Some schools still encourage children to dress up as “Indians” with feathered headbands for the occasion. They will transport young readers and listeners, and in the process, they will banish the notion (still so often perpetuated in pop culture) that Native Americans are but obsolete ghosts of a tragic past.Īs Thanksgiving nears, people often begin to bring back those Eurocentric views, telling the story of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. Whether your child has Ojibwe, Inuit, or Choctaw blood or not, these stories will have a certain power over them. And there are inspiring true tales as well. There are poems weaving together the present and the past, the real and the mythical. There are picture books for young readers that connect contemporary life to old traditions. There are some historical fiction tales in here, but they have so much more truth to them when written by their own people. We’re not talking about historical fiction romanticizing the way a few clever Indians helped the white man conquer their ancestral land. Just like the many tribes that have inhabited North America, there is a wonderfully diverse range of books available for kids about Native Americans.
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