Re: [LM_NET] "We" the People - NEH/ALA Bookshelf

[Debbie Reese <debreese@UIUC.EDU>]

Terry,

(Is conversation on-list discouraged? If so, I 
apologize. Note, too, that I read LM_NET in 
digest, so someone may already have replied to 
Terry by the time I got the last digest.)

Review journals have specific people they send 
selected titles to for review. They do this 
because specific people have expertise not held 
by the general population of readers or 
reviewers. For some time, Horn Book sent me books 
on American Indians. This is my area of 
expertise. The fact that I am American Indian, 
tribally enrolled, raised on the reservation, is 
not what gives me expertise. I am a former school 
teacher, and I have a doctorate in Education from 
the University of Illinois, with my area of 
research and study being representations of American Indians.

Terry references "the curriculum" --- but we 
should remember that "the curriculum" is prepared 
by people who were raised and taught in specific 
ways, depending on their location and other 
factors (like money for good schools, etc.) "The 
curriculum" at an Indian school on a reservation 
may or may not differ from the curriculum in an 
urban school in a major city. I would hope that 
the Indian school provided its children books 
that reflect who they are. It does them no good 
to read that their ancestors were murderous 
blood-thirsty savages, because that was not the 
case, anymore than it was the case that white 
settlers and soldiers were blood-thirsty. They 
were all fighting for something. The Indians 
fought to protect their land, parents, 
grandparents, children, religious ways, etc. etc. 
from settlers and soldiers who wanted that land. 
There was brutality on both sides, but that isn't 
the way most books of historical fiction tell 
those stories. They do this to justify the taking 
of that land. The ideology at work? Blood-thirsty 
killers don't deserve land. Good, God-fearing white settlers do.

As educators, we must not continue to tell the 
story that way. We must provide a more balanced 
story. "The curriculum" is lacking, just as much 
as the story books. All kids need balanced depictions of history.

Debbie



>Date:    Thu, 7 Jun 2007 08:06:39 -0700
>From:    Terry Darr <darrtk@YAHOO.COM>
>Subject: Re: "We" the People - NEH/ALA Bookshelf
>
>Please excuse my genuine confusion...
>Is there an "authority list" of acceptable titles
>outside of what the curriculum says?  Who has the
>right to become the authority figure and dictate what
>is acceptable for people of color?
>Terry Darr

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

Email: debreese@uiuc.edu
Internet Resource & Blog: 
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/
Native American House: http://www.nah.uiuc.edu

TEL 217-265-9885
FAX 217-265-9880

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