And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Note: Please respond to Barb Landis, not Native News..thank you, Ish

Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 21:22:20 -0400
From: Landis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Hi.

I am not in the habit of using these mailing lists for the INDIAN HELPER
for other purposes, but I'm making an exception tonight.

I send the Carlisle weeklies to 9 lists of recipients of about 250 email
addresses.  You are an eclectic group, to be sure.  Some of you are
relatives and/or direct descendants of Carlisle Indian School students
and school administrators (including Pratt, the founder), some of you
are descendants and/or alumni of other U.S. government off-reservation
boarding schools, some of you are writers, producers, academics and/or
researchers preparing books, films and dissertations, some of you are my
close friends curious about my work, and others of you are strangers to
me who have written for information about the Carlisle school.

I'm troubled about a recent publication.  A children's book, MY HEART IS
ON THE GROUND, recently appeared in bookstores and classrooms, part of
Scholastic Publications' DEAR AMERICA series.  The author spent about a
week at Carlisle Barracks, researching some of the early school
newspapers.  She visited the Indian Cemetery, and based her characters
on real children buried there, using their names.

Misappropriating Indian culture certainly is not a new phenomenon.
Carlisle "experts" during the early life of the school presented
literature that crossed the bounds of propriety in the interest of
influencing returning students (a la Marianna Burgess' book STIYA).
That it is still happening - that history repeats itself and for such an
impressionable audience is what troubles me.  I invite you to have a
look at a very critical review of this book and let me know your
thoughts.  The review is posted on the Oyate web pages at
http://www.oyate.org/avoid.htm.

Thanks for your indulgence.

Sincerely,
Barbara Landis





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