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Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children
Essays, poetry, bibliography, and critical reviews of children's books by and about Indian peoples. A dependable and honest guide for parents and instructors interested in teaching kids about the diversity of Native America.
246 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 2, 2025
Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale's (main editors) Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children (the 1998 edition and which I read on Open Library) has been compiled by Native American parents, educators, writers, and with Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children presenting a massive but also thankfully not too overwhelming anthology of poems, academically interesting and enlightening thematic essays and reviews that should (well, at least in my humble opinion) be on the shelf of every library in every school in every US state and likewise in Canada as well, although what is presented in Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children is generally considerably more Native American than First Nations, than Native Canadian in contents and scope (of course along with the more recent and also somewhat more hard-hitting and uncompromising 2005 A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children as well, albeit I do sadly fear that many both school and public libraries in book banning happy American states will now most probably be actively taking both Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children and equally so A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children permanently off their shelves for supposedly being problematically anathema and something to censor, restrict and maybe even to burn).
Now in addition to thoroughly trouncing both negative and equally so not so negative but still annoyingly frustrating and issue-heavy Native American (and of course also Native Canadian) stereotypes as well as clearly showing parents, teachers etc. what makes a non-stereotypical and unproblematic Native American themed book by providing a helpful checklist for evaluating children’s books for anti-Indian biases (and which in fact has also been published separately under the title of How to Tell the Difference: A Guide to Evaluating Children's Books for Anti-Indian Bias, Slapin and Seale in Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children also include detailed reviews of over one-hundred children’s books (both positive and negative). And yes, I personally do appreciate that the reviews encountered in Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children are nicely balanced, so that while Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale are of course (and appreciatively, justifiably so) massively critical and even hugely condemning of non OwnVoices children's books (and their authors) which and who they believe focus on stereotyping, cultural appropriation, historical fallacies, racism and paternalism, they do also positively review quite a few books penned by "outsiders" where the presented texts are (according to them, according to Slapin and Seale) are respectful and free of bias, although I should point out that for one Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children is considerably more conciliatory regarding this than A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children is and that for two some authors featured and celebrated in both Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children and in A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children as Native American are now considered problematic and perhaps not Native American anymore or worse pretending to be Native American (and although I personally still consider Joseph Bruchac as being Abenaki I feel that I should definitely mention that there are some if not in fact many Native American activists and scholars who now think that Bruchac is not Native American enough, although from what I have read about Joseph Bruchac, he has to my knowledge never lied about the fact that his background is partially and not fully, not solely Abenaki).
And finally, Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children also includes extensive resource information on Native American publishers and sources for unbiased materials and that Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale's extensive bibliography is indeed much appreciated (but these sources are obviously not current, are not contemporary, so that in particular for the publishing houses being listed, it thus needs to be checked whether they still exist and whether their addresses etc. are still up-to-date).
Now in addition to thoroughly trouncing both negative and equally so not so negative but still annoyingly frustrating and issue-heavy Native American (and of course also Native Canadian) stereotypes as well as clearly showing parents, teachers etc. what makes a non-stereotypical and unproblematic Native American themed book by providing a helpful checklist for evaluating children’s books for anti-Indian biases (and which in fact has also been published separately under the title of How to Tell the Difference: A Guide to Evaluating Children's Books for Anti-Indian Bias, Slapin and Seale in Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children also include detailed reviews of over one-hundred children’s books (both positive and negative). And yes, I personally do appreciate that the reviews encountered in Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children are nicely balanced, so that while Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale are of course (and appreciatively, justifiably so) massively critical and even hugely condemning of non OwnVoices children's books (and their authors) which and who they believe focus on stereotyping, cultural appropriation, historical fallacies, racism and paternalism, they do also positively review quite a few books penned by "outsiders" where the presented texts are (according to them, according to Slapin and Seale) are respectful and free of bias, although I should point out that for one Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children is considerably more conciliatory regarding this than A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children is and that for two some authors featured and celebrated in both Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children and in A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children as Native American are now considered problematic and perhaps not Native American anymore or worse pretending to be Native American (and although I personally still consider Joseph Bruchac as being Abenaki I feel that I should definitely mention that there are some if not in fact many Native American activists and scholars who now think that Bruchac is not Native American enough, although from what I have read about Joseph Bruchac, he has to my knowledge never lied about the fact that his background is partially and not fully, not solely Abenaki).
And finally, Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children also includes extensive resource information on Native American publishers and sources for unbiased materials and that Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale's extensive bibliography is indeed much appreciated (but these sources are obviously not current, are not contemporary, so that in particular for the publishing houses being listed, it thus needs to be checked whether they still exist and whether their addresses etc. are still up-to-date).
November 30, 2007
features articles and poems by american indian authors. also reviews of kids books such as "the indian in the cupboard" that feature american indian characters. the reviews highlight some problematic issues. finally there's a section with questions to bring to a text, along with examples of respectful portrayals of native peoples and not-so-respectful ones too.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews