Although librarians have carefully compiled these sources, there is no substitute for your own evaluation. Use the following guides to help you.
Email from Debbie Reese, Publisher of American Indians in Children’s Literature
“Please share this email on teacher and librarian listservs.
We're about a week away from the month that the President of the United States designates as Native American Month. Below are suggestions on how you might get your library ready for parents, teachers and students who come into your library looking for materials on American Indians.
In this post, you'll find links to ALA's READ posters that feature Sherman Alexie, author of THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN. You'll also find links to the Indigenous Languages Development Institute, where you can buy a wall clock with numerals in a Native language, and READ posters in Indigenous languages, available from the Tulsa American Indian Resources Center.
In these posts, you'll find recommended books about American Indians, by age group:
If you want some guidance on how to help students do research on American Indians, using encyclopedias and websites, see:
If you're looking for books and materials about boarding schools for American Indians, here's some:
If you want guidelines on how to evaluate the content of a Native site, here's an excellent page about that:
I'll close with this:
Too many people think that American Indians died off, due to warfare and disease. When the emphasis in library displays is American Indians of the past, you inadvertently contribute to that idea. Librarians are a powerful group of people. You can help Americans be less-ignorant about American Indians.
Research studies show that American Indian students drop out at exceedingly high rates. Scholars attribute this, in part, to their experience with curricular materials in school. Materials set in the past, materials that stereotype American Indians, and materials that are factually incorrect or highly biased against American Indians, cause Native students to disengage from school. Libraries can interrupt that disengagement, or, they can contribute to it...
As human beings, we love to see reflections of ourselves and our hometowns. They can a source of pride or a boost to the self-esteem. But---that is only true if they are accurate. Native people want that, too, but American society has a long way to go to get there.
Libraries can get us there, but we'll need your help year-round, not just in November. I hope the resources I share in this email will be ones that you spread out, all year long. If you've got questions, let me know.
Thanks,
Debbie
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Debbie Reese, Ph.D
Tribally enrolled: Nambe Pueblo
Publisher of American Indians in Children's Literature
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/debreese
Email: dreese.nambe@gmail.com”