John Reyhner

Whether they attend public, Bureau of Indian Affairs, or contract schools, most Native American children, like other children in the United States, are taught reading using basal readers. In the past, there have been two major problems with using basal readers with Native American students. They, along with other minorities, were largely absent from basal reading textbooks (Klineberg, 1963), and all the stories tended to be boring, bland, and unrealistic (Bettelheim & Zelan, 1982; Bowler, 1978; Henry, 1961; Yarington, 1978).

Research indicates the importance of the inclusion of Native American teaching materials in schools with Native American students. Simpson-Tyson (1978) concluded from a review of research and a study of Crow Indian children that reading and language activities for Indian students in the first grade "should be laden with Native American cultural experiences" (p. 801). Cummins (1981) reviewing recent research on bilingual education concluded that schools need to build on the entry level characteristics of students and to "validate" their "cultural identity" in order to give them the best chance for success (p. 42). In What Works: Research About Teaching and Learning the U.S. Department of Education states,

The conclusions of recent research are not that much different from the conclusion of the 1928 Meriam report that educational material, especially for the primary grades, "must come from local Indian life, or at least be written within the scope of the child's early experience" (Meriam, p. 33).

In 1982, Gilliland found "an adequate supply of interesting, true-to-life children's fiction and nonfiction (trade books) about the Native American" with a disproportionate number of stories set in the past. He felt that Native American children with reading problems, which is the majority, would be more likely to relate to stories about Indians set in the present (p. 914). Indian students, to have equal educational opportunities, must be given "books, materials, and methods that were developed for use in the Indian society" or are relevant to the students' background and culture in order to reinforce positive self concept, motivate reading, and develop reading comprehension skills (Gilliland, 1983, pp. 1-2).

Much has changed in the last quarter century to improve the position of minority groups in textbooks, schools and American society in general. The extent of the improvements are examined in this study in terms of the number of stories with Native American characters, how Native American characters are portrayed in basal readers, and how much realism is in the stories published in recent years. Suggestions are given for supplementing basal reading textbooks with literature by and about Native Americans.

The research reported here involved the examination of Ist, 3rd, and 5th grade readers in 8 basal reading series published since 1978. The basal reading series were selected from a list of reading series adopted in states with over 5 million residents (1980 census) and having state wide adoption. Four of the most adopted and 4 of the least adopted series were selected for study from the 15 reading series that were identified as meeting the selection criteria. The 8 basal reading series examined are listed in Table 1. A stratified random sample was taken of 25 percent of the stories at the 1st primer and 1st reader, 3rd and 5th grade level of the 8 basal series.

The research method of content analysis is designed to obtain useful objective and quantitative information from a text in a replicable manner (Berelson, 1971). Content analysis was first used to study the content of newspapers, magazines, and war propaganda. The method has been little used on educational material, and the studies that have been done on textbooks usually lack formalized coding guides to permit replication of the research.

Based on a study of the literature, six categories of realism (see Table 2) were selected that psychologists between 1946 and 1982 had felt should be in basal reader stories but were either inadequately represented or totally omitted. The term "realism," used to describe the presence of the six categories listed in Table 2, is taken from the field of literary criticism where it has been used to describe a reaction to romanticism and an attempt to look at the world in literature without rose colored glasses so that the uglier as well as the prettier aspects of life are portrayed (Desnoyers, 1855, p. 81).

TABLE 1
Basal Reading Series Selected for Study

*Abbreviations in parenthesis refer to references given in "Summaries of Stories Containing Native American Characters."

TABLE 2
Six categories of story content that psychologists have indicated
should be in basal reading textbook stories but which are either
absent or inadequately represented.

A coding guide was developed using the six content categories listed above, and a realism score was constructed by scoring each unemphasized occurrence of a category 1 point and each emphasized occurrence 2 points. The coding guide was tested for validity through review by a panel of reading specialists and for reliability by having two independent coders code a sample of 15 basal stories. A Pearson correlation of .94 was obtained. Based on three possible choices there was an 84.4 percent agreement between coders for the six categories in the 15 stores.

The random sample of one quarter of the stories in the basals at the selected grade levels contained 203 stories. Sixteen of those stories contained Indian or Eskimo characters. One story was found at the first grade level, 6 at the third grade level and 9 at the fifth grade level. Stories sampled were fairly evenly distributed among reading series. Two series had 3 stories sampled, four series had 2 stories and two series had only one story with Native American characters.

Most of the stories with Native American characters were non-mythological and set in the present or recent past in the Southwestern United States. Pueblo and Navajo Indians of the Southwest appeared in a third of the stories while the tribes of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts appeared in no stories. Plains Indians appeared in only one story which dealt with the life of Sacajawea. The characters were almost evenly divided between male and female representing all age groups. A third of the stories portrayed aggression while conflict was in half of them. Sadness was also portrayed in half of the stories and fear in a fourth of them. Happiness was portrayed in half of the stories, but 15 of the 16 stories had serious rather than humorous themes. In half the stories the characters exhibited growth over the course of the story. Three stories emphasized the extended family.

Compared to other types of major characters, only stories with Asians had higher realism than Native American stories as shown in Table 3. Stories with Hispanic, and Native Americans appeared as major characters in about the same number of stories while there were twice as many stories with Black major characters and seven times as many with White major characters (see Table 4). Often, Black characters were identifiable only from illustrations while the Hispanic, Asian, and Native American stories contained unique ethnic characteristics. A greater percentage of stories with Black major characters was found at the 1st grade level while a greater percentage of stories with Hispanic, Asian, and Native American major characters was found at the 5th grade level. This is one reason for the low average of realism of stories with Black major characters found in Table 2 since overall realism scores were positively correlated (.59) with grade level.

Summaries of Stories Containing Native American Characters
Two of the 16 stories sampled, "Kevin Cloud: Chippewa Boy in the City" (SF, Gr. 3-1, p. 292-304) and "Use Your Head Tom" (AR, Gr. 3-2, p. 244255), dealt with urban Indians. Tom Bluewater regretted moving to the city from the reservation, but the theme of the story is about keeping promises. Tom sketches what could be considered an Indian stereotype. In the former story, Kevin Cloud lives with an extended family in which the mother and aunt work and the mother and grandmother speak Chippewa. In the summer they visit the reservation. In the only first grade story, parents (Navajo?) visit the Santa Fe festival with a single child where they watch Pueblo dancers in the parade (SF, Primer, p. 134-140).

TABLE 3
Mean realism scores of stories with different major character types.

The remaining 13 stories have rural settings. Five of these stories focus on Pueblo Indians living in Arizona or New Mexico. "The Yellow Bowl" (Mac., Level 5, p. 432-443) and "The Spider, the Cave, and the Pottery Bowl" (Lip., Level F, Gr. 3, p. 248-273), revolve around Hopi pottery making. The purpose in the stories for making pottery is to earn money by selling it to tourists or museums rather than for traditional reasons. In "The Yellow Bowl" a girl's grandmother continues making pottery even after she goes blind. The pictures that go with the story show mountains and a river that are nothing like the Hopi's lands. In the other story, a bordertown girl and her brother are left with their grandmother in a Hopi village over the summer.

TABLE 4
Frequency of stories with minor and major racial and ethnic characters by grade
level and overall. Percentages do not add up to 100% because many basal reader
stories had only animal characters.

"Chuka's Hawk" (AR, Gr. 3-1, p. 284-296), "Saukin" (Acoma; H.M., Level L, Gr. 5, p. 181-196), and "Fire on Big Lonesome" (Zuni, Laid., Level 12, Gr. 5 p. 108-135) are set in New Mexico. The third grade story centers around growing up, sibling rivalry, and a pet hawk as a boy takes over the family responsibilities of herding sheep from his brother. The Acoma story features a German-Jewish/Acoma boy trying to find friends during a visit to the Sky City. After some conflict he succeeds. The third story is a contemporary story of Zuni Fire Fighters caught in a crown fire. The addition of a pet skunk and an underage fire fighter detract somewhat from the drama of the situation.

Perhaps the best story is "The North Star Stands Still" (A & B, Level 17, 5th Gr., p. 283-297) about a Piaute boy, Po, who has run away after having had bad experiences at boarding school with an Apache student. His uncle tracks him down and tries to talk to him. At first, "Po was warmed by the compliment. Then he tightened his lips. His uncle's words were like the flattery of the Anglo after something" (p. 284). Soon the boy develops respect for his uncle after he finds that his uncle had similar experiences in boarding school and truly understands his predicament.

Two sketches of historical figures are included. "Bird Woman and Flaming Hair" (Lip., Level 1, Gr. 5 p. 96-107) is a fictionalized first person account of Sacajawea's (Shoshone) experiences before and during the Lewis and Clark expedition. The story is not romanticised. Tribal enemies, once laughed at, become "all powerful" when they obtain guns before Sacajawea's own tribe. She tells her younger sister, "We starve. . . . The plains are dark with buffalo. But we dare not hunt because the plains tribes kill our people with the white man's shining sticks" (p. 104). Charbonneau, "the white trader" husband who won Sacajawea in a betting game, is described as a liar and "a boaster of little courage" (p. 98). Maria Tall Chief (Ginn, Gr. 5, p. 310-316) is described as having a "full-blooded Osage" father and as "one of America's greatest ballerinas." Other than her parentage, the only other mention of her heritage is her refusal to give up her "Native American" name when she went on stage.

Two legends are also included. "lviahoca" (H.M., Gr. 5, p. 228-235) is a story set in Puerto Rico telling of a cacique's wife who defies her tribe's traditions to aid the Spanish in order to save her son. When her child's father is "mortally wounded in a battle" Iviahoca refuses to be buried with him as "duty" requires. After the Spaniards capture her son, she gains his freedom by carrying a letter which helps the Spaniards conquer the Indians. "The Calabash Man" (Lip., Level 1, Gr. 5, p. 44-61) is the strangest of the 16 stories. It is a folk tale from Guiana about a young man who must conquer evil to win a girl. "There is an evil spirit in my land and my father is bewitched. Seeing you, he will destroy you. And your mother and me as well . . . " The boy, Aura, who "in both forest and hill" had no enemies, meets a mysterious lady who he asks to be his wife. He then has to go on a quest and meet a series of challenges to win the mysterious lady for his wife. He is advised in the tests to "choose the simplest," and, when he bests the bride's father who bites "rocks as a man bites a crust of bread," he shows people "that there are things more glorious than gold."

"Igloos Are for Tourists" (Laid., Level 10, Gr. 3, p. 90-104) is a contemporary story about a white veterinarian who flies out to an Eskimo village with her son to examine a reindeer herd. The Eskimo family lives in a house with a TV set and modern kitchen and travel by snowmobile. The story breaks down stereotypes and depicts a friendship between the veterinarian's son and an Eskimo boy, but lacks any real plot.

"Tabitha Brown" (Mac., Gr. 5, pp. 581-589) is a story of a white grandmother who taught school in Oregon Territory. One of her students is Rachael, a Native American. When asked to salute the flag, Rachael refuses, "It's not my flag. I'm Indian, not American." The teacher replies, "Nonsense! Indians are Americans, too . . . " (p. 584). "The Goat in the Rug" (H.M., Level I, Gr. 3, p. 304-311) is a humorous story told by a goat on the Navajo reservation, and provides information on how Navajo rugs are made.

The greatest weakness with the Native American content of basal readers as determined by this research is the striking lack of Native Americans in first grade stories. The lack of first grade Native American content in basal readers is especially critical since the early school years not only give students the basics they need for later school achievement, but are also the period in which they form their attitudes towards school. The greatest strengths were the realistic and well written contemporary stories in the fifth grade readers.

The fifth grade stories would go a long way towards meeting the needs that Gilliland (1983, p. 2) identified for Indian children who are reluctant readers. However, the two or three stories at any grade level in any given reading series are too few to create sustained interest. Teachers of Indian students, whether on or off the reservation, need to search out Native American reading material, especially material from the student's particular tribal background, to supplement the basal reading textbooks if they are to take full advantage of the interests of their students in stories about their own and other tribal cultures. More stories are also needed about plains, coastal, and urban Native Americans.

Teachers need to supplement their basal reading program with the many trade books available to fill the gaps listed above and to provide an adequate supply of reading material. Children learn to read well by reading a lot of books which they find interesting (Krashen, 1985, pp. 89-113; Smith, 1983, p. 5; U.S. Dept. of Education, 1986, p. 11). The fact that Native American basal reader stories, except at the first grade level, did not share the general blandness of basal reader stories is encouraging. The fact that several of the stories were excerpts from trade books indicates the potential available for developing exemplary reading programs using Native American literature.

While more material needs to be developed, a considerable amount of material is available and is not used to the extent it could be. The Council for Indian Education (P.O. Box 31215, Billings, MT) has over 50 children's books in print representing more than 11 different tribes while the Indian Reading Series (developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon, and printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office) with stories from tribes all over the Northwest, contains approximately 20 stories per grade for grades one through six. All of the stories in the Indian Reading Series and Council publications have been approved for authenticity of content by editorial committees of Native Americans. The National Council of Teachers of English publishes an annotated bibliography, Literature By and About the American Indian, with nearly 800 titles (Stensland, 1979). Gilliland's Indian Children's Books provides an annotated list of 1650 books with evaluations (1980). For teachers who want help, the Navajo Curriculum Center has a two-volume Teaching Guide for Indian Literature that provides chapter by chapter questions and activities for 21 Native American books, mostly novels, at both the elementary and secondary level (Campbell, 1983). Arthur Gates indicated over 20 years ago that basal readers should only be a "small fraction" of the total reading program (1962, p. 445). It is up to the teacher to introduce students to literature beyond the bits and pieces that appear in basal readers. Children from the dominant culture can often learn to read well in spite of the school because their parents recognize the need for providing reading material in the home. For Native American students, whose parents may be less familiar with books and libraries, the teacher's role in providing interesting literature for their students is especially critical if the students are to learn to read fluently and to be successful in school.

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