November update

Life is happening, indeed. Busy month!

Debbie Reese visit- I was a complete deer in the headlights meeting her- I didn't know that she would be stopping in to visit in the morning and she was super-gracious about my awkwardness. I liked what she said in her discussion with J___ about "expanding the narrative." Too often, I feel like there is this sentiment of well, what do we have to take out to put these things in? What's she's advocating for isn't the complete and total destruction of the American canon, and I've had some very interesting discussions to that effect. (That said, I noticed today when I was pulling books for a group coming in that many of the titles were Native author and recommended books. Yay for librarians from W___!)

Meeting with the Stockbridge Historical Committee- I had never sat in a Historical Committee meeting, but I found it to be far less intimidating than I had imagined. We got some great advice on the direction of R__'s project and we definitely have a lot of new ideas for the work that is to come with it. We're definitely surrendering control of the content the further it moves along, which to me is a good sign. My only goals for the project are that our recommendations collection is accurate and actually gets used.

Grants writing- There's a reason that people pay other people to do this-it's a bit like learning how to write lab reports-only there is a slight chance you might get thousands of dollars from said lab report. I'm reading through a stack of sample grants right now trying to find one that is close enough to our project to use as an example. I notice that all of them have detailed "history" sections-which is hard for a project-based proposal. My goal is to get the narrative done by the end of the month-just in case I wasn't busy...or anything...

Other project-ness- I made an info sheet on libraries, education programs, and local media for all of the eleven federally recognized Nations of Wisconsin. Love the Oneida website.

TLAM Meeting- Met with some of the students in next semester's tribal libraries courses. I finally got to meet some first-years in my department outside of youth services! The curriculum will be a lot more flexible than courses I have ever taken before, but it isn't my first service learning course. If I had it my way, I would pretty much only take service learning classes. It looks like a visit to Oneida is in the works, which I am really, really ridiculously excited about since I haven't been back since the DPI workshop.

The Word of the Day is...

...is this. Must it be done in reference to others or can it be directed towards oneself? It's been the sort of day for the latter...

So I've decided not to pursue a school media specialist certification/license. Maybe I'll go back for it at some point, but as of now I feel confident that I would prefer to work in a public or nontraditional academic library. The good news-it frees me up to take the tribal libraries, archives, and museums course in the spring, which looks promising. I'm hoping to become engaged with larger issues outside of the literature side of American Indian studies, which is what I've been doing these past few months. The bad news? I have no idea what comes next, then...and seven months is a very short time indeed..."I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain"....

But I do know this...I will never dress a dog like slide 23 of this website that my sister sent me... I couldn't get the image, but I found one quite close...seriously, I hope this is a joke-but I don't think it is. I could deconstruct the many ways that this costume bothers me, but indeed, public mockery might the only healthy response at this point in the night. Seriously? People seriously buy this costume for their animals? **facepalm**

Jamake Highwater

In my research project, one of the authors I'm reading reviews of is Jamake Highwater. I sincerely hope someone writes a book about all of that someday-a media studies/history of print media person would surely find him the perfect subject. I went back and read many of the original interviews and it certainly didn't take a genius to figure out the pieces in his story didn't match up and were changed at his convenience.

I don't want to delve into that too deeply, but since he is still featured on bibliographies of American Indian children's literature, that's the point when I feel compelled to respond. His work isn't condemned just because of his deceit but because it simply isn't good. Is it nostalgia or laziness that keeps him in the public eye? The Newbery honor for Anpao is a big part of that, but certainly that doesn't explain why so many of his other works are still included. I think there is so much else out there right now-time to move on. Of course, I would say the same thing about ...Little Tree but that was just featured on one of the most popular homeschooling blogs as a recommended work. Not to be cynical, but based on the statements of many commenters, I doubt many of these people picked up a book with an American Indian character since. Some brave publishers, writers, and librarians have a lot of work cut out for them...

Speaking of writers, I was talking with a patron about ideas for encouraging teenage Native writers. I spoke with her about many of the oral history projects that have been done, but I like her idea of bringing in Native writers and storytellers to not only speak to young people, but also teachers and education students. I think it's a promising idea for the future, especially on this campus where there is more funding for guest speakers.

Young Adult Fiction

I went over to work this afternoon to pull some books for a patron who asked me about American Indian fiction for young adults. After going through the lists in my files, I came up with a fairly small number of recommended books. If it were picture books, I would have had half a cart instead of such a little stack. The push for multicultural reading in high school curriculum, at its best, skips past young adult literature entirely in favor of Ceremony or Love Medicine (at least in the school in St. Paul where I tutored). I will have to look into this thought more--my initial impression is that it's harder for white researchers to write from the young adult perspective of another culture-it's hard enough to write as an adult in that voice without other differences to consider.
I am hopeful that the success of ...Part-Time Indian will inspire publishers to pursue Native writers for this age group, because otherwise Joseph Bruchac has a near-monopoly and the American Indian characters most teenagers read about will be magical shirtless werewolves.

Late on this one...

I am thinking over some of the thoughts proposed by Jonathan Hunt about who has a right to claim insensitivity. Since I'm working on a project about how reviewers considered the accuracy of books with American Indian content that went on to win the Newbery or Newbery Honor, it's been on my mind this week in a different way. I'm surprised how readily the reviewers accepted author's claims regarding research and tribal affiliation-maybe I come from a more skeptical era. Is that to say I would catch every error in a book myself? Of course not-that's why the reviewing community needs experts who can make these arguments rather than give the general impression of "it seems right" that was the case with many Newbery winners now deemed offensive.

Where I take issue with this post (besides the bringing in of Hitler Youth and the Shoah...I'm not going there although I want to...off topic and ranty...) is when he extends the argument to criticize Reese for not evaluating for content outside of her own area of expertise. No one reviewer can respond to every possible offensive thing in a work-does that mean they lack credibility, then? The Internet has given those seeking reviews such a wonderful chance to gain multiple perspectives-so let those who have objections voice them, provided they can make a well-substantiated argument.

Book of the Week: Lately, we've gotten more works from the Emily Post Etiquette series for toddlers than on American Indians....I wish I was joking......

Book of the day

Alego by Ningeokuluk Teevee (Groundwood Press)

http://www.groundwoodbooks.com/gw_titles.cfm?pub_id=1374

This book came across the cataloging desk yesterday, so I will preface by saying I haven't had time to do a close reading or investigate the author. I have to admit that I had never seen a book in Inuktitut before and I'm definitely more curious about the language after reading Alego. Although the pictures aren't a style that I personally enjoy, the text captures a child's sense of curiosity about the natural world without being sentimental.

Speaking as a gringa...

I was reading about yet another white author posing as a Native writer today, and my frustration level has increased on this whole matter. The selfishness that goes into such a set of lies is so against the values they are pretending to espouse. It's the worst sort of cultural appropriation, to make up facts about another culture from the position of experience or authority. I personally get upset at the multimillion dollar publishing industry surrounding the near-annihilation of my own culture, so I can't imagine what it feels like to have one's entire culture in literature exploited.

It makes me careful with my work, certainly. I am a white person working on this project from the Eurocentric perspective of my profession, hoping to integrate American Indian worldviews into the thoughts and practices of both myself and others. We are too content to categorize, simplify, and homogenize American Indian cultures at the expense of taking the time to truly listen. We also have to be discerning in those that we choose to listen to in that process. I don't mean to be preachy as I say these things, because I am only just beginning to learn more myself.

Someone asked me the other day if this project means I will become a Native American expert. Ha! I actually worry about that....but at least in my department there's no danger of such a mistake. I am just hoping to train those from my culture about how to do better than we have done before. No one is perfect...but let's be honest with ourselves and each other so that we might gain from experience...

Another "On a Lighter Note" to balance out a quasi-rant...
Quote from The Office ("Diversity Day" episode):

Michael: I am Michael and I am part English, Irish, German and Scottish. Sort of a virtual United Nations. But what some of you might not know is that I am also part Native American Indian.
Oscar: What part Native American?
Michael: Two fifteenths.
Oscar: Two fifteenths, that fraction doesn't make any sense.
Michael: Well, you know what, it's kind of hard for me to talk about it. Their suffering. So who else? Let's get this popping. Come on. Who's going? Who's going? Let's go here!

End of Summer

Although my practicum ended, somehow the project has turned into an independent study. I'm excited that it will be more real-life work than my practicum and hopefully I'll get to visit a few reservations. It's definitely a summary of my studies in that I'm combining best practice and harsh reality. So, this blog will serve as a way to give updates about how that progresses and to post any useful links or information I find along the way. I can't imagine that the entries will be as long or insightful as I'd like since I'm taking five courses this semester, but anything is more coherent than the ten second summary I keep giving.

Happy beginning of school!

On a lighter note...

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/189691/october-28-2008/sherman-alexie

Colbert: "I don't think I can get away with that..."
Alexie: "No, you can't."

The Perks of Being Accessible

I intended to spend my summer doing an independent study project. For me, one of the challenges of this project that I have been working on is to appreciate the difference between study and librarianship. Unlike my previous work, this project hopefully isn't going to sit on a shelf. Somehow, I have to make this information accessible to others.

My first thought was to make a bibliography in Ref Works, but doing so would sharply limit access to people with a knowledge of Ref Works and those who were given the account information. So, in reality, it would be mostly for myself. Much of the information I have is in print only as well, and I want to keep all of the information together while respecting the original creators of those bibliographies. So, the solution that works for this particular project is to twofold: to set up links on this site and maintain a bibliography binder for the reference desk.

The binder is a thing of beauty. I started it for myself, but then I realized it would be a great thing for other people to use as well. The different sets of evaluation criteria paired with the bibliographies would definitely help someone who only has a short time to look over the books. Although there is plenty of overlap on the bibliographies I have gathered, by no means is there a consensus. Each one has a different perspective and agenda for including and excluding certain works. Some emphasize materials most suitable for classroom use while others focus on the background of the author and illustrator. It's a starting point rather than a comprehensive resource.

To be honest, I'm not sure what comes next. I can count on one hand the holdings of many of the works on these bibliographies, and my little librarian heart breaks because they are good books. They should be in public libraries where children can get their sticky crayon marks all over them (and read them, of course). Again, that's not my project or within my training. There are a lot of reasons this isn't happening, and every single one of them is bigger than me. I'm just trying to develop a tangible way to connect librarians and teachers with materials that would help them to consider these materials. More than anything, teachers and librarians need someone to excite them about these materials. They need someone to push them to take the first step, because as I've found, once you set out, it's not the bleak trudge through the desert of obligation they might initially consider it to be.

Site of the day: MN Dept of Education: K-12 Curriculum Frameworks
http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/Academic_Excellence/Indian_Education/K12_Curriculum/index.html
(I would also say that the DPI resources (see previous posts) are preferable.)

Culturally Sensitive Display Materials

Since I'm creating a project poster and working on a book display, how to visually portray American Indian culture has been on my mind.

To the left there is a set of Thanksgiving puppets from an *unnamed* party supply catalog. I think we can do better. (For example, what in the heck is that brown blob in the upper left hand corner supposed to be? The facial similarity between the Mayflower and American Indian puppets is just a little bizarre, to say the least.) Here is some amateur advice on visual displays based on some of the issues that have been brought to my attention:

• Look beyond stock photos and clip art to find materials that actually reflect the Nations in your area. Don't just plop a tipi on the poster board and hope no one will notice.
  
• Try to seek out contemporary rather than historical photographs.
  
• DPI (WI) replicated some authentic beadwork patterns in one of their reference guides. Such patterns are better than the ambiguous "Indian blanket" borders.
• Avoid the phrase "celebrating" the culture. One bulletin board does not a celebration make. That's recognition. Which, I will admit, doesn't work into a title nearly as well.
  
• Respect the intense cultural significance of certain images, in particular ceremonial masks and eagle feathers.
  
• If you're trying to challenge your viewer with the inclusion of offensive images (which I wouldn't recommend to begin with), try to make this as visually clear as possible. A passerby may not take the time to read the text and may jump to conclusions about the nature of the display.

The Spirit of Act 31, or, "scio me nihil scire"

When I attended the American Indian Studies Summer Institute, the main topic of conversation was how to enforce Act 31 (see http://www.mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-23.html for a brief summary of the statute) within our workplaces. The wording is maddeningly vague to some, especially the phrase "adequate instructional materials, texts, and library services." I think some of us entered the workshop in search of answers only to find that we were expected to create our own.

One of the (few) stock phrases used was carrying out the "spirit of Act 31," or considering its true intent. The statute was never intended to resemble the Minnesota Graduation Standards I suffered through as a child, where every desired educational objective was laid out point-by-point for the districts. Those of us in attendance were given a strong background on tribal sovereignty and wisdom from those who have lived through the struggles to have it recognized. About four days into the workshop, it finally started to make sense to me. For me, the spirit of Act 31 meant that this project could not necessarily end as a passive bibliographic project.

Although I am far from an expert in this area, I can at least choose to begin the work for the work for others to carry forward. As a library student, time is the one thing I have to offer others. Somehow, I need to find a way to help others make resources more available. There is a wealth of great materials that are not being widely accessed and there is a lack of encouragement for people to make this area of education a priority (for several reasons). So, instead of finding answers at the end of this project, I find a wealth of questions to ask myself. I don't expect to find the answers based on my own understanding, but instead my hope is to start seeking them out with the knowledge and sense of purpose I have gained.

Site of the Day: MERIT resource guide
http://cimc.education.wisc.edu/help/Guides/wiscnative.html

For those starting an academic project on Wisconsin Native Americans, this site is a map of sorts through Madison's resources. I would recommend starting with the "websites" section and then moving into the e-resources and MadCat once you have a particular area of interest in mind.

Brief Thoughts on Little House on the Prairie

Personally, I feel a great deal of reluctance to approach this issue. When this book came up in my multicultural literature class, I was not among those saying that it should be removed from collections. It's too widely circulated to make such a quiet disappearance possible. Still, I think the arguments made on the pages below have changed my perspective on the series:

http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2006_09_13_americanindiansinchildrensliterature_archive.html

http://oyate.org/books-to-avoid/littlehouse.html

The language used regarding the Osage is not merely antiquated; it is actively racist and harmful. How can I reconcile that with the fact this series continues to be viewed as the epitome of American and family values in children's literature? This series will continue to be widely read and used in schools for years to come, and I will leave the fight against that to others. I choose to instead promote alternatives such as The Birchbark House that show American Indian culture in a truer light. I also encourage those who are choosing childen's materials to not simply pick books out of nostalgia but to take the time to reread them with a careful eye and seek out current reviews of the work.

Site of the day:
Birchbark Books http://birchbarkbooks.com/Home

Louise Erdrich runs an independent bookstore in Minneapolis that provides a selection of thoughtfully chosen books on American Indian culture. For those looking for language or children's materials, I would highly recommend this site. As an added treat, any Erdrich books ordered from Birchbark Books are autographed!

The First Step

Finding quality American Indian children's literature is a genuine challenge for several reasons. Obviously, the amount of choices are lacking. The oft-quoted statistic from CCBC Choices is that 40 of the 3,000 titles they received had substantial American Indian content and only 9 of those were from American Indian authors and illustrators. The real concern is that when cultural authenticity is considered, an even smaller portion remains to recommend. There is no magical seal of cultural authenticity, as many opinions form that idea.

I've struggled with how to approach that evaluation process. Some of the most popular and widely-held works are some of the most problematic. It takes a good deal of chutzpah to tell libraries that their holdings are insufficient and then tell them to reorder without the aid of their traditional reviewing resources.

To those who, like me, are just starting out on the process of learning to evaluate American Indian children's litearture, there are a few resources I would recommend:

A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children and the Oyate website:
http://oyate.org/catalog/oyatePubs.html, see also oyate.org

http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/

http://www.nativeculturelinks.com/nations.html

The Wisconsin Department of Education has an extensive bibliography on their site specific to Wisconsin Nations:
http://dpi.wi.gov/amind/aisbib.html

For Minnesotans and those studying Ojibwe resources, I would recommend The Minnesota Humanities Center. (Search "american indians" under the "Search our Resources" section and then click "search" rather than hit enter):
http://minnesotahumanities.org/


Book of the Day:
Mama's Little One by Kristina Heath

This picture book echoes traditional Mohican cultural principles to tell the story of a young child being instructed by his or her mother. The reader follows the child through the daily activities, with the importance of good behavior driving each action. Never does the narrative feel like a set of rules as the narration carries an obvious affection for both the young child and their traditional values.

So it begins...

I'm joining (quite late) the legions of library students creating blogs. I don't have any grand ambitions although I certainly hope it will help others looking for great children's literature.

Book of the Day:
Boozhoo: Come Play With Us/ Fond du Lac Headstart

This bilingual (Ojibwa/English) board book provides a lively, contemporary series of pictures. The text provides just enough vocabulary to entice curious students to learn more. Highly recommended for preschool collections and public libraries.