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Lecture An Indigenous Critique of Whiteness in Children’s Literature Dr. Debbie Reese hank you, to all of the people who pulled Brother Eagle Sister Sky off the are here, and to the Ho-Chunk shelf and got ready to read it aloud, Liz T Nation, and to the committee told her that the book wasn’t right. Not that selected me and the community understanding what Liz was trying to that helped get me here. I’m nervous. say, that teacher told her that she could It is a huge honor and I acknowledge play somewhere else in the classroom. that honor. I hope that what I say deliv- Liz was only four years old but she knew ers for all of you because I do think it that there were images in the world that is important to talk about Whiteness in weren’t right and she was using that four- children’s literature. I talk a lot about year-old voice to say so. I want teachers to good books but it is equally important listen carefully when children are telling that we talk about the bad books because you something. Their words have mean- there’s way more bad books in children’s ing to them. A year later in kindergarten, literature and we need those to be moved Liz came out of her classroom at the end aside so people can say, “oh, this is actual of the day, plopped right down on the Indigenous story.” There are many sto- floor, opened her backpack, and opened ries Native writers tell about being out George and Martha, Encore to this page. and hearing people say, “but that’s not Native.” The stories they present are seen as not Native because they don’t match the expectations of Indians sitting around all the books that were in my classroom a campfire telling stories. So, I’m going library became her books. We read a lot. to talk about Whiteness in Children’s Literature, tonight. I also want to say In 1993, we moved from our adobe home the Diversity Jedi are here, so we have to at Nambé Pueblo to a non-descript apart- applaud for them. ment in the midwest. Our goal: gradu- ate school at the University of Illinois. The work I started doing in the mid-1990s My plan was to study family literacy but was shaped by this delightful child when that changed not long after we arrived she came into our lives. I had been a on campus and I encountered “Chief kindergarten and first grade teacher and Illiniwek” and love for that racist mascot. Trying to understand why people were so She jabbed at George with that indigna- moved by that clearly ridiculous image tion of a five-year-old and said, “Mom, changed my plans. I started studying and look! It’s George, and he’s a TV Indian.” talking about depictions of Native people That’s a phrase I was using with her, then, in children’s books. to describe stereotyping. See, just prior to moving to Illinois, we had both danced at Precocious child that she was, Liz—who Nambé. For us, dance is not performance. is here tonight, and her dad, and Nick It’s not entertainment. It is prayer. She who is soon to be part of our family—was understood the sacred nature of what we speaking up about stereotypes, too. When were doing and when we saw stereotypi- a teacher in her pre-school classroom cal Indians on TV westerns and cartoons, Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • August 2019 3 I talked with her about what they looked before it is dark outside). I was head- announcement, but I did something I like, and what we looked like, and that ing up the stairs and my phone rang. I had done before. I invited Jedi Tom Crisp the ways that we are dressed when we are glanced at it, didn’t recognize the num- to watch the livestream with me. He was doing our traditional dances are not what ber, so I ignored it, got ready for bed, laid in Georgia, I was in Illinois, and we texted we were seeing on TV. The Indians on down. Then I saw that I had a message back and forth with a running commen- TV weren’t anything like us. They weren’t from the person who had called. I lis- tary as we watched. He didn’t know that real. So—TV Indians became a catch-all tened to it. It was Barbara Genco. She said Nina Lindsay, also a Jedi, would be saying phrase for us to use when we’d see stereo- something about needing to talk to me as my name. In spite of Barbara’s assurances, types in books. That particular incident soon as possible. I was anxious because, quite frankly, I with George became a Field Notes arti- expected some polite applause and I was cle in Horn Book Magazine. Its title—of worried that some people might even course—is “Mom, Look! It’s George, and boo loudly. If anyone did that, I knew that He’s a TV Indian!” Tom would help me out. Nina made the announcement. As Liz moved on through school, there was one book after another that we would need to address. In third grade, she spoke up about Caddie Woodlawn. I’ll have a little more to say about that book, shortly. When you’re the parent of a Native or child of color, your child’s identity is not affirmed in the ways that the identity of white children is. You will be asking teachers for meetings to talk about prob- lems in textbooks, worksheets, and chil- (I took that photo last week for this part dren’s books that your child brings home. of the presentation.) I kind of panicked Fighting for my daughter’s well-being because I had been asked to be on the shaped my work as a scholar and critic. 2018 ALSC Charlemae Rollins President’s And there were cheers! And lots of Since then, I’ve met many people in Program panel at ALA and I thought, applause, and Barbara called me right Education and Library Science and some “dang, what did I do! Barbara is a big name after the ceremony to say, “did you hear writers, too, who focus on the well-being in ALSC! Why is she calling me? Is she them?” It was a great day! of children. Our work includes looking calling to tell me I can’t be on that panel?!” inside the pages of children’s books but I did not call her back. I was wide awake, As I suspected, though, some people were from there, looking outwards. What forces afraid, and I saw that she was on Twitter, not pleased. There was quite an active in society are shaping the words and illus- so, I sent her a direct message. She wrote conversation about it on social media. trations we see in children’s books? That me right back. She said we could talk the One writer who was at Midwinter said she is one question we, Jedi, bring to the work next day, and that she had good news. nearly leapt out of her chair to scream, that brought us all here, tonight. “No!” when she heard my name. Others The next morning, I sat by the fireplace, declared they would boycott the lecture. And it is a question that teachers and warm and toasty and listened to Barbara Some people wrote to the Arbuthnot librarians can ask when they pick up a tell me that I’d been selected to do this committee, some wrote to ALSC lead- book to use with children. Who wrote or lecture. “Are you sure, Barbara? I don’t ership, and some wrote to me, saying I illustrated it? Does the book have Native know… there’s a lot of people out there do not deserve the honor. Obviously the or People of Color in it? How are they who don’t like me and what I do.” She lecture was not taken away from me, and depicted? It is a questioning stance I kind of laughed and told me that they here we are! want teachers to bring to every single were sure. She went into some detail book they pick up. Don’t think that every about articles they read and videos of me The first children’s literature conference author is going to do okay because each they had watched. Clearly the commit- I attended was here in Madison in the book has to be looked at independently. tee knew what I do. So, I said okay. She 1990s when I was in graduate school. told me the announcement would be That’s when I met K.T. Horning and Ginny made at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting, spe- Moore Kruse. I’ve learned so much from cifically at the 2018 Youth Media Awards them. Since then, I’ve been up here a Just after 5 p.m. on Saturday, January 20, event and that I couldn’t talk about it till few times. I remember meeting Janice 2018, I was on my way to bed (some of then. I couldn’t go to Midwinter, couldn’t Rice and formed a wonderful friendship you know we turn in early, sometimes be “in the room” when they made the with her. She’s been a leading light in Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • August 2019 4 the American Indian Library Association I have the word Indigenous in my title, that doesn’t mean that only three-quar- for years.

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