Good morning,
My use of Pollock's ZUNI CINDERELLA as an example
should not be taken as an endorsement or recommendation for the book.
It says it is a Zuni story (Zuni is one of the 19
pueblos in New Mexico), but the findings in my
analysis of the story show that there are many
factual errors in this retelling of the story
(the girl is characterized as an orphan, but
orphanhood is not a concept that exists in Zuni
culture; in the transformation, her clothes turn
into Plains Indian attire instead of Pueblo
attire; the insertion of European values of
wealth and beauty), examples of bias and
stereotyping (style of the prose and words used),
and a change to the meaning of the story (for the
Zuni's, it is about fossils on their lands, but
in the retelling the turkey's become wild instead
of domestic), and, the dramatic retelling of the
story makes it align with the European Cinderella
in ways that are not found in the way the Zuni people tell the story.
She used a particular source for her retelling
(Frank Hamilton Cushing, an ethnographer who went
to Zuni in 1879). Some of what is wrong with her
retelling is due to her own changes/additions to
the story, and some of it is due to her source.
In some places he is hailed as a father of
ethnography and participant observation as a
method of study. In reading his writings, I am
repeatedly saddened and shocked at the methods he
used to obtain information and access to things
the Zuni people guarded against, due to their
negative experiences with the Spanish going back
to the 1500s. His interpretations are from his
perspective, and he says as much in his writings,
but people still read and use them as "reliable"
information about the Zuni's. There's been a lot
of study about him and his work, a lot of it in
the area of research ethics. There's an excellent
book about differing perspectives on knowledge
and control of knowledge. That book is Isaac's
MEDIATING KNOWLEDGES. A fascinating study, it is
about her work with Zuni, specifically about the
tribal museum there, what can be displayed, etc.
It is accessible (not full or jargon or
academic-speak). I think it is an interesting
book for librarians, given its focus on sharing knowledge and information.
Debbie
Visit my Internet resource:
American Indians in Children's Literature
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.net
Debbie A. Reese (Nambé O'-ween-ge')
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@illinois.edu
TEL 217-265-9885
FAX 217-265-9880
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