James P Charles

Underscoring the desperate need for cultural, ethnic and racial sensitivity in textbooks, the present study documents the continued misrepresentation of the American Indian literary experience in high school literature textbooks. It springs from a large body of textbook analysis research (see Note 1) and more directly from a similar study of a different data source conducted (see Note 2) by the author in 1986. The research questions guiding inquiry in the present study were:

An analysis of the form and content of American Indian authored selections in South Carolina’s high school literature anthologies was conducted. 1980 United States Census data as well as the degree of representation of works in various genres were used to determine balanced and proportional representation. American Indian literature is defined as the traditional oral and written expression of American Indian people.

Form. The form of an American Indian literature selection is either traditional (oral) or contemporary (written). A traditional selection survives from American Indian oral tradition in one of three genres--song-poem, oral narrative, or oratory (Theisz, 1977, p. 25). Contemporary selections are either fictional or non-fictional, and can be categorized further on the basis of genre poetry, short story, novel, play, autobiography, biography, essay, or history.

Content. The content of American Indian literature is as complex as any literature produced in the world. For the purposes of the present study content of American Indian literature was limited to the aspects of setting and theme. Each aspect is described in further detail below.

The setting of each selection is based on the author’s tribal and regional affiliation. Regional affiliation, according to Spencer, Jennings, et al. (1977), places a given tribe into one of seven regions: Arctic/Subarctic; Northwest Coast; Plateau/Basin/California; Southwest; Great Plains; Eastern Woodlands; and Southeast. An eighth category, Intertribal/Unidentified, was created to account for selections co-authored by American Indians of different tribes or for selections authored by American Indians of an unspecified tribe. The author’s tribal and regional affiliations were determined and categorized.

A synthesis of literary critiques of the works of American Indian authors (Charles, 1986, pp. 11 - 16) led to the development of three theme categorie--themes of metaphysics, identity, and conflict with non-Indians (see Figure 1). The predominant theme of each American Indian authored selection in the textbooks was determined and categorized.

In order to assess whether or not textbooks reinforced stereotypes of American Indians, an analysis of studies and writings on the topic of stereotypes of American Indians was conducted (Charles, 1986, pp. 24-34). Synthesis of these studies led to the development of the following stereotype categories--American Indians as Noble Savages, American Indians as Savage Savages, American Indians as Generic Indians, and American Indians as Living Fossils (see Figure 2).

Data were collected from fifteen high school literature textbooks adopted for use in South Carolina beginning with the 1987-1988 school year (texts for grades 9 through 11 only were used as literary study in grade 12 is restricted to British literature). (see Note 3).

An analysis of American Indian literature in textbooks is particularly relevant to citizens of South Carolina in light of the state’s 5,757 American Indian citizens (Piasano & Crook, p. 14). South Carolina is the site of the Catawba American Indian Reservation on which 993 Catawba people, including 411 school-aged children and young adults, reside (U. S. Department of Commerce, 1985, p. 17). The proximity of North Carolina with a total American Indian population of 64,652 (fifth largest American Indian population in the United States) and the Eastern Cherokee American Indian Reservation (population 4,822) adds regional relevance to the data source (Piasano & Crook, p. 14; U. S. Department of Commerce, 1985, p. 18). The data set is, according to Garcia (1978), "a reliable indicator of the type of information being used to describe [American Indians] . . . [since] a teacher views the textbook as the medium of instruction and to the student it represents knowledge which needs to be mastered" (p. 15).

Cursory analysis of the data suggests that American Indians are well-represented in South Carolina’s literature anthologies. With 5,757 American Indians of a total population of 3,121,820 (1.8% of the population) living in South Carolina, the 3.9% (64 of 1652 total selections) representation of American Indian authored selections in the textbooks seems fair and adequate. There is representation by writers from twenty-six different American Indian tribes, from regions across the United States (all seven geographic regions are represented by at least one selection). The range of literary expression, both traditional (oral) and contemporary (written), is well-represented by a sample of most genres produced by American Indian writers. There is a good balance of thematic content in the anthologized American Indian literature.

Deeper analysis, however, reveals several problems with the sample. These problems fall into four major categories:

A discussion of each of these problems follows.

Only twenty-three of the anthologized selections (36%) by American Indian writers are contemporary (written) selections. By not anthologizing more contemporary selections, textbook editors and compilers run the risk of oversaturating students with pre-1990 images of American Indians and with reinforcing the Living Fossils stereotype, a stereotype that portrays modern American Indians as either hopelessly stuck in the past or as being mere caricatures of "once proud people." A balanced presentation of American Indian literature would include roughly 50% contemporary (written) selections. There is much being written by American Indians today. The problem of lack of proportional representation of contemporary (written) American Indian literature could be remedied by reducing the number of poems (65% of the anthologized contemporary selections by American Indian writers are poems) and by including examples of plays and essays written by contemporary American Indian authors. There are no examples of American Indian work in these genres in the textbooks. Such exclusion is particularly noticeable in light of the fact that plays by non-Indians comprise 4% of the anthologized fictional selections by non-Indians and that essays comprise 24% of the anthologized non-fiction by non-Indians. Including excerpts from plays such as 49 by Hanay Geiogamah and The Cherokee Night by Lynn Riggs and several essays by American Indians would give students a more accurate picture of the range of genres produced by American Indian writers. Since students are saturated with pre-1890 images of American Indians, essays would provide them with current social, political and philosophical commentary by American Indian scholars, philosophers, theologians, and politicians. This aspect of the American Indian point of view is most noticeably missing in the textbooks. Essays by Vine Deloria, Jr., N. Scott Momaday, Wendy Rose, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Paula Gunn Allen (among others) would go far in bringing American Indians into "present tense," thereby helping to eradicate the Living Fossils stereotype.

The sample of traditional (oral) literature contains numerous examples of works in each of the three traditional genres. The heavy emphasis on traditional selections in the sample is both positive and negative. It is positive in that it underscores the importance of the oral tradition in American Indian life. It reminds students that there was art in the Americas prior to the writing of early colonists and explorers of the "New World." These are crucial concerns both for teachers and students of American Indian literatures. However, discussion of the form and content of the oral tradition could occur without such over-representation in the textbooks.

The large number of traditional selections is negative in that it makes a balanced presentation of both traditional and contemporary selections impossible. For high school students, over-saturation with oral literature might imply that American Indians are primitive peoples, incapable of written expression, an implication that reinforces the Living Fossils and Savage Savages stereotypes.

The sample of traditional genres lacks balanced representation. Twenty-eight of the 41 (68%) selections are song-poems. Only five of the selections (12%) are oral narratives, and only eight (20%) are orations. Based on this sample, students may mistakenly be led to believe that most, if not all, American Indian literature is non-written; that American Indians are incapable of mastering a written language, particularly a complex one like English. This perpetuates the Living Fossils stereotype. The over-representation of song-poems leads to another problem.

Many of the song-poems such as the following example from Navajo oral tradition entitled, "The Corn Grows Up" (Safier, et al., Adventures in American Literature, p. 45) contain vivid imagery:

The corn grows up.

The waters of the dark clouds drop, drop,

The rain descends.

The waters from the corn leaves drop, drop.

The rain descends.

The waters from the plants drop, drop.

The corn grows up.

The waters of the dark mists drop, drop.

While full of imagistic content, the song-poem has thematic content as well. As reported by Theisz (1977), teachers often emphasize the conciseness, the "simplistic" natural imagery and the "primitive" repetitive structure of songpoems at the exclusion of the ideas conveyed in them (pp. 50-53). All too often a discussion of the thematic content (in the above example, the metaphysical content) and the cultural context of the verse is missing. According to Theisz (1977) ". . . [the] conciseness [of song poems] demands a deep cultural knowledge of us. The often quoted Papago words ‘the song is so short because we know so much’ remind us that in oral poetry, more than ever, we need to know the cultural background, the complex allusions, and the numerous associations evoked in the native audience or participant" (p. 50). As a result of superficial over-emphasis on imagistic content and repetitive structure, students may be led to believe that American Indians do not engage in complex reasoning. This reinforces the Savage Savages stereotype which portrays American Indians as intellectually and spiritually inferior to whites.

Clearly the number of song-poems could be decreased in order to make room for more oral narratives and more examples of oratory. It is worth noting, too, that the creation of works in the traditional genres continues to this day. Contemporary examples of oral narratives, those currently told in American Indian communities across the United States, would make refreshing additions to the textbooks. Works by Marriot and Rachlin (1968), Theisz (1975), Welsch (1981), Erdoes and Ortiz (1984), and Evers and Molina (1987) contain examples of oral literatures performed today. Anthologizing modern oral and written American Indian literatures would inform students of the viability and continuation of American Indian traditions, thus helping to eradicate rather than perpetuate the Living Fossils stereotype. Table 1 summarizes the frequency of occurrence of form aspects of the literature.

TABLE 1
Form Frequencies

Two regions, the Southwest and the Great Plains, are over-represented. American Indians of the Southwest comprise 22% of the total American Indian population, but amazingly account for 44% of the anthologized American Indian literary selections. American Indians of the Great Plains region comprise 23% of the American Indian population. The region is represented by 27% of the anthologized American Indian literature selections.

Works by authors from the Arctic/Sub-Arctic region and Northwest Coast region are represented in a proportional manner. Setting frequencies are summarized in Table 2. A summary of population statistics and percentage of regional representation in the texts appears in Table 3.

From these tabulations it is clear that works by American Indian writers from the Plateau/Basin/Califomia and Southeastern regions are vastly underrepresented, and that the Southwestern region is vastly over-represented in the textbooks. Interestingly, works by authors from the Southwestern and Great Plains regions combined comprise 70% (45 of 64) of the total number of American Indian authored selections in South Carolina’s state adopted literature texts. This illustrates the prevalence of the Generic Indians stereotype, that stereotype which depicts all American Indians dressed in feathered warbonnets and living in tipis or pueblos. Certainly, the literary works of American Indian authors from the Southwestern and Great Plains regions are among the finest produced in America. However, in the interest of ending the Generic Indians stereotype and of creating a more balanced and proportional representation of American Indian literatures, more works by authors from other regions, particularly the Plateau/Basin/California and Southeastern regions should be anthologized. For example, the poetry and prose of Blackfeet-Gros Ventre writer James Welch would well represent the Plateau/Basin/California region. Traditional oral narratives of one or more of the major tribes of the region or the poetry of Joy Harjo, a Creek, would represent the Southeast.

TABLE 2
Setting Frequencies

TABLE 3
American Indian population by Region,
Regional Representation of Total Indian Population,
Representation of Regional Selections

There is an increase in the number of American Indian authored selections in the textbooks from the ninth to the eleventh grades. In the ninth grade texts there are six American Indian authored selections. In grade 10 there are twelve; in grade eleven there are forty-six. This dramatic increase reflects the focus on American literature in the eleventh grade English curriculum. Perhaps the relatively large number of American Indian authored selections in the eleventh grade anthologies (46 of 854, or 5%, of the total selections) indicates positive response on the part of textbook editors and compilers to the research findings of textbook reformers and multicultural educators, findings which document the need for increased representation of American minority groups in the texts. Also, the relatively large number of American Indian authored selections may be an acknowledgement of the quality of American Indian literature, both traditional (oral) and contemporary (written). And, too, the texts may reflect changing attitudes of scholars of American literature, who increasingly recognize the need to shift their focus from New England and "colonial literature" to the oral literatures of American Indians as the earliest forms of American literary expression.

There are sound reasons then for the manner in which the sample of American Indian literature is presented. In addition, the sample is representative with respect to the range of themes dealt with by American Indian writers. There is emphasis on metaphysical themes in selections anthologized in grade eleven. Discussion of diverse themes helps students realize that American Indian people have a world view built upon unique cosmological and ontological beliefs, many of which differ significantly from those of "mainstream" America. This emphasis on the metaphysical combats the Savage Savages stereotype.

Upon close examination of the form and setting aspects of the literature, problems with its presentation at particular grade levels are apparent. These problems are discussed below.

Six of the 356 (2%) literary selections anthologized in grade nine texts are by American Indian authors. Of these six, four (67%) are poems. This mirrors the over-representation of the poetic genre in texts across all three grade levels. Three of the six (50%) ninth grade selections are set in the Southwest, far exceeding the percentage of the total American Indian population comprised by those living in the region. This reinforces the Generic Indians stereotype.

At the tenth grade level, selections lack balanced representation with respect to form of the literature as 75% (9 of 12) of the American Indian authored selections are contemporary. By not anthologizing a balanced number of traditional selections, students may be led to believe that little, if any, of the American Indians’ traditional ways of life survives. This reinforces the Living Fossils stereotype. In addition, tenth grade selections help to reinforce the Generic Indians stereotype as 83% (10 of 12) of the selections are set in the Southwestern and Great Plains regions.

As previously mentioned, American Indian literature in the grade eleven texts is representative with respect to theme. There is over-emphasis, however, on traditional selections (80% of the selections are traditional), which contributes to the perpetuation of the Living Fossils stereotype, Within the traditional form, there is over-representation of the song-poem genre (25 of 37, or 68%). The conciseness of these works undoubtedly accounts for their presence in such large numbers. But students need to be exposed to the wide range of genres produced by American Indian writers and composers. Sacrificed as a result of the over-emphasis on song-poems are examples of oral narratives and orations, as well as a more balanced representation of contemporary (written) works. In addition, the Generic Indians stereotype is reinforced in grade eleven texts as 67% of the selections are authored by American Indians from the Southwestern and Great Plains regions.

Conclusion

The findings of the present study corroborate those of earlier research. Stereotypes of American Indians are reinforced by the unbalanced and unrepresentative presentation of American Indian literatures in textbooks. The lack of balance and proportion in the presentation of American Indian literatures dramatizes the continuing need for textbook editors and publishers to do their part to end the misrepresentation of American Indians.

Through the development and utilization of evaluative criteria specific to American Indians and the endemic features of American Indian literatures, textbook editors could avoid the creation of counter-productive texts, and state textbook adoption committees could decrease the probability of adopting textbooks which misrepresent American Indians and the American Indian literary experience.

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