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Debbie Reese discusses with the guest editors her experiences providing guidance and criticism regarding depictions of Native people in children's and young adult literature, as well as observing how the publishing industry has both improved some practices and remained in problematic stasis with others.
Debbie Reese is tribally enrolled at Nambe Pueblo, and her articles and book chapters on depictions of Native peoples in children's and young adult books are used in education, library science, and English classrooms in universities in the United States and Canada. In an effort to provide teachers, parents, and librarians with easy access to her work, she launched her blog, American Indians in Children's Literature, in 2006. She holds an MLIS from San Jose State and a PhD from the University of Illinois. A former schoolteacher and assistant professor, she conducts workshops and gives lectures on indigenizing children's literature.
You have spent much of your career reviewing and providing guidance about the messages about Indigenous people in popular children's and young adult books. What have you seen change over time with newer publications?
There is a long history of Native people objecting to depictions of Native people in stories told to children. The first was William Apess in A Son of the Forest, published in 1829 (https://archive.org/ details/sonofforestexperOOinapes). I'm one in a long line of Native people who push back on stereotyping and bias. In the early 1900s, Native parents in Chicago wrote to the Chicago schools to call attention to derogatory materials their children were being asked to read. In the 1990s when I began this work, I learned by reading work by Native people like Mary Gloyne Byler and Doris Seale. Some writers and editors are reading this body of work, but too many aren't reading it carefully.
One change in the last few years is characters who tell other characters to say "Native American" rather than Indian. A good example of this is in Tim Federle's much-heralded Better Nate Than Never, which is about a gay teen. We need books like that but not ones that misrepresent us along the way. On page 264 of his book, the characters are at a Halloween parade in New York City:
Kids are starting to appear in costumes, on...