1992•The American Indian QuarterlyRequires access
Native Tales and Traditions in Books for Children
Jon C. Stott, Rupert Weeks, William Morgan, Ann Nolan Clark, Jane Louise Curry, Simon Ortiz
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Abstract
T HE TITLE OF A RECENT ARTICLE about the portrayal of aboriginal people in the New Zealand novel The Bone People raises the important question, Who can write for others?, and charges those with the responsibility of selecting and evaluating children's books about Native Can non-native people write successfully about traditional or contemporary native life? Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., in The White Man's Indian, did not think so, stating that understand the White image of the Indian is to understand White societies' intellectual premises over time more than the diversity of Native Americans. Even the most sympathetic and knowledgeable non-native writers may be restricted by the very genres-in children's literature, usually the fairy tale and novel-used to contain their