[CALIBK12] GEN: "Damned if we do and damned if we don't" - Authors and Native Americans in children's literature

[ladewig]

June Harris posted on June 15, 2009 to Debbie Reese, on the Children's Lit
listserv, 

concerning Patricia Wrede's plan for THIRTEENTH CHILD:

 

(snip)"The problem is that unless we are Native Americans writing about
Native

Americans, we're damned if we do and damned if we don't.

 

If we include Native peoples, incidents, customs--anything about Native

Americans, we're bound to get it wrong. If we don't include them, 

we're ignoring an entire culture." (snip)

 

My question to Debbie and the listserv is:

 

If an author researches about and consults the local Native peoples about
whom the author plans to include in a text, who has the final authority
regarding the book's "approval" - the LOCAL people or another individual or
group such as Reese/Slapin/et al? Or does the author have to have approval
from both, and what if the opinions conflict? 

 

What if an author DID have Native peoples assist with or approve of the text
ten years or more ago, and now the book is being critiqued by another group,
not of the tribe described, and by current "politically correct" standards,
not the standards of ten years ago? 

 

Joanne Ladewig  (A.K.A. "Library Lady")

Library Media Tech

Lawrence Elementary, GGUSD

Garden Grove, California

shatz at verizon.net

 

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark.
Professionals built the Titanic.

Comments are my own and may not represent the views of GGUSD

 

 

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