Native American Lit

Bruchac, Joseph. 2004. HIDDEN ROOTS. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 0439353580.


Eleven-year-old Sonny lives in a small town in the Adirondack Mountains, the only child in a troubled family. Sonny's father is angry and abusive to him and his mother. Uncle Louis teaches Sonny all about the secrets of the forest and the animals, but Sonny's dad doesn't like him hanging around. As the story unfolds, Sonny learns many things - why his dad is so angry, why Uncle Louis knows so much about the Abenaki Indians, and the true hidden roots of his family. The author's end note explains the 1930's Vermont Eugenics Project in which Abenaki people were routinely sterilized in an effort to keep their population down. Many Abenaki fled and hid their Indian ancestry as a result.


Connections


Talk about domestic violence, why it happened in this story, and what can be done when domestic violence occurs.


Discuss the extermination of the Jews in Europe during the Holocaust and the parallels with what the U.S. did to the Abenaki Indians during the Vermont Eugenics Project in the 1930's.


Research the Abenaki Indians and learn more about the tribe and its customs.

Alexie, Sherman. 2007. THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN. illustrated by Ellen Forney. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 0316013684.

This 2007 winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature will have readers laughing out loud one minute and crying the next. It is a coming of age story about 14 year old Junior, a Spokane Indian who lives on a reservation he calls "the rez". Junior was born with hydrocephalus and loves to draw. " I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats," he writes. Ellen Forney's drawings add humor to the already clever narrative. Both words and pictures describe life on the reservation where there is not much hope, and almost everyone drinks themselves into tragedy. This book provides a rare glimpse into what it is like to be a teenage American Indian growing up in present day America. A 2007 Publisher's Weekly review describes what separates this work from others, " Unlike protagonists in many YA novels who reclaim or retain ethnic ties in order to find their true selves, Junior must separate from his tribe in order to preserve his identity."

Connections:


Have children illustrate events of their own lives, both important ones and everyday, mundane ones.


Keep a journal for a period of time, include illustrations.


Research Spokane Indians to learn more about the tribe, its customs and its history. Discuss the impact these have on the current living conditions and circumstances of tribal members.


Discuss the effects of stereotyping in the story, and in our own lives.





Tingle, Tim. 2006. CROSSING BOK CHITTO; A CHOCTAW TALE OF FRIENDSHIP AND FREEDOM. Illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press. ISBN 0938317776

Martha Tom, a little Choctaw girl, and Little Mo, a young slave boy live on opposite sides of Bok Chitto River in Mississippi back in the days before the Trail of Tears. They become friends when Martha Tom gets lost on the slave side of the river and Little Mo helps her find her way home. The Choctaws have built a trail of stones across the river, just below the surface of the water. This trail helps save the lives of Little Mo's family as they flee the slave hunters. From the characters' clothing, to their dwellings, to the rich natural backdrop, Jeanne Rorex Bridges' illustrations add authenticity to the retelling of this history-filled, spiritual legend. A 2006 starred review in Booklist points out that CROSSING BOK CHITTO is a "... a picture book that highlights rarely discussed intersections between Native Americans in the South and African Americans in bondage."

Connections

Research and discuss the Trail of Tears.

Imagine what might have happened after the escape.

Read and discuss FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD and other slave escape stories.