Little House on the Prairie

I just finished reading the Kuhlman article Fifth Graders' Reactions to Little House on the Prairie (2000).

Some things struck me as I read. First of all, I understand the concern teachers and some students may have about the way Native Americans are protrayed in the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. However, as I always understood it the books, the first one in particular, were written primarily from the point of view of Laura, a little girl girl no older than seven years old. I wonder how much a child of that age would actually know about social justice and not being prejudiced. It is entirely possible that she saw the Indian's as scary simply because her parents thought that and so that is the way she remembers the story. As an older woman writing the series she could have rewritten her memories to include a more fairminded portrayal of the Osage Indians, but she did not choose to do that. I think this series (one I loved as a child and am still a fan of) can be loved by a whole new generation of kids as well with a little guidance as to the Native Americans' side of the story. I think it can also be brought up to the students or other children reading the book that they are often from the viewpoint of a little girl perhaps even younger than themselves.

Secondly, a personal pet peeve of mine is people that do not expect much out of others. For instance, in this article the author seems to imply that everyone that reads this book series is completely blind to the negative stereotypes being portrayed in the Indian characters because that reader has been inundated with these images so much they no longer recognize them. Kuhlman says on page 390 of the article that, "the very fact that [white readers] don't remember and don't think they were impacted is because they were part of the privileged group that do not see anything amiss by the fear and hatred of Indians and their belief that the eventual 'routing out' of 'those people' was normal." I think blanket statements like these are unfair and they do not give people enough credit. She is saying here that people who claim not to have been influenced in their views of Indians from a children's book series are actually so socialized to believe the worst about Indians that they do not even notice anything wrong with the portrayal. And, that I do not agree with. I think a lot more people, especially today, are conscious of social justice in all forms of media and entertainment, including literature.