Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale (Santee/Cree), eds., Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children. (1987), 2006, b/w illustrations.

A thoughtful history of North America from the perspective of its native peoples draws on the traditions, reminiscences, and legends of diverse Native American tribes to explore the history of these peoples and their way of life over the last five centuries.

“[Through Indian Eyes is a] superb collection of articles that together function as a guide to the murky world of ‘children’s books about Indians.’ Poetry, personal recollection, and reviews of books from a Native perspective lead the librarian, teacher and parent to an understanding of the often subtle stereotypes and mythology that abound about Native Americans in children’s literature.”—American Indian Library Association

“It’s an absolutely wonderful resource, containing lots of insights not available in standard reference tools. The format and layout make it very easy to use.”—Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Through Indian Eyes is the winner of a 1999 Skipping Stones Honor Award.

***This book has some dated material, as it was published in 1987. So much momentum has been made since then, that other updated books treat these issues in a more contemporary way. Though this book is great as a foundation builder.

By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

A review by Birch Bark Books:

The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples.

An adaptation for young people is also available.

Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire.

InAn Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.”

Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.

“What is fresh about the book is its comprehensiveness. Dunbar-Ortiz brings together every indictment of white Americans that has been cast upon them over time, and she does so by raising intelligent new questions about many of the current trends of academia, such as multiculturalism. Dunbar-Ortiz’s material succeeds, but will be eye-opening to those who have not previously encountered such a perspective.”
—Publishers Weekly

By Jane Yolen Ages 6+

This is the story of Columbus’ landing in the Americas, as told by a boy of the Taino people who already lived there. The 500th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage was coming up, and my Harcourt editor of the time–Bonnie Ingber–suggested such a book was needed. I thought a Taino should write it. After doing some early research, I felt the likelihood of any full-blooded Taino people to be still alive was not great and the story needed to be told. So I said I would do it. The book was the only one in that anniversary year to speak for the Taino people in a picture book edition. It still is. There is an exchange about this book between James C. Juhnke and me in the Spring 1993 issue of The New Advocate (Vol. 6, No. 4). In 1996 Harcourt printed a Spanish edition, Encuentro, translated by the indefatigable Alma Flor Ada. In 2000 a French edition was published under the imprint Carre Blanc, Les 400 Coups.

Material for Teachers from the Author:

• See how a master teacher uses Encounter within a larger teaching session with 4th graders.

• A lesson idea.

By Guy Jones & Sally Moomaw

For teachers interested in eliminating stereotyping in the classroom.

How do you help young children learn more about Native Americans than the cultural stereotypes found in children's books and in the media?

Lessons from Turtle Island is the first complete guide to exploring Native American issues with children. The authors--one Native, one white, both educators--show ways to incorporate authentic learning experiences about Native Americans into your curriculum. This book is organized around five cross-cultural themes: Children, Home, Families, Community, and the Environment. The authors present activities, from children's books they recommend, to develop skills in reading and writing, science, math, make-believe, art, and more. The book provides helpful guidelines and resource lists for selecting appropriate toys, children's books, music, and art, and also includes a family heritage project.

"[A] marvelous tool that should be in every American school." ~ Joseph Bruchac