Cynthia Leitich Smith: Official Author Site and Home of Children's & Young Adult Literature Resources

• Do present Native peoples as appropriate role models with whom a Native child can identify.
• Don't single out Native children, ask them to describe their families' traditions, or their people's cultures.
• Don't assume that you have no Native children in your class.
• Don't do or say anything that would embarrass a Native child.
• Do look for books and materials written and illustrated by Native people.
• Don't use ABC books that have "I is for Indian" or "E is for Eskimo."
• Don't use counting books that count "Indians."
• Don't use story books that show non-Native children "playing Indian."
• Don't use picture books by non-Native authors that show animals dressed as "Indians."
• Don't use story books with characters like "Indian Two Feet" or "Little Chief."
• Do avoid arts and crafts and activities that trivialize Native dress, dance, or ceremony.
• Don't use books that show Native people as savages, primitive craftspeople, or simple tribal people, now extinct.
• Don't have children dress us as "Indians," with paper-bag "costumes" or paper-feather "headdresses."
• Don't sing "Ten Little Indians."
• Don't let children do "war whoops."
• Don't let children play with artifacts borrowed from a library or museum.
• Don't have them make "Indian crafts" unless you know authentic methods and have authentic materials.
• Do make sure you know the history of Native peoples, past and present, before you attempt to teach it.
• Do present Native peoples as separate from each other, with unique cultures, languages, spiritual beliefs, and dress.
• Don't teach "Indians" only at Thanksgiving.
• Do teach Native history as a regular part of American history.
• Do use materials which put history in perspective.
• Don't use materials which manipulate words like "victory," "conquest," or "massacre" to distort history.
• Don't use materials which present as heroes only those Native people who aided Europeans.
• Do use materials which present Native heroes who fought to defend their own people.
• Do discuss the relationship between Native peoples and the colonists and what went wrong with it.
• Don't speak as though "the Indians" were here only for the benefit of the colonists.
• Don't make charts about "gifts the Indians gave us."
• Don't use materials that stress the superiority of European ways, and the inevitability of European conquest.
• Do use materials which show respect for, and understanding of, the sophistication and complexities of Native societies.
• Do use materials which show the continuity of Native societies, with traditional values and spiritual beliefs connected to the present.
• Don't refer to Native spirituality as "superstition."
• Don't make up Indian "legends" or "ceremonies."
• Don't encourage children to do "Indian" dances.
• Do use respectful language in teaching about Native peoples.
• Don't use insulting terms such as "brave," "squaw," "papoose," "Indian givers," "wild Indians," "blanket Indians," or "wagon burners."
• Do portray Native societies as coexisting with nature in a delicate balance.
• Don't portray Native peoples as "the first ecologists."
• Do use primary source material — speeches, songs, poems, writings that show the linguistic skill of peoples who come from an oral tradition.
• Don't use books in which "Indian" characters speak in either "early jawbreaker" or in the oratorical style of the "noble savage."
• Do use materials which show Native women, Elders, and children as integral and important to Native societies.
• Don't use books which portray Native women and Elders as subservient to warriors.
• Do talk about the lives of Native peoples in the present.
• Do read and discuss good poetry, suitable for young people, by contemporary Native writers.
• Do invite Native community members to the classroom.
• Do offer them an honorarium. Treat them as teachers, not as entertainers.
• Don't assume that every Native person knows everything there is to know about every Native nation.

Book Sources

Featured books were sent by authors, publicists and/or publishers or purchased by the site owner.