more stereotypes

On the first day of class we discussed what books we enjoyed/identified with when we were younger. I listed one of my favorite childhood books, Walk Two Moons. Tonight I was spending time on D. Reese's blog looking for some articles to accompany the novels that I have read when I found a review for this book. It was sorted under the label of Not Recommended. The main character identified herself as being part Indian (it is set in contemporary times) and there were many references to "Indian" ideas that were not at all correct. I am still amazed at the prevalance of these stereotypes. I am starting to feel like up until this class every single book that I've read with an Indian character in it was somehow stereotypical. Equally disturbing, it seems like very few people see this as a problem or even think there is another way to learn about Native American culture. Oyate is a website/book store that specializes in selling books from Native authors. Most of these books have only been published by small independent presses. On the site, a list of approved books is included for teaching students about Thanksgiving for those that want their only unit on the subject to occur the week before Thanksgiving. At least this way their information will be correct.

Also on that site is a collection of stories that are quite disturbing about teacher's using books in schools that were historically inaccurate and how much they were willing to defend their choices. I would check it out http://www.oyate.org/livingstories.html and also some of the other books on Oyate's site.