Lynda,
I suggest you ask students to read Louise Erdrich's BIRCHBARK HOUSE.
Erdrich's story is about contact between Native peoples (note: I use plural
of people to indicate more than one tribal nation) of the Great Lakes area,
with white people who were settling that area.
Erdrich's book does something rare. She doesn't demonize the Native people.
She presents the conflict in a very balanced, thoughtful way. Oddly, this
makes the book challenging, because this perspective/presentation runs
counter to most of what children read in works of historical fiction about
American Indians. In most works, Native people are savage and brutal, or
heroic and romantic. Finding them as well-developed people is atypical.
Following up with the sequel FAME OF SILENCE is also a good option.
Debbie
Debbie A. Reese (Nambé Pueblo)
Assistant Professor, American Indian Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Native American House
Room 200, MC-139
1206 West Nevada Street
Urbana, Illinois 61801
TEL 217-265-9870
FAX 217-265-9880
Email: debreese@uiuc.edu
Blog: http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/
Native American House: http://www.nah.uiuc.edu
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