Scholastic is advertising a book list for Native American Heritage Month. Posted on November 1, 2022 it states "Students will learn about the diverse history and culture of Native American tribes with these nonfiction books." It states it is for grades 1-5.
Starting with that opening sentence, there are several problems already. "History" and "culture" should both be plural. There is no one Native American history or culture. This constant monolithic language from largely non-Native companies continues to perpetuate the false idea that we are all the same. This is harmful to education. The title says "nations" but this sentence says "tribes." Nations is much more correct, politically and culturally, than tribes. Why switch back and forth? They should continue to use the word nations instead.
Next there are a few paragraphs describing the book list and how teachers can use it. There are also multiple issues here. It again uses monolithic language like "history" and "culture" instead of correctly pluralizing those words. It uses the name "Sioux" instead of Lakota and Dakota, which is more preferred by most Lakota/Dakota people. It says the books can be used individually for lessons or "as a unit for larger discussions around the diversity of Native American culture." The monolithic use of the word "culture" here contradicts the word "diversity." This sentence makes no sense. Then it says "Topics include daily life, relationships with settlers, tribe traditions, crops and farming, how the tribes live today, and more." Why is it that everyone speaks of us as exclusively historical, but don't preface their statements that they're talking about history?? It says "daily life" and then "how the tribes live today." Are these not the same thing?? According to the way people think of us as history only, they're not. "Daily life" apparently means in the past and that's just supposed to be implied...which makes no sense. When I read something about Native "daily life" I automatically think present tense, not past. This sentence SHOULD say something like "Topics include histories, such as daily life, relationships with settlers, tribe traditions, crops and farming, and contemporary stories about how the tribes live today, and more." I would change several words in this, though, like "daily life" should be "daily lives" as to not be monolithic, "settlers" should be "colonizers," "tribe" should be "nations" and really that whole part should say "traditions in different Native nations," etc. Regardless, the words "daily life" with the intention of meaning "in the past" only is ridiculous. That should never be the immediate implication when talking about Native peoples and nations...we are still here.
It then says "shop the best nonfiction books to teach about Native American nations below!" but as we'll see...these are VERY FAR from being the "best books." They're quite horrible.
Okay, onto the list itself.
It lists several of the Scholastic "true books" including "A True Book - American Indians: the Navajo," "A True Book - American Indians: the Wampanoag," "A True Book - American Indians: the Iroquois," and "A True Book - American Indians: the Inuit." The problem is...these books are absolutely not "true." They're incredibly inaccurate. They are not written by people from those nations or cultures, nor do the people that write them really know what they're talking about. Many "facts" in these books are not facts at all, but very incorrect. I suggest teachers, parents, or librarians never, ever use these "true books" from Scholastic. The descriptions with each book on the list are just as problematic. From use of the word "Indian," calling our arts "crafts," to "women" apparently being its own topic in the Wampanoag book...these descriptions are not acceptable.
Another book listed is "I Am Sacagawea." Again, this is a terrible book. You can read a review about this book on Dr Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature page.
The book Native American Heroes by Dawn Quigley is listed and while I haven't read this one, Dawn Quigley is a Native (Ojibwe) author and has many highly recommended books. This may be a good book...one of the few on the list.
Geronimo by Joseph Bruchac is listed. Bruchac is Native (Abenaki) and this book is positively reviewed by Beverly Slapin on the American Indian's in Children's Literature blog. This may also be a decent book, but I have not read it. As an Apache person, though, I tend to be somewhat leery of books about Apaches written by non-Apaches. Really, the best source of information about each nation and people from those nations are from the nation itself. But there are plenty of Native authored books about nations outside of the author's own that are great books, too. So this seems to be a good choice as well.
A book called Pocahontas by Joanne Mattern is on the list. This author is not Native and is a general children's book writer. Her books range in topic from animals to firefighters to various biographies. She doesn't seem to have any specific area of expertise. Usually, children's books about Pocahontas are terrible and inaccurate, especially when they're written by non-Native authors and general "children's lit" authors like this one. I would expect the same out of this one. Definitely avoid.
And finally, Many Nations: An Alphabet of Native Americans by Joseph Bruchac is listed here. It's a simple picture book that goes from A to Z with a different Native topic. However, it's entirely past tense. While Bruchac is Native, some of his books are problematic. This book portrays Natives in the past only, which leads to harmful assumptions and teachings about us. Many children and adults don't know that we still exist. Books like this don't help. There's nothing inaccurate about the book and the art (not by a Native artist) is beautiful, but books like this really need to show the diversity of modern Native lives and not just our histories.
And that's the list...only two, maybe three, out of 11 are actually decent books and by Native authors. Scholastic constantly pushes harmful, racist, inaccurate, and stereotypical portrayals of Natives with their books and lesson plans from their websites.
The next article linked/suggested at the bottom of this page is "27 Fiction Books That Celebrate Native American Heritage." As expected, the list is full of horrible, and even racist, books. While there are several good, Native authored books listed here as well, much of the list is junk. They include awful books like The Rough Face Girl, Walk Two Moons, Navajo Long Walk (by Nancy M Armstrong), Blood on the River, and more.
They don't listen to Native voices when we speak up and contact them. In fact, they delete and block us on their social media when we say anything negative. They've been doing this for decades and despite pushback they continue with no signs of stopping.
Please...do not use these lists by Scholastic or the lesson plans on their website (I'll have to review a few sometime on here, they're terrible). Listen to Native voices and use lists by Native experts instead.
