January 11, 2021
By Liz Fields
To many fans, the “Little House” book series, based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life on the western frontier, captures the spirit of America. The stories tell a tale of adventure, of quiet resilience in the face of extremes, the excitement of the unknown, and of re-settling and making something of oneself wherever one might land. These stories, of course, were written from one particular perspective. The other perspective is from those Native Americans whose land was stolen and populations decimated to accommodate the so-called “settlers,” but that version is too often ignored. It’s little wonder then that for some authors of color, the books spark both memories of warmth for their literary genius, and also sadness and anger for their troubling depictions of Native and Black Americans.