Imaginary Indians: Representations of Native Americans in Scholastic Reading Clubs

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Children's Literature in EducationAn International Quarterly ISSN 0045-6713 Child Lit EducDOI 10.1007/s10583-015-9255-1

Imaginary Indians: Representations ofNative Americans in Scholastic ReadingClub

Amina Chaudhri & Nicole Schau

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ORIGINAL PAPER

Imaginary Indians: Representations of NativeAmericans in Scholastic Reading Club

Amina Chaudhri1 • Nicole Schau2

� Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract Scholastic Reading Clubs are a popular and inexpensive way for teachers

to build classroom libraries and for parents to purchase books for their children. The

books made accessible to children through the order forms are assumed to be suitable

for young readers in terms of their content, popularity, currency, and curricular rel-

evance.Multicultural books occupy a small fraction of the selections, and books about

Native Americans are essentially absent. This study examines Scholastic Reading

Club order forms available over the course of a year. The quantitative and qualitative

findings show that stereotypical misrepresentations of Native Americans persist and

literature by Native authors and illustrators is completely lacking.

Keywords Native Americans � Indians � Stereotypes � Children’s literature �Multicultural literature

Introduction

Literature plays a crucial role in the elementary school classroom in the ways that it

shapes readers’ emerging beliefs, attitudes and perceptions about the world around

them. The books that children see on the shelves in their classroom, that teachers

Amina Chaudhri is an Assistant Professor in the Teacher Education Department at Northeastern Illinois

University in Chicago. She teaches courses in Reading, Social Studies and Children’s Literature.

Nicole Schau is a graduate of Northeastern Illinois University and currently teaches 2nd grade at Garfield

Elementary School in Maywood, Illinois.

& Amina Chaudhri

[email protected]

1 Northeastern Illinois University, 5500 N. St. Louis Avenue, LWH Room # 4019, Chicago,

IL 60625, USA

2 Garfield Elementary School, 1514 S. 9th Avenue, Maywood, IL 60153, USA

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Children’s Literature in Education

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and parents read or talk about, that children receive as gifts or rewards, are imbued

with significance, associated with memories, and aligned with learning. At a very

liminal level, children understand that topics they read about in books must matter

and be worth writing about. Books that are displayed prominently in bookstores,

made into films, and appear repeatedly in places where children might notice them

gain even more significance because of the repetition. Just as significant are the

books that are absent.

History, fiction, and lives that are minimally present or totally absent have less

cultural value. Multicultural children’s literature occupies a very small proportion of

annual publications, and the access children have to books about people like

themselves, or like their friends, is limited. Today we can celebrate the astounding

works of writers such as Jacqueline Woodson, Christopher Paul Curtis, Cynthia

Kadohata, Linda Sue Park, Joseph Bruchac, Alma Flor Ada, Rita Williams-Garcia

and many more, yet writers of color still represent a very small proportion of current

publications. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) reports annually on

the number of books for and/or about people of color and, for the past decade, fewer

than 10 % of the 3000 or so books reviewed by the CCBC are multicultural. For

teachers, this dearth of multicultural literature means they have to look further,

search more diligently, and cast a wide net among colleagues and fellow readers in

order to find books that will make their curricula and libraries look like their

classrooms. All too often, pressed for time and resources, teachers rely on easily

accessible means of acquiring books. One such source is Scholastic Reading Club.

An easy and popular way for teachers to build their classroom libraries is through

Scholastic Reading Club (formerly known as Book Club) order forms. Teachers

receive catalogs of order forms every month, distribute them to their students, and

earn bonus points through every order a student places. Bonus points can be used to

order free books. According to their website, Scholastic is currently in 90 % of

schools in the country. Monthly order forms and book fairs make book buying

effortless and affordable. In today’s culture of convenience it is safe to assume that

parents, teachers, and students are very likely to acquire books through Scholastic.

Sadly, the books included in Scholastic order forms fall short when it comes to

being inclusive of diverse experiences in literature. Jonda McNair (2008) examined

order forms collected over a year and found authors and illustrators of color

appeared 34 times, while the names of white authors and illustrators appeared more

than 600 times (p. 196). Moreover, no books in her study were by Native American

authors or illustrators.

The absence of racially and ethnically diverse authors and illustrators does not

automatically preclude diversity in the content of the books themselves. In fact, data

from the CCBC indicates that many white authors and illustrators write about the

experiences of people of color. This in itself raises the important question about

whose stories are being told by whom. Hoping to find a change since 2008, we

replicated the quantitative part of McNair’s study and reviewed order forms

collected over the academic year 2012–2013 with a focus on books with Native

American content. In addition to looking for authors and illustrators of Native

American heritage, we were looking for books with content that reflected Native

culture and experiences. We hypothesized that there would be few, if any, Native


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artists (authors and illustrators) represented in Scholastic’s literary selections, and

we knew that historically, Native experiences have been written by cultural

outsiders, and that books with Native American content would typically be

associated with the Columbus Day and Thanksgiving holidays. We wanted to know,

if those books were in the order forms, what proportion did they represent? Who

was writing and illustrating them? What visual and literary messages about Native

experiences were being sent to young readers? Moreover, where, within the

historical context did these stories fall?

We began this study with an assumption. Stereotypes of Native Americans are

ubiquitous in movies, sports, and books, so we had little reason to believe that

mainstream children’s books would be any different. However, we hoped that in

highlighting the underrepresentation andmisrepresentation of Native experiences that

are so easily accessible to young readers, we could remind fellow educators to read

problematic literature critically, and to reach beyond popular sources like Scholastic

for more culturally representative and appropriate literature. We were interested in

collecting quantitative data as well as conducting a deeper analysis to examine the

images of Native Americans by placing the books within a historical cultural context

to highlight the perpetuation of stereotypes and any counterstories that might

challenge the stereotypes. Any patterns that our study revealed would hopefully spark

contemplation and urge educators to be critical in their book selection and reflective in

their pedagogical practice. Literature that is authentically multicultural will optimize

students’ learning and reading experiences and set a foundation for a life of encounters

with texts. Literature is not a separate, discreet element of the school experience.

Rather, literature is a cornerstone upon which learning can build.

From its inception, this project was conscribed by the language and labels we had

to consider in looking for books with Native American content. What did we mean

by ‘‘Native American content’’ anyway? What would we recognize or miss and how

would our own preconceptions influence what we saw as cultural markers or not?

As teachers and scholars of children’s literature, we knew we would find

stereotypical images of the familiar, caricatured, generic ‘‘Indian.’’ In his critique

of White Canadian art depicting indigenous peoples Daniel Francis (1992) describes

the term ‘‘Indian’’ to mean the monolithic, manufactured stereotype that tends to be

ubiquitous in dominant culture. Francis’ book is titled The Imaginary Indian since

this familiar image, he insists, is entirely imaginary: ‘‘The Indian is the invention of

the European’’ (p. 4). As we discuss later on, the representations of indigenous lives

in the offerings of Scholastic Reading Clubs are very much in keeping with colonial

imaginary notions. Francis makes the distinction between the Imaginary Indian and

Native people: the former being the legacy of the colonial project, and the latter

being ‘‘real people’’ (p. 8). In this respect, our study revealed that there was not a

single Native book in a year’s Scholastic book order forms: the forms, instead,

reveal a perpetuation of the Imaginary Indian.

According to the 2010 United States Census, 2.9 million individuals identify as

entirely American Indian or Alaska Native, and 5.2 million identify as American

Indian or Alaska Native combined with another race. These numbers have increased

by almost forty percent since 2000 (www.census.gov). According to data collected

by the CCBC, of the 3200 books reviewed in 2013, 34 books included Native


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http://www.census.gov

American content, and 18 of the authors and/or illustrators were of Native descent.

This data indicates that books for and about Native peoples are the least among all

multicultural books published annually. Thus Native children are not seeing

themselves represented in literature, and non-Native readers are being given few

opportunities to read about this population’s experiences. Often, the only time

young readers encounter information about Indian culture is in Social Studies

textbooks.

In addition to being underrepresented in the realm of publication of children’s

literature, the Native American population is often misrepresented. Of those texts that

are published and distributed,many contain stereotypical images, biased or prejudiced

language, one-dimensional characters, and formulaic plots. For this study we framed

our analysis using criteria for examining books for anti-Indian bias in Slapin, Seale &

Gonzales’ (1996)How to Tell the Difference: AGuide to Evaluating Children’s Books

for Anti-Indian Bias. The guide includes a variety of textual components to review for

stereotyping and bias. For example, readers are encouraged to ask if NativeAmericans

are ‘‘portrayed as savages, or primitive craftspeople, or simple tribal people, now

extinct’’ as opposed to being portrayed as ‘‘human beings, members of highly defined

and complex societies’’ (p. 8). Also, readers can evaluate a text for ‘‘oversimplified

and generalized’’ portrayals of Native Americans as opposed to representations of

separateness and uniqueness (p. 9). Debbie Reese (1999) reminds us that, while there

are more than five hundred different tribal groups within the United States, most

children’s literature does not contain tribal differentiation (p. 36). In her later work,

Reese (2007) explains that there are two primary representations of Native Americans

in children’s literature: the classics ‘‘that portray Native peoples as primitive savages

who merely grunt or speak in broken English,’’ or there are the ‘‘best sellers that

present Native peoples as romantic but tragic heroes who speak with elaborate, poetic

prose about living in harmony with the earth’’ (p. 245). Both of these representations

echo the Imaginary Indian because characters tend to be depicted in ways that fulfill

conventional expectations through stereotypes.

There is also a tendency in literature to depict Native Americans in the past. Reese

(1999) writes that there is a common practice of writing about Native Americans

within a historical context as opposed to modern, contemporary settings (p. 36).

Historian Carolyn Eastman (2008), points out that, ‘‘Print culture played a crucial role

in leading Americans to believe that humanitarian concerns about Indians had been

resolved especially by disseminating the literary portrayal of the vanishing Indian’’ (p.

538). When young readers are continually provided historical narratives, they are left

with a narrow and incomplete understanding of Native Americans.

Scholars and researchers have suggested reasons for why Native Americans are so

often misrepresented in children’s literature. One reason may be that national cultural

discourse so stubbornly adheres to the dominant perceptions about Native Americans

that there is no room for imagining other possibilities or realities. Carol Zitzer-

Comfort (2008), coeditor of Through the Eye of the Deer and teacher of American

Indian literature, writes, ‘‘Because of the pervasiveness of negative images about

American Indians, there is, perhaps, no other group that remains so stigmatized’’ (p.

163). Dolph L. Hatfield (2000) echoes this understanding by writing that, unlike other

minority groups within the United States, Native Americans are still liberally


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stereotyped (p. 44). In addition to the media’s influence in stereotyping Native

Americans, there are also larger forces at work. According to Zitzer-Comfort (2008),

two barriers that face teachers, writers, and readers of Native American literature are

(1) internalized assumptions and (2) insufficient background knowledge (p. 162). If

teachers and students lack knowledge and understanding of a culture different than

their own, theywill be unlikely to recognize stereotypes or biases when presentedwith

them, particularly in children’s literature. All of these factors: popular media,

distribution practices, and lack of understanding on behalf of readers and authors

contribute to persistent misrepresentations of Native American cultures.

Methodology

This study critically examines the representation of Indians in Scholastic Reading

Club books and is intended to inform educational practice accordingly. We

examined three different Scholastic order forms spanning the elementary grade

levels from kindergarten through 6th grade: Seesaw (K-1), Lucky (K-2), and Arrow

(4-6). We reviewed monthly order forms during the 2012–2013 school year,

beginning in September 2012 and ending in June 2013. In all, we examined books in

thirty order forms: ten at each level.

We used a mixed-methods approach, collecting both quantitative and qualitative

data. An explanatory sequential design, defined as ‘‘… first collecting quantitative

data and then collecting qualitative data to help explain or elaborate on the

quantitative results’’ (Creswell, 2012, p. 542) was appropriate for our study because

we examined both the number of Indian texts in the order forms as well as the

content of each, and thus expanded upon the statistical findings, which comprised

the first phase of the research, and widened its scope.

The first phase in this study was to identify the texts in the order forms. We

determined which texts included Native American content by examining the book

titles, cover art, book summaries, and subject keywords found in the end papers of

the books. We used these same sources, as well as personal websites to determine

the cultural background of the authors and illustrators. In this way we identified 40

items out of 2807 in Scholastic Reading Club order forms for 1 year that included

characters, cultural references, or historical information purportedly about Native

Americans (but really about Imaginary Indians). As we identified books with Indian

content, we watched for the inclusion of specific tribal names but found very few (if

any). In all the scholarship we read, ‘‘Native American’’ was the descriptor that was

used most consistently. For the sake of consistency, we too use this term but with

the caveat that it should not be understood as making any claims of cultural

authenticity. In places where the distinction needs to be made, we use the terms

Indian or Imaginary Indian to underscore the difference between colonial renderings

and real people. The cues that enabled us to identify the corpus of books were very

much aligned with the stereotypes described by Slapin et al. (1996) (oversimplified

and generalized). In the next phase we recorded information about the textual

elements of the books such as: genre, setting, gender of the protagonist, whether the

protagonist was Native American or not, and notes about the language and


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illustrations and other criteria from How To Tell The Difference. This enabled us to

focus on issues of cultural authenticity and examine specific traits in the literary

analysis phase of the study.

The second phase of the study was a literary analysis. We read and analyzed

children’s novels, chapter books, picture books, and poetry collections that included

supposedly Native American content and characters for cultural authenticity

through setting, character development, language, and illustrations. Each literary

analysis was comprised of three sections: a general overview of the text, a

discussion of the Indian content within the text, and an analysis of its cultural

representations using the How to Tell the Difference framework. Such aspects of the

texts are rooted in the historical relationship between Native Americans and

European Americans and have shaped societal perceptions of this population. This

analysis places contemporary publications for children within a historical context

and examines the ways in which the experiences of Native Americans are being

represented for young readers.

Findings

The following is a discussion of the findings from our content and literary analyses.

First, we discuss the patterns we found in the quantitative data and suggest

implications for readers. Next, we examine the thematic content of the corpus of books

more deeply and within the historical context of literary representations of Indian

experiences. Four themes: Colonial Contact, Coming ofAge Stories, Biographies, and

Thanksgiving Stories formed the framework for the deeper literary analysis.

Table 1 outlines the broad quantitative results of our study. We used the term

‘‘item’’ to mean a single unit as described by Scholastic on the final page of the

Table 1 Native American content by order form

Seesaw Lucky Arrow Total items with Native

American content

September 2/120 3/131 1/126 6/377

October 0/85 4/95 0/92 4/272

November 3/87 4/95 3/94 10/276

December 0/85 1/95 3/94 4/274

January 0/84 0/96 1/84 1/264

February 1/81 0/92 2/86 3/259

March 0/85 1/88 2/92 3/265

April 0/84 2/86 0/90 2/260

May 0/89 1/91 2/97 3/277

June 1/90 0/95 3/98 4/283

Total 7/890 16/964 17/953

Grand total 40/2807 = 1.4 %

September 2012–June 2013


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order forms. We counted the number of items offered rather than individual titles,

because we viewed each item as an opportunity for readers to purchase a book with

Native American content. An item may be a single title or a collection of titles.

Some titles were offered in collections or multiple times over the course of the ten

months. For example, Little House on the Prairie was offered 6 times in 2 order

forms. In Scholastic order forms from September 2012 to June 2013, we counted a

total of 2807 items, out of which 40 items, (1.4 %), included Indian content.

Excluding repeated offerings, we counted 27 individual titles available in all the

order forms for 10 months of the school year 2012–2013.

We looked at the number of items in each of the three order forms and identified

some textual details about genre and about the gender of protagonist in the

individual titles. As far as we could determine, all the authors and illustrators were

white and made no claim to Native heritage.

The Seesaw (K-1) order forms contained 890 items, 7 (0.8 %) of which included

Native American content. Thus, the youngest readers had the least access to books

about Native Americans. All 7 items were about Thanksgiving, in contemporary,

fictional settings involving a historical reenactment or project in school. Mike

Thaler’s The Thanksgiving Day From the Black Lagoon appeared three times, in

September, November and June; and Margaret McNamara’s Happy Thanksgiving

appeared twice, in November and February. Thus, in fact, Seesaw order forms

offered only 4 different titles for readers.

The Lucky (gr 2-3) order forms contained 964 items, of which 16 (1.6 %)

included Native American content. The fall months, September, October and

November included 4, 5, and 4 titles respectively, and were related to Columbus’

arrival, Pocahontas, and Thanksgiving. The books Young Pocahontas and Young

Squanto also appeared in April order forms.

The Arrow (gr. 4-6) forms contained 953 items, of which 17 (1.7 %) included

Native American content. Once again, titles were repeated: Little House on the

Prairie appeared 3 times, Gary Paulson’s Hatchet, Brian’s Hunt, Brian’s Return,

and Brian’s Winter appeared 3 times, Scott O’Dell’s Sing Down the Moon and

Island of the Blue Dolphins appeared twice. Thus, readers had access to 15 different

titles over the course of 10 months. These numbers clearly indicate a dearth of

stories about Native experiences and a reliance on established ‘‘sellers’’ at specific,

profitable times of the year.

The data from the combined order forms reveals that nearly half (20) of all the

items with Native American content available to students were during the months of

September, October and November, 10 of which were in November, a month during

which school curricula tends to focus on the events associated with the

Thanksgiving holiday. The predominance of books with purportedly Native

American content available in the fall, compared to other months, strongly suggests

that this population’s experiences are considered significant only in this context.

The content, as we describe in the analysis section, supports this idea. The

publication dates also suggest a lack of effort on Scholastic’s part to seek out

contemporary authors and books: about half of the books (14) were published before

2000.


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Having identified 27 different titles, we looked at the content for information

about genre, gender of protagonist, and theme. We found that the books were

distributed almost equally between realistic contemporary and historical fiction (15)

and non-fiction (12). This suggests that readers who order books from Scholastic are

not likely to find Native American experiences reflected in other genres like fantasy

or mystery.

We found that an equal number of books included male and female protagonists,

although these were not necessarily Native American protagonists unless they were

subjects of biographies such as Young Squanto and The True Story of Pocahontas.

Young readers often choose books to read based on how they perceive they will

connect to the main characters. Gender is one mode of identification that plays a role

in which books land in whose hands. We also found that 6 books had no protagonist

at all. Three of these were informational books told from ‘‘objective’’ omniscient

perspectives, and the other three included images of school children dressing up in

costumes for Thanksgiving events and were meant to represent Native presence.

The next phase of the study involved the analyses of the 27 texts containing

Native American content that were available through the order forms. We

systematically organized each analysis into three sections: a general overview of

the text, a brief discussion of the text’s Native American content, and a closer

analysis of the text’s cultural authenticity using criteria from the How to Tell the

Difference guidelines. These guidelines include looking for stereotypes (primitive,

extinct tribal people with no distinct tribal features); examining language for racist

overtones; historical inaccuracies that uphold white conquest of Native lands as

necessary and heroic with Native peoples often colluding in their own defeat. We

found that the books fell into four broad thematic categories: accounts of colonial

contact, coming of age narratives, biographies, and Thanksgiving stories. The

largest category is ‘‘Colonial Contact.’’ There is substantial overlap between this

category and both ‘‘Biographies’’ and ‘‘Thanksgiving,’’ suggesting that the majority

of the texts are set in the past. The brief analyses below are selected from the larger

set and are intended to shed light on the Native American content available in

Scholastic order forms. Some texts belong to more than one category, as evident in

Table 2.

Colonial Contact

This category contains texts that address the relationships between Native

Americans and colonial settlers. The stories we analyze here share common

themes. Using the How to Tell the Difference guide, we looked at loaded language

and distortions of history. Slapin et al. (1996) describe ‘‘loaded words’’ as racist

adjectives or disrespectful language.

For example, in Little House on the Prairie, Native Americans are described

using derogatory language. Wilder writes, ‘‘Pa knew all about wild animals, so he

must know about wild men, too. Laura thought he would show her a papoose

someday, just as he had shown her fawns, and little bears, and wolves’’ (p. 56).

Native Americans are presented as one-dimensional, savage beings who strike fear


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into the lives of pioneers, and as fierce men and women sounding battle cries all

through the night, entering homes uninvited and stealing pioneers’ property.

Illustrations depict Native Americans wearing generic ‘‘Indian’’ attire: fringed pants

with long braids and feathers in their hair. Little House was the most frequently

available item in the order forms and remains an American favorite. In the

classroom, this book could be used to teach critical literacy skills, guiding students

to examine Wilder’s language and it’s persistence in contemporary perceptions of

Native people. In another text, The Foul, Filthy American Frontier, loaded words

are evident in the chapter headings. The only mention of Indians, aside from the

Table 2 Titles by thematic content

Colonial

contact

Coming

of age

Biographies Thanksgiving

Eyewitness Books: Aztec, Inca and Maya

(Baquedano, 1993)

X

Young Pocahontas (Benjamin, 1992) X X

Young Christopher Columbus by Eric (Carpenter, 1992) X X

Stone Fox by John Reynolds (Gardiner, 1980) X

Your Life as a Pioneer on the Oregon Trail

(Gunderson and Dougherty, 2012)

X

If You Were at the First Thanksgiving (Kamma, 2001) X X

Ready, Freddy! Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble

(Klein, 2008)

X X

Christopher Columbus (Krensky, 1991) X X

Happy Thanksgiving (McNamara, 2005) X X

Touching Spirit Bear (Mikaelsen, 2001) X

I am Sacagawea (Norwich and Vanarsdale, 2012) X X

The Island of the Blue Dolphins (O’Dell, 1960) X X

Sing Down the Moon (O’Dell, 1970) X X

Black Star, Bright Dawn (O’Dell, 1988) X

Amelia Bedelia Talks Turkey (Parish, 2008) X X

Junie B., First Grader—Turkeys We Have Loved and

Eaten (and Other Thankful Stuff) (Park, 2012)

X X

Brian’s Hunt (Paulsen, 2003) X

Dog Song (Paulsen, 1985) X

Quest for Columbus (Peacock, 2012) X X

The True Story of Pocahontas (Penner, 1994) X X

It’s Thanksgiving (Prelutsky, 1982) X X

Tales of Famous Heroes (Roop and Connie, 2010) X X

The Foul, Filthy American Frontier (Schwartz, 2010) X

The Thanksgiving Day from the Black Lagoon

(Thaler, 2009)

X X

Tapenum’s Day (Waters, 1996) X

Little House on the Prairie (Wilder, 1953) X X

Young Squanto (Woods, 1996) X X X


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introductory pages, is in the chapters titled ‘‘Deadly Conditions’’ and ‘‘New

Dangers.’’ Language like this perpetuates the one-dimensional narrative of

irrationally violent Native peoples.

According to Slapin et al. (1996) books depict distortions of history with

narratives about Native peoples’ complicity in their own destruction in language

that describes colonial success in celebratory terms. A culturally authentic

perspective would include depictions of Native resistance and successful efforts

at self-preservation in the face of tremendous odds. We looked at how three texts

present the historical relationship between Indians and European Americans.

Leaving their house in Wisconsin behind, Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family travel

westward in search of new beginnings and open land. However, the land to which

they relocate is part of Indian Territory. When families like the Wilders moved into

Indian Territory, the federal government relocated Native Americans so as to enable

westward expansion. This displacement is absent from the story, which instead

presents the settlers as the rightful owners of the land and the Native Americans as

obstacles needing to be removed.

The Foul, Filthy American Frontier includes mention of the Indians’ lack of legal

rights to land ownership during the late 1800s and beyond, and Heather Schwartz

notes that settlers passed on diseases to the Native Americans. This text does not

present as romanticized a version of expansionist history as many others do. The

title alone suggests that it is a more raw and frank view of the early life of pioneers

and includes tentative mention of the consequences of Westward expansion for

Native communities. While by no means a balanced historical view, this text could

be used to prompt discussion and research about Native-settler contact. Non-fiction

books like this one, and others in this study, are often used as curricular material,

teaching children about history in a seemingly bias-free way, or even gesturing

toward a progressive stance by including references to the violence of colonial

contact. By including selective details such as this one about settlers passing

diseases on to the Native Americans, such texts essentially distance themselves from

the more overtly untruthful versions and simultaneously avoid any further

discussion of the dire consequences of westward expansion for indigenous peoples.

In Your Life as a Pioneer, Jessica Gunderson presents a historical account in

which Native Americans fought against the white settlers for the preservation of

their land and way of life. The author explains that men would guard the wagon

camps at night for fear of wild animal attacks and well as attacks from American-

Indians. The suggested equating of wild animals and Native Americans is very

problematic, though perhaps the implication is that the Native men and women did

not passively accept European conquest and embrace defeat. Violence is given the

context of self-preservation and, rather than being critiqued, is justified.

Coming of Age

The texts in this section shared the common theme of coming of age narratives.

Each book chronicles a young person searching for life’s meaning, experiencing

life-altering events, and/or maturing into a wiser version of themselves. Some of


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these texts are set in the past, while others take place in more contemporary times

but in remote locations. For our analysis we used the criteria of the role of women

and the role of the Native American characters. Slapin et al. (1996) recommend that

readers look for depictions of female Native figures that accurately represent the

ways in which women in Native societies are respected and appreciated. The

absence of such depictions, they imply, creates inaccurate representations.

Similarly, depictions of Native elders and children should reflect their valued roles

and should be complex and dynamic rather than iconic and flat.

Slapin et al. (1996) recommend that young readers be provided books in which

Native women are depicted in powerful roles, ‘‘integral and respected’’ in the ways

that women really are in Native communities. Scott O’Dell’s Sing Down the Moon,

Island of the Blue Dolphins, and Black Star, Bright Dawn include female Indian

protagonists. All three protagonists are admirable, empathetic, likable characters to

whom readers will be drawn. The popularity of these books is evident in their

frequent availability in Scholastic order forms and in readers’ reviews online. Many

young readers post comments about these books such as, ‘‘I learned about Navajo

life’’ (www.amazon.com). The protagonists, Bright Morning, Karana, and Bright

Dawn are given positive qualities recognizable and shared with other female literary

characters: resourcefulness, bravery, determination, and inner strength. In Sing

Down the Moon, Bright Morning escapes from slavery to find freedom with her

husband in a new land. In Island of the Blue Dolphins, Karana survives by creating

weapons, crafting canoes, hunting and gathering food, fashioning clothing, building

a shelter, and even taming one of the island’s wild dogs. Finally, in Black Star,

Bright Dawn, Bright Dawn struggles with adjustment in a new town and school,

which she overcomes by winning the Iditarod race. Cultural inaccuracy aside, these

books provide stories full of character and emotion. Each female protagonist is a

complex character, full of life and perseverance. They are intelligent, resourceful,

and independent—admirable traits indeed—but rooted in a Eurocentric perspective

of heroic qualities. Based on this assumption, readers are provided opportunities to

admire these Indian girls for the ways they are similar to white American heroes. In

other words, traits that would be unique to Native girls from specific tribal com-

munities are completely absent. Readers’ comfort is maintained in favor of cultural

similarity rather than disturbed with information that might be culturally specific,

authentic, and unfamiliar. Furthermore, for the most part, the characters operate in

isolation and readers are not given much opportunity to see them interacting with

other human beings. Gender roles are socially constructed within their contexts, so

determining the roles of these female characters in isolation is somewhat arbitrary.

Conversely, the protagonists in both Brian’s Hunt and Touching Spirit Bear are

young white teenage boys whose survival depends on the skills and lessons learned

from secondary Indian characters. Brian’s adventure in the forest depends on his use

of tools and techniques learned from the Cree people he encountered in earlier

books. His memories are reverent and affectionate, and his gratitude is sincere.

In Touching Spirit Bear, Cole Matthews is a troubled young man who comes from

a highly dysfunctional family. After assaulting a classmate, Cole is presented with the

option of Circle Justice ‘‘… practiced by native cultures for many centuries’’ (p. 289)

aimed to bring healing and reconciliation to the aggressor as opposed to punishment


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in prison. With the help of Garvey, Cole’s parole officer who is a Tlingit Indian, and

Edwin, a Tlingit elder, Cole is brought to a remote location where he comes face-to-

face with the legendary Spirit Bear in a life-altering attack. His time in Alaska is filled

with reconciliation and healing as he encounters nature and himself in new ways.

Garvey and Edwin teach Cole about fire dances and how to express himself through

them. Cole also crafts his own totem pole, representative of his encounters with both

animals and his inner-self. Daniel Francis (1992) contextualizes this image of the

‘‘performing Indian’’ (p. 84) by describing it as another resilient motif popularized by

Hollywood and the mainstream media that harkens back to the early 20th century

agricultural exhibitions and fairs. At these fairs, Native Americans were invited to

perform tribal ceremonial rituals and dances for the entertainment of the white

audiences. Meanwhile, colonial authorities made efforts to prohibit these very

traditions from being performed on reservations. The parallel between the historical

facts and the fictional versions in these novels demonstrates one way in which Native

culture was and continues to be appropriated. The Native American perspective is

absent and the reader is distanced from Indian characters and assumed to be aligned

with the white protagonists, thus maintaining a Eurocentric perspective.

Without exception, all the novels in the year’s set of order forms contribute to the

myth of the ‘‘vanished Indian’’ (Francis, 1992, p. 191). This representation posits all

Native peoples and cultures as extinct with stereotypical renditions of culture

harkening nostalgically to a bygone era. The books are set in the past and include

nothing that would allow readers to appreciate the continuity of Native values and

traditions over time. The dearth of accessibility to books with authentic, culturally

accurate, contemporary content in mainstream literature means that this stereotyp-

ical narrative rarely gets interrupted.

Debbie Reese (2008, 2013), Doris Seale and Beverly Slapin (2005), and Nadean

Meyer (2011) and other scholars in the field have written about the cultural inaccuracy

of the Native traditions in these books. Rather than repeat that analysis, we want to

highlight the secondary roles occupied by the Indian characters. They are peripheral,

existing only to share their ‘‘powers’’ with the white protagonists, echoing depictions of

‘‘useful’’ Indians often found in informational texts and themassmedia as an alternative

to the ‘‘wild’’ Indian. These and other books with supposedly Native content cast

hunting, fishing, and revering nature as ‘‘survival skills’’ rather than ways of life,

collapsing all Native lifestyles into a realm of constant struggle with nature rather than

intricately complex and sophisticated community systems that vary depending on tribe,

geography, and time. The books are redolent with such tokenized features that the mass

media has made familiar, and thus satisfying to an uncritical readership.

Biographies

We identified nine biographical books in the order forms, all of which focused on

four people: Christopher Columbus, Pocahontas, Squanto, and Sacagawea. The texts

are largely generalized and romanticized accounts of history. There is a prominent

theme of glorifying Christopher Columbus and the explorers while omitting the

effects of colonization on the Native peoples.


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Of the four individuals written about in these biographies, two are women. In

Tales of Famous Heroes, Sacagawea is listed as a ‘‘Native American Guide’’ who

lived from 1788 to 1812. Her biography outlines her involvement in Lewis and

Clark’s expedition, her skills and role as a guide, and her legacy. As the authors

explain, Sacagawea served as a translator, assisted in trade, the gathering of food,

and making clothing, all while caring for her child. Readers are reminded that her

life is remembered and honored on the dollar coin, through the names of schools,

monuments, and natural landmarks, in addition to other memorials. In other words,

Sacagawea is honored for how she helped white settlers and essentially aided their

conquest of her people. Narratives about Native heroes who resisted European

conquest and are valued in their own communities are completely absent in

Scholastic orders forms.

In I am Sacagawea by Grace Norwich, Sacagawea is again rendered as

instrumental to Lewis and Clark and their exploration. Told in the first person, this

narrative is full of inaccuracies and assumptions so that the reader is lead to believe

that guiding Lewis and Clark saved her: ‘‘Born an Indian girl, I didn’t have many

rights or much freedom…Even within my tribe, women were treated as property to

be traded just like horses’’ (p. 1). There are other such loaded assumptions about

women’s roles and power that are culturally inaccurate and aligned with hegemonic

paradigms. According to Norwich, Sacagawea was able to overcome the odds as an

Indian and as a woman and create a legacy that is remembered and honored. The

text gives life and emotion to a historical figure who is so often merely known and

recognized only in association with Lewis and Clark, and readers will be drawn to

admire her. Within the context, however, I am Sacagawea contributes to the tales of

Indian heroes who aided colonialism and participated in their own destruction.

Anne Benjamin’s Young Pocahontas repeats this narrative, as does The True

Story of Pocahontas. Both books discuss the establishment of the Jamestown

colony, the differences between the Indians and Europeans, Pocahontas’ involve-

ment with John Smith, her capture, eventual marriage to John Rolfe, and the

remainder of her life in England. Though she is shown to have been autonomous

and independent, these texts suggest that such qualities were primarily beneficial for

the continued conquest of the Native Americans by Europeans.

Young Squanto is another cultural outsider’s perspective reaffirming the

usefulness of an Indian ‘‘hero’’ to the settlers and a ‘‘peaceful’’ interaction that

deflects from the genocide that was a consequence for Indigenous peoples. The

obedient, agreeable, English-literate colonial subject is the favorite trope in

literature of European expansion all over the world as it distracts from the genocidal

reality that colonial power would prefer not to acknowledge (Bradford, 2007, p. 74).

Woods describes Squanto’s capture and eventual return to America. Upon returning

to America, the author writes,’’…there were no crops. There were no people.

Everyone had died from a terrible sickness’’ (p. 23). There is no mention that the

sickness came from the settlers. Nevertheless, Squanto assists the settlers and

partakes in the first Thanksgiving with them as if undisturbed at the death of his

people.

We include the biographies of Christopher Columbus in this analysis because

they often depict Columbus’ contact with Native Americans in ways that perpetuate


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problematic accounts of that historical moment. Slapin et al. (1996) point out the

ways texts establish the victimization of Native people and distort history. In Quest

for Columbus, Jess and Josh are twins who travel back in time to September 6, 1492

with Christopher Columbus and his crew. There are a number of problematic issues

within this text. First, at the conclusion of the book, Jess states ‘‘Columbus really

did discover a new world’’ (p. 87). The concepts of ‘‘discovery’’ and ‘‘new world’’

are completely false as they imply that the existence of Indigenous cultures had no

significance until Columbus’ arrival. Furthermore the language magnifies the glory

of the explorer’s arrival and dispenses with the dire consequences it signaled. In

addition, the way in which the conquest was celebrated demonstrates issues of

victimization, suggesting that the Indians passively accepted defeat in exchange for

material goods. In reality, Columbus’ men used attack dogs to subdue and enslave

the Arawak (Finchum, 2006, p. 5).

Young Christopher Columbus and Christopher Columbus echo similar patterns—

glorifying the Europeans and silencing or distorting the Native American

perspective. In the former, Indians are only mentioned on one page of the book.

Illustrations depict men wearing minimal clothing with headpieces and bearing

spears and the author explains that Columbus called those he met Indians because he

thought he had reached the Indies. In the latter, Krensky writes that, though

Columbus arrived and proclaimed the land Spain’s territory, ‘‘the island really

belongs to the people who live there,’’ thus fleetingly acknowledging the Arawak

perspective (n.p.). Christina Desai’s (2014) critical analysis of picture books about

Columbus provides a thorough examination of the many ways in which biographies

about Columbus maintain the aura of heroism around the accident that led to the

‘‘discovery’’ of America and the perpetual celebration of this event (p. 186). She

identifies textual elements such as passive language, amount of space given to

certain aspects of Columbus’ arrival, placement of images that include ideological

underpinnings, and assumptions of acceptable heroic traits as all contributing to the

persistent paradigm that maintains that no matter what the consequences, the

population of the continent by white settlers is worthy of honor and celebration and

remembrance.

Scholastic’s choices of biographies fail to provide readers with anything other

than the inaccurate, long-held narratives of colonial contact in which Native people

are either absent or diminished, and white heroes like Columbus are characterized as

dreamers with hopes and ideals, and readers are invited to align themselves with

these traits.

Thanksgiving

This set of books sheds light on the oft-repeated connection between Native

Americans and Thanksgiving. These books are primarily offered through the

Seesaw and Lucky order forms for younger students during the fall months. Without

exception these books present a uniform textual and visual portrayal of Indians: men

and women with long, dark, often braided hair adorned with feathers, painted faces,

beaded jewelry, and fringed tan clothing. More than half of the books are about


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Thanksgiving plays in which the children dress up as Indians and Pilgrims. Others

involve craft projects based on Indians while one book presents a non-fiction

historical account of the first Thanksgiving.

Many of the books within this section are picture books, or chapter books with

illustrations. An element Seale et al. advise readers to consider when evaluating

picture books for anti-Indian bias is whether or not children are shown ‘‘playing

Indian.’’ This occurs in the following Thanksgiving books. First, in Junie B. Jones:

Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten and Other Thankful Stuff, each student in the

class is to come to the holiday celebration dressed up as either an Indian or a

Pilgrim. Though she does not wish to be, Junie B. comes as a Pilgrim and her

classmate, May, comes as a ‘‘Native American Indian girl’’ wearing a fringed dress,

beaded collar, moccasins, and braided hair (p. 90). In Amelia Bedelia and Ready

Freddy: Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble, students perform a school play in which they

dress as Indians and Pilgrims as they tell the story of the first Thanksgiving. Squanto

and his contributions to the settlers are explicitly mentioned. Illustrations inside and

on the cover show ‘‘Indians’’ wearing supposedly traditional tan clothing

ornamented with beads, with feathers in their hair and jewelry around their necks.

In It’s Thanksgiving, one depiction of Indians is in an illustration for the poem

titled, ‘‘The Thanksgiving Day Parade.’’ Here the illustrator shows a parade with

people in costume; some dressed as Pilgrims and others dressed as Indians shown

wearing tan clothing with facial paint and feathers in their hair. In Happy

Thanksgiving, the author does not examine the relationships between Native

Americans and Pilgrims or the dynamics of the first Thanksgiving. Rather, perhaps

in an attempt to craft an easily accessible and basic text for young readers, the only

Thanksgiving-related content lies in the students’ costumes. Some students dressed

as Pilgrims, some as Indians, and others as turkeys making the class look, as the

author writes, ‘‘like the first Thanksgiving’’ (p. 12). In each book, non-native

children are shown dressed as Indians for purposes of theatrical entertainment

echoing the ‘‘performing Indian’’ now appropriated. Rather than presenting Native

Americans (or Pilgrims) as complex human beings, the authors confine them to

inspiration for classroom costumes, objectified and without voice. In addition to

dressing as Indians, It’s Thanksgiving mentions children making crafts. One such

project is to ‘‘make Indians and Pilgrims out of paper, paste, and clay’’ (p. 18). An

illustration depicts a picture drawn by a student showing an Indian head with a red

band around his eyes and a feather headdress. All of these representations are

among the most familiar and basic stereotypes that Slapin et al. (1996) caution

readers from accepting.

The use of humor does little to mitigate the problematic depiction of Native

peoples. In The Thanksgiving Day from the Black Lagoon, Native Americans are not

the focus of the text, though they are present throughout the book, especially in the

graphics. One image depicts two Indians wielding spears running away from a

growling bear (p. 25). Another illustration shows a turkey saying to an Indian, ‘‘I’d

like my feathers back’’ (p. 60). This is not an exhaustive list of such illustrations, but

the examples provide insight into the overall depictions. Much of the humor within

the graphics is at the expense of both the Indians and Pilgrims. Both parties are

depicted as sometimes unintelligent, incapable, and laughable people. There is no


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complexity in the text or images, which convey offensive messages hidden behind a

mask of humor and innocence. In all the Thanksgiving books Indians are portrayed

in a similar manner—with painted faces, beaded jewelry, and feathers in their hair.

They are nameless and their faces are indistinguishable from one another. The

rampant tokenism and stereotypes warrant critical discussion and examination.

While the argument about shielding children from violence may be used to

justify the omission of facts about colonial expansion and genocide, there is simply

no excuse for misrepresenting the Thanksgiving story. At the very least, children

can be provided accurate and specific information about the Wampanoag (Finchum,

2006, p. 5). Today, even young children know about slavery and also can be safely

taught about the persecution of Indigenous peoples. Instead, the books offered to

readers by Scholastic repeat the mythical harmoniousness of that historical moment

and can be summarized in this example from Junie B. Jones: Turkeys We Have

Loved and Eaten and Other Thankful Stuff. Jones’ teacher responds to a classroom

quarrel by explaining, ‘‘That’s what happened with the Native Americans and

Pilgrims, remember? […] Even though they were different from each other, they

were thankful for many of the same things. And that allowed them to become

friends’’ (p. 57).

Conclusion

This study has shown that the few books with Native American content Scholastic

offers young readers are woefully misrepresentative of culturally authentic Native

American experiences. Scholastic is a powerful organization with great influence

within schools nationwide yet presents students with texts that conform to

traditional views of Native Americans. Rather than encouraging students to

challenge societal norms and assumptions, Scholastic’s literary selection largely

perpetuates the historical narrative that has persisted since the age of colonialism.

Not a single book in our study features contemporary experiences or was authored

by a Native writer. Teachers seeking alternatives to these or similar books could

start by including children’s literature by Native writers such as: Joseph Bruchac,

Louise Erdrich, Tim Tingle, Joy Harjo, Michael Lacapa, Jan Wabaoose, and

Cynthia Leitich Smith (to name a few). Debbie Reese’s website American Indians

in Children’s Literature is an invaluable resource that includes books reviews,

recommended reading lists, and commentary on current issues in the field. In

addition, if teachers find that their classroom libraries already include the books we

discuss here, they might use them to teach young readers how to ask critical

questions about their content. Scholastic’s reach is long and as such the industry has

an ethical responsibility (not to mention a financial incentive) in making an effort to

make available literature in which children can reliably see themselves and their

peers reflected. With the access to information and research that we have today, it is

hard to explain away Scholastic’s problematic book offerings as unwitting choices.

Our hope is that this research project will shed light on a topic that teachers will

be interested in considering when choosing books for their classroom libraries,

especially through Scholastic Reading Clubs. Through booktalking and discussions,


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teachers can guide students to notice the stereotypical images of Indians and,

through their own research, learn about the versions of history that these books omit.

Through inquiry and constructivist methods, children can be taught to read critically

so that they recognize stereotypes and understand the implications of absorbing

ideas that shape their perceptions of people. This work starts with educators

recognizing our own limited lenses and seeking ways to broaden them so that we

model for our students while we encourage them to challenge conventions and

question practices of power, and to seek literature that provides multidimensional,

complex narratives of all people, but especially of those whose voices have been

suppressed for far too long.

References

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Benjamin, Anne. (1992). Young Pocahontas: Indian Princess. Mahwah, NJ: Troll.

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Carpenter, Eric. (1992). Young Christopher Columbus: Discoverer of New Worlds. Mahwah, NJ: Troll.

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http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/

http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/

Imaginary Indians: Representations of Native Americans in Scholastic Reading Clubs

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