One thing I (always) wonder about is best-selling books. One source of info is Amazon. In their “Bestsellers in Children’s Native American Books” are the following titles. Some are on their more than once. In some cases, its clear that the duplicate is a Kindle edition, but others seem to just be repeats. There isn’t, for example, a note that says it is an audio copy.

It is, overall, a disappointing list and it makes me grumpy on this Monday morning…  I’m glad to see Native authors on the list, but duplicates of some really problematic books like Touching Spirit Bear?! And it is pretty easy to see that Amazon’s customers want works of historical fiction or “myths, legends and folktales.”  

#1 – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
#2 – Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell
#3 – One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims, by B. G. Hennessy
#4 – Island of the Blue Dolphins (Kindle), by Scott O’Dell
#5 – Squanto’s Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving, by Joseph Bruchac
#6 – Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen
#7 – North American Indians, by Douglas Gorsline
#8 – Tapenum’s Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy in Pilgrim Times
#9 – Encounter, by Jane Yolen
#10 – Sing Down the Moon, by Scott O’Dell
#11 – The Rough-Face Girl, by Rafe Martin
#12 – Paddle-to-the-Sea, by Holling C. Holling
#13 – Diamond Willow, by Helen Frost
#14 – Red Fox and His Canoe (I Can Read Book), by Nathaniel Benchley
#15 – The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare
#16 – The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, by Tomie de Paola
#17 – Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale, by Gerald McDermott
#18 – Touching Spirit Bear (Kindle) by Ben Mikaelson
#19 – Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George
#20 – Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen
#21 – Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison, by Lois Lenski
#22 – Mountain Top Mystery (Boxcar Children), by Gertrude Chandler Warner
#23 – Grandmother’s Dreamcatcher, by Becky Ray McCain
#24 – On Mother’s Lap, by Ann Herbert Scott
#25 – Horse Diaries #5: Golden Sun, by Whitney Sanderson
#26 – The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynn Reid Banks
#27 – Sacagawea: American Pathfinder, by Flora Warren Seymour
#28 – Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II, by Joseph Bruchac
#29 – The Heart of a Chief, by Joseph Bruchac
#30 – Little Runner of the Longhouse (I Can Red Book 2) by Betty Baker
#31 – Paddle-to-the-Sea, by Holling C. Hollins
#32 – Love Flute, by Paul Goble
#33 – Soft Rain: A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears, by Cornelia Cornelissen
#34 – The Journal of Jesse Smoke: A Cherokee Boy, Trail of Tears, 1838, by Joseph Bruchac
#35 – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
#36 – The Birchbark House, by Louise Erdrich
#37 – The Legend of the Bluebonnet, by Tomie dePaola
#38 – Buffalo Woman, by Paul Goble
#39 – Cheyenne Again, by Eve Bunting
#40 – Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker, by Carolyn Meyer
#41 – Julie, by Jean Craighead George
#42 – Children of the Longhouse, by Joseph Bruchac
#43 – Sacred Fire, by Nancy Wood
#44 – Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell
#45 – Mama, Do You Love Me, by Barbara J. Joosse
#46 – The Year of Miss Agnes, by Kirkpatrick Hill
#47 – Sweetgrass Basket, by Marlene Carvell
#48 – Sitting Bull: Dakota Boy, by Augusta Stevenson
#49 – The Talking Earth, by Jean Craighead George
#50 – Rainbow Crow, by Nancy Van Laan
#51 – The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, by Paul Goble
#52 – The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale, by Lydia Dabcovich
#53 – The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, by Paul Goble
#54 – Song of the Seven Herbs, by Walking Night Bear
#55 – Ten Little Rabbits, by Virginia Grossman
#56 – The Lost Children: The Boys Who Were Neglected, by Paul Goble
#57 – Moccasin Trail, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
#58 – Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, by Scott O’Dell
#59 – Meet Kaya: An American Girl, by Janet Beeler Shaw
#60 – When the Legends Die, by Hal Borland
#61 – Sacajawea, by Joseph Bruchac
#62 – Knots on a Counting Rope, by John Archambault
#63 – The Porcupine Year, by Louise Erdrich
#64 – Star Boy, by Paul Goble
#65 – Jim and Me, by Dan Gutman
#66 – Kaya: An American Girl: 1764/Box Set, by Janet Beeler Shaw
#67 – Between Earth and Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places, by Joseph Bruchac
#68 – Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen
#69 – Weasel, by Cynthia Defelice
#70 – When the Shadbush Blooms, by Carla Messinger
#71 – On Mother’s Lap, by Ann Herbert Scott
#72 – The Captive Princess: A Story Based on the Life of Young Pocahontas
#73 – Powwow’s Coming, by Linda Boyden
#74 – The Gift of the Sacred Dog, by Paul Goble
#75 – Streams to the River, River to the Sea, by Scott O’Dell
#76 – Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets, Massachusetts – Rhode Island, 1653 (Royal Diaries) by Patricia Clark Smith
#77 – Indian Trail (Choose Your Own Adventure) , by R. A. Montgomery
#78 – Arrow Over the Door, by Joseph Bruchac
#79 – At Seneca Castle, by William W. Canfield
#81 – Pocahontas, by Joseph Bruchac
#82 – Squanto’s Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving, by Joseph Bruchac
#83 – Christmas Moccsains, by Ray Buckley
#84 – The Game of Silence, by Louise Erdrich
#85 – Encounter, by Jane Yolen
#86 – Beyond the Ridge, by Paul Goble
#87 – Death of the Iron Horse, by Paul Goble
#88 – The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper
#89 – Island of the Blue Dolphins (illustrated) by Scott O’Dell
#90 – Frozen Fire: A Tale of Courage by James Houston
#92 – Blood on the River: James Town 1607, by Elisa Carbone
#92 – The Give-Away: A Christmas Story in the American Tradition, by Ray Buckley
#93 – Mystic Horse, by Paul Goble
#94 – Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners, by Lucilee Recht Penner
#95 – Mysteries in Our National Parks: Cliff Hanger, by Gloria Skurzynski
#96 – Jim Thorpe, Olympic Champion, by Guernsey Van Riper Jr
#97 – Good Hunting, Blue Sky (I Can Read Book) by Peggy Parish
#98 – Guests, by Michael Dorris
#99 – Hiawatha and Megissogwon by Henry W. Longfellow
#100 – Sing Down the Moon, by Scott O’Dell

Observations? Books by four Native authors are on the list: Sherman Alexie, Joseph Bruchac, Louise Erdrich, and Michael Dorris.  I’ll return to this list later to share analyses and observations. Right now, I gotta head to class. The class? American Indian Studies 101, where, over the course of the semester, students gain insight and skills in recognizing problematic depictions of Native peoples. It is encouraging to see that development in them. I wish everyone in the US could take an Intro to American Indian Studies course. Then maybe there’d be some CHANGE in what they buy.

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B. W. Clough, for instance, drolly recounts “the Gazorcher’s” predicament of handing over “the goggles” to his Generation X-er daughter. Michael A. Stackpole in “Peer Review,” however, takes a turn toward serious action-adventure as he treats one crime fighter’s apparent defection into lawbreaking and his censure by fellow superheroes. In “Reflected Glory,” Paul Kupperberg soberly demonstrates how today’s world would really treat a superhero when a PR man slyly uses a superhuman vigilante to further his own career. These and the other stories well may satisfy both fans and foes of the comic-book scene. –Carl Hays

Super Reader, August 3, 2007
By Blue Tyson

Varley admits in his introduction that is is not really very familiar with this sort of thing, and it would appear to show in the result. The story average is 3.28.

So, a lot of average/ordinary, and a small number that flat out really don’t belong.

Still, it is by no means bad, and some good stories, just average taken as a whole, and without the shouldn’t have been there stuff, would have gotten a 3.5.The three Native-themed stories with each story’s preamble, my description, and Blue Tyson’s ratings (in italics):

Four Tales of Many Names

by Gerald Hausman.

The concept of the super heroic figure is neither uniquely American nor exclusive to this century. Most cultures are rife with legends of individuals who have special gifts. An indian elder tells children the legends of Hawk Storm, Fire Storm, Water Spider, and Snake’s Medicine. 3 of 5

The Long Crawl of Hugh Glass

by Roger Zelazny.

Amazing people have been accomplishing superhuman feats throughout history. It is possible, as in the factual case of Hugh Glass, that the most astounding power is the will to survive.

In 1823 an injured hunter named Hugh Glass crawled over 100 miles through the wilderness from the Grand Valley to the Missouri River.An Army scout mauled by a bear dreams of crawling through hostile territory to locate friendly indians. 3 of 5

Basic Training by Jerry Bingham.
Some people live their entire lives as though waiting for one special moment.An indian youth must climb a mesa as a rite of passage. He later uses his knowledge of heights to rescue people from a burning skyscraper. 2.5 of 5

Thoughts on indian superheroes

On the one hand, one could argue that these stories don’t belong in a volume titled Superheroes. The first protagonist is borderline super heroic; if he counts, you could say any mythological character is a superhero. The third protagonist is merely heroic, not super heroic. The second protagonist is heroic only if you call surviving an act of “heroism.”

On the other hand, it’s nice to see some recognition that indians can be heroes. That if Americans are going to mythologize Uncle Sam, John Wayne, Paul Bunyan, Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed, and George Washington (for telling no lies), they should mythologize indians too. Not merely as noble savages or resistance fighters–e.g., Crazy Horse or Geronimo–but as actual heroes. So it’s fitting that two of the 25 stories star indians.

Even the Hugh Glass story, a cowboy-style adventure, incorporates indians into the mythology. To survive, Glass must test himself against the harsh land and its inhabitants. As with Jackson’s Frontier Thesis, we’ve defined ourselves as a nation by our interactions with indians.

Unfortunately, Tyson’s three-star rating for the book is reasonable. I agree with him that only five or so stories deserve a 4 or 4.5 of 5. Rob’s rating on the usual 10-point scale: 7.0 of 10.

For more on the subject, see Why Write About Superheroes?

This post is brought to you courtesy of the author and TribalBiz.com.

“Seeing Red” takes us back to a different time, the 19th century, and examines how anger was communicated as a force for social change by three different American indian writers: S. Alice Callahan, E. Pauline Johnson, and Sarah Winnemucca.

Callahan, Johnson and Winnemucca used a prevailing literary genre of the time–sentimentality. Though the frank expression of emotion was what moved sentimental literature, how much room did these three writers, as Native women, have to articulate their anger about what was being threatened and destroyed, and how successful were they? Carpenter, an English and native american studies professor asks this question. She also raises some thought-provoking questions about white Americans’ appropriation of indian-ness or indian causes as a way to express their own anger.Garrigues’s conclusion:[B]y examining the early possibilities for expression of anger in Native literature, Carpenter recognizes that these expressions were the roots for Joy Harjo’s “we have just begun to touch the dazzling whirlwind of our anger” and lay the groundwork for Sherman Alexie’s mix of anger and humor.

By shining the light on the anger that was, with varying degrees of success, expressed by these early American indian writers, Carpenter helps us look at what part anger plays as an agent of change in the contemporary world, in Native discourse and resistance, and in our daily lives.Comment:  ”White Americans’ appropriation of indian-ness or indian causes as a way to express their own anger”…hey, I resemble that!

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Books.

This post is brought to you courtesy of the author and TribalBiz.com.

When Dee Brown wrote his book “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” he could not have known that it would become a classic.

This year an illustrated 40th anniversary edition was published in hardback. It is a beautiful book and the photos add so much to the stories that made the book great. There are photos of a young Black Elk, Sitting Bull, Hollow Horn Bear, Short Bull and Kicking Bear.

The 543 page book is truly a collector’s treasure.Comment:  I was in a bookstore Monday and I saw this new edition of Bury My Heart. I only glanced at it, but it looks great. It would make a fine present for anyone who’s interested in history but doesn’t know much about Indians. And it goes without saying that readers of this blog should have it in their libraries.

For more on the subject, see Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:  The Movie.

This post is brought to you courtesy of the author and TribalBiz.com.

On Wednesday [12/2/09] on the station TVO our second graphic novel (nominated as one of the BEST in graphic novels for kids in Canada) was featured on a program called Empire of the Word, Episode 2.

The program is about literacy and features the Honorable James T. Battleman, former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and how he learned to read from comic books that he found at the local garbage dump. At the end of the program Battleman is being read to by an First Nations youth from a northern community. The last 3 minutes of the program is where our graphic novel is featured.

Meegwetch,
Chad

Comment:  I wasn’t sure what TVO was, but according to Wikipedia:

TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO (call signs: CICA, CICE, CICO), is a publicly-funded, educational English language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is a crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario. For more on the subject, see Comic Books Featuring Indians.

This post is brought to you courtesy of the author and TribalBiz.com.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
by Sherman Alexie
(112)

Buy new: $15.00 $10.20
165 used & new from $5.49

(Ranking is updated hourly. Visit the Bestsellers in Native American list for authoritative information on this product’s current rank.)

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Alexie, Sherman)
by Sherman Alexie
(164)

Buy new: $16.99 $11.04
145 used & new from $5.32

(Ranking is updated hourly. Visit the Bestsellers in Native American list for authoritative information on this product’s current rank.)

The Plague of Doves: A Novel (P.S.)
by Louise Erdrich
(50)

Buy new: $14.99 $10.19
94 used & new from $3.95

(Ranking is updated hourly. Visit the Bestsellers in Native American list for authoritative information on this product’s current rank.)

Ceremony: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Leslie Marmon Silko, Larry McMurtry
(131)

Buy new: $16.00 $10.40
102 used & new from $6.71

(Ranking is updated hourly. Visit the Bestsellers in Native American list for authoritative information on this product’s current rank.)

Flight: A Novel
by Sherman Alexie
(68)

Buy new: $14.00 $10.08
134 used & new from $4.98

(Ranking is updated hourly. Visit the Bestsellers in Native American list for authoritative information on this product’s current rank.)