Westminster Press		Unable to kill, a young Cheyenne is scorned by his tribe when he chooses to become a horse catcher rather than a warrior.;
Schultz, James Willard	With the Indians in the Rockies.	1960	Houghton Mifflin		The adventures of Thomas Fox and Pitamakan, a Blackfoot Indian boy.;
Scott, Paul	Eliza and the Indian war pony,	1961	Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.
Scull, Florence D.	Bear teeth for courage	1964	Van Nostrand
Scull, Florence D.	Bear teeth for courage.	1964	Van Nostrand
Shannon, Terry.	Tyee's totem pole	1955	Whitman
Shannon, Terry.	Wakapoo and the flying arrows.	1963	A. Whitman
Shannon, Terry.	Wakapoo and the flying arrows	1963	Whitman		Wakapoo, a Chumash Indian boy, finds the secret of courage when his peace loving people are attacked on their island home off the coast of Southern California.;
Sharp, Edith Lambert.	Nkwala.	1958	Little, Brown
Sharp, Edith Lambert.	Nkwala.	1958	Little, Brown
Sharp, Edith Lambert.	Nkwala.	1958	Little, Brown
Sharp, Edith Lambert.	Nkwala	1958	McClelland and Stewart	0771081243 : ; 9780771081248
Simmons, Dawn Langley.	Peter Jumping Horse	1961	Holt
Snedden, Genevra Sisson	Docas, Indian of Santa Clara.	1958	Heath		Bibliography: p. 187-189.; Through the eyes of Docas and his playmates one sees the coming of the white man to California and the establishment of one of its famous chain of missions.;
Sorensen, Edna Jennings.	Felipe's long journey : a story of the Andes ; pictures by Ezra Jack Keats.	1961	Watts F.
Sorensen, Edna Jennings.	Felipe's long journey : a story of the Andes ; pictures by Ezra Jack Keats.	1961	Watts F.
Speare, Elizabeth George.	Calico Captive	1957	Houghton Mifflin		During the French and Indian War, young Miriam is captured by Indians and taken to Montreal;
Steele, William O.	Flaming arrows	1957	Harcourt, Brace		An Indian attack on a fort in the Tennessee wilderness makes young Chad Rabun realize that it is wrong to condemn one person for the misdeed of another. ;
Steele, William O.	Wayah of the Real People	1964	Colonial Williamsburg : distributed by Holt
Steele, William O.	Wayah of the Real People	1964	Colonial Williamsburg: distributed by Holt
Steffan, Jack.	Mountain of fire : a novel.	1959	Day
Stevenson, Augusta.	George Custer, boy of action.	1963	Bobbs-Merrill		The boyhood of the great Indian fighter who died in the controversial Battle of Little Big Horn.;
Stevenson, Augusta.	Israel Putnam, fearless boy.	1959	Bobbs-Merrill		A biography of an American patriot who fought in both the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars, describing his boyhood and youth on the Massachusetts frontier.;
Stevenson, Augusta.	Israel Putnam, fearless boy.	1959	Bobbs-Merrill		A biography of an American patriot who fought in both the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars, describing his boyhood and youth on the Massachusetts frontier.;
Stevenson, Augusta.	Kit Carson, boy trapper.	1962	Bobbs-Merrill		The boyhood of the frontier trapper, hunter, Indian fighter, scout, and soldier.;
Stevenson, Augusta.	Kit Carson, boy trapper.	1962	Bobbs-Merrill		The boyhood of the frontier trapper, hunter, Indian fighter, scout, and soldier.;
Stevenson, Augusta.	Sam Houston, boy chieftain.	1962	Bobbs-Merrill		A biography of the man who helped make Texas a part of the United States, emphasizing his boyhood in Virginia and his friendship with the Cherokee Indians.;
Stevenson, Augusta.	Sam Houston, boy chieftain.	1962	Bobbs-Merrill		A biography of the man who helped make Texas a part of the United States, emphasizing his boyhood in Virginia and his friendship with the Cherokee Indians.;
Stevenson, Augusta.	Squanto, young Indian hunter.	1962	Bobbs-Merrill		The boyhood of the Wampanoag Indian who lived for a time in England and then returned to New England where he helped the Pilgrim settlers in Plymouth.;
Stevenson, Augusta.	Squanto, young Indian hunter.	1962	Bobbs-Merrill		The boyhood of the Wampanoag Indian who lived for a time in England and then returned to New England where he helped the Pilgrim settlers in Plymouth.;
Strachan, Margaret Pitcairn.	Cabins with window boxes	1964	I. Washburn
Steele, William O.	The year of the bloody sevens.	1963	Harcourt, Brace & World
Cooper, James Fenimore	The last of the Mohicans : a narrative of 1757	1957	World
Haig-Brown, Roderick Langmere	The whale people.	1963	Morrow
Barbary, James.	The fort in the wilderness; an adventure in history.	1965	Norton		First published in England under title: The fort in the forest.; An English officer, in command of a fort on the Canadian frontier during Pontiac's uprising, is captured by the Indians, returned to the English as a hostage, but comes back later to convince Pontiac of French betrayal.;
Barbary, James.	The fort in the wilderness; an adventure in history.	1965	Norton		First published in England under title: The fort in the forest.; An English officer, in command of a fort on the Canadian frontier during Pontiac's uprising, is captured by the Indians, returned to the English as a hostage, but comes back later to convince Pontiac of French betrayal.;
Surany, Anico.	The golden frog : illus. by Leonard Everett Fisher.	1963	Putnam
Tilghman, Zoe Agnes Stratton	Maiom, the Cheyenne girl;	1956	Harlow Pub. Corp.
Tomerlin, John.	Prisoner of the Iroquois.	1965	Dutton
O'Dell, Scott	La isla de los delfines azules	1964	Noguer	8427931085 ; 9788427931084	Medalla Newbery.; Tâitulo original: Island of the Blue Dolphins.; Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.; Accelerated Reader; Interest Level Middle Grade; Book Level 5.4; Accelerated Reader Points 6; Accelerated Vocabulary, Literacy Skills; 04 05 06 07 08; 054; 006; Lexile, MetaMetrics, Inc.; Lexile Measure 1090; 1090;
O'Dell, Scott	La isla de los delfines azules	1964	Editorial noguer	8427931085 (pbk.) ; 9788427931084	"Tâitulo original: Island of the blue dolphins"--t.p. verso.; Stranded on a beautiful isolated island off the coast of California, a young 19th century Indian girl spends 18 years, not only surviving through her courage and self-reliance, but also finding happiness in her solitary life.; Accelerated Reader; Interest Level Middle Grade; Book Level 5.4; Accelerated Reader Points 6; Accelerated Vocabulary, Literacy Skills; 04 05 06 07 08; 054; 006; Lexile, MetaMetrics, Inc.; Lexile Measure 1090; 1090;
Underhill, Ruth M.	Antelope Singer	1961	Coward-McCann
Baker, Betty.	The shaman's last raid	1963	Harper & Row
Carlson, Natalie Savage.	The Tomahawk family.	1960	Harper		An Indian girl is anxious to do everything her teacher at school tells her, in order to be a good American, but her stubborn brother and her old fashioned grandmother present problems.;
Carlson, Natalie Savage.	The Tomahawk family.	1960	Harper		An Indian girl is anxious to do everything her teacher at school tells her, in order to be a good American, but her stubborn brother and her old fashioned grandmother present problems.;
Van Riper, Guernsey	Jim Thorpe, Indian athlete.	1956	Bobbs-Merrill
Vance, Marguerite.	Esther Wheelwright, Indian captive.	1964	Dutton
Vestal, Stanley	Happy hunting grounds.	1963	Lyons and Carnahan
Waltrip, Lela.	Quiet boy	1961	Longmans
Waltrip, Lela.	Quiet boy	1961	Longmans
Webb, Nancy	Makema of the rain forest,	1964	Prentice-Hall		Bibliographical references included in "Acknowledgments" (p. [3]);
Welch, Ronald C.	Mohawk Valley.	1958	Criterion Books
Welch, Ronald	Mohawk Valley	1958	Criterion Bks.
Welch, Ronald	Mohawk Valley	1958	Oxford University Press	0192710788 : ; 9780192710789
Wheeler, Arville	White Squaw : the true story of Jennie Wiley.	1958	Heath		A fictionalized account of the life of Jennie Sellards Wiley, who spent a year as an Indian captive in Kentucky and eventually escaped and returned to her husband in Virginia.;
Wilcox, Eleanor Reindollar.	Cornhusk doll	1956	Dodd
Wilson, Charles Morrow.	Crown Point : the destiny road	1965	McKay
Wilson, Hazel (Hutchins)	His Indian brother	1955	E. M. Hale		When his father's return from Boston with the family is delayed, young Brad, left to care for their new wilderness home in Maine, must depend on the Indians for survival.;
Wilson, Hazel Hutchins	His Indian brother	1955	Houghton Mifflin		When his father's return from Boston with the family is delayed, young Brad, left to care for their new wilderness home in Maine, must depend on the Indians for survival.;
Wilson, Holly.	Snowbound in Hidden Valley	1957	Messner
Witten, Herbert.	Escape from the Shawnees	1958	Follett		The author: p189.; The great hunter, Gabe Stoner, asked eleven year old Whit Martin to go hunting with him. When he and Gabe ran into a party of Indians, Gabe was wounded and he and Whit were captured by the Indians and taken across the Ohio into Shawnee country. Whit and Gabe escaped from their captors and young Whit managed to survive and to help save the wounded hunter. (Publisher);
Witten, Herbert.	Escape from the Shawnees	1958	Follett
Worcester, Donald Emmet	Lone Hunter and the wild horses	1959	Walck, H.Z.
Worthylake, Mary M.	Children of the seed gatherers.	1964	Melmont Publishers
Leiser, Harry W.	The lost canyon of the Navajos	1960	Criterion Books
Lampman, Evelyn Sibley.	The shy stegosaurus of Indian Springs	1962	Junior Literary guild : Doubleday
Ziner, Feenie.	Dark pilgrim : the story of Squanto.	1965	Chilton Co.

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Over at the Greenwillow blog, there's a post about it being Amelia Bedelia's 50th birthday. Here's the tweet that sent me there:

For the most part, I love the word play in the Amelia Bedelia books. Obviously, kids do, too. But one of her books... Well, I wish that one of the things she did 'yesterday' was to pick up Amelia Bedelia Talks Turkey and give it a big heave-ho into the nearest garbage can, proclaiming loudly that she might get words mixed up sometime, but that she's no dummy and that she's sorry she had anything to do with the stereotypes of American Indians in Amelia Bedelia Talks Turkey. See what I mean?



Hey! Let's play with what we might have her say to the teacher. See the word bubble in the image below? What could we put in it?

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Yesterday, I started reading Julia Alvarez's Return to Sender. I'm taking a minute this morning to say a couple of things about it before I dash out the door for the morning.

First, here's what Alvarez says about it on her website:

The seed for the novel came when I got involved translating at local schools for the children of Mexican migrant workers who have now made their way up to Vermont. (And boosted our compromised Latino population!) These workers are now doing the milking on many of our dairy farms. Without them, many of our small farmers could not survive, as they, too, are being squeezed by the high cost of farming and a dearth of workers.

Seeing how baffled the Mexican children and their classmates were about how to understand this situation that had thrown us all together, I thought: we need a story to understand what is happening to us! The title comes from a dragnet operation that the Department of Homeland Security conducted in 2006, named, Return to Sender. Work places were raided and undocumented workers were seized. Their children were the biggest casualties of this operation -- left behind to be soothed and reassured until they could be finally reunited with their parents.

The boy on the cover is Tyler. His family owns one of the dairy farms that hires Mexican migrant workers. The girl is Mari. I had a lump in my throat as I read about these two young people trying to make sense of the world and each other's world, too. Alvarez has done a terrific job showing all three.

Part of Tyler's world is his life at school. There, one of Tyler's teachers is a woman named Ms. Ramirez. Sprinkled in the first part of the book are references to Mexican culture, and, references to American Indian culture. Tyler has learned about the Trail of Tears. I liked seeing it in Alvarez's book. Tyler's world is enlarged by his teachers.

More later...

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Have you ever visited the blog, Awful Library Books: Hoarding is not Collection Development? Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner are public librarians in Michigan. Their blog is about weeding.

On January 31, 2013, they loaded The True Book of Little Eskimos. Click on over to Awful Library Books to see some of the pages. The book was published in 1953. Using World Cat, I see that its in 148 libraries. Some of them are university libraries, which is fine, because in those libraries, they're probably being used for research. But some of them are in school and public libraries. Yikes! Remember... the pub year is 1953. That's over 50 years ago. Is it in your library? If it is, weed it today!

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