When I attend an event at Old Town Public Library I always browse their YA section to find titles to seek by inter library loan. When, coming up on November, I discovered Anton Treuer's Everything You Wanted To Know About Indians But Were Afraid To Ask Young Readers Edition I considered it a really fortunate find.
When the book arrived at my home library I found a lot to love about it. To start with there's it's format. Most books about Indigenous Peoples are arranged in chapters on topics making them well suited for gathering information for homework. EYWTKAIBWATA is a truly comprehensive collection of genuine questions people have and answers to them. If you don't want to read it cover to cover you can easily locate the ones find you find most intriguing. The many black and white photographs really enhance the text. For instance a poster of an in control cowboy white next to a passed out Indian illustrates the answer to "Do all Indians Have Drinking Problems?"
The questions cover a wide range of topics including history; religion, culture, & identity; tribal languages; politics; economics; and social activism. Some are pretty quotidian. "What music is most popular for Natives today?" and "What is a powwow?" But some involve quite complex topics such as social activism. And there is inclusion of even the most heart breaking and disturbing topics such as Native residential boarding schools.
Throughout the book, Treuer uses a tone of hope and encouragement. He is quite firm on boundaries--the things that are not OK under any circumstances. But he answers even questions such as "Why can't Indians just move on?" with patience and understanding. He believes that we (non native people) can overcome misinformation and prejudice and become allies if given better knowledge.
The day after I finished reading the book it helped me better understand an article on the impact of Typhoon Halong on residents of a Western Alaskan Native village that suffered severe damage. The residents have become scattered all over Alaska. This separation from community, indigenous language, and cultural practices such as hunting and foraging has been acutely painful, especially for those stranded in big cities. They realize that climate change will make the site of their village even more vulnerable to environmental devastation. They want to rehouse their community in a safer location. But FEMA only allocates funds for restoring buildings that have been damaged. Reading the book first gave me a better understanding of the tragedy of not only the typhoon devastation, but of the beaurocratic response that disregarded the needs of the communal village.
I highly recommend this book for school and public libraries and integration into high school curriculum.
On a purrrsonal note, it feels like even Mother Nature is celebrating the election results. Between Wednesday when we woke up to the good news and Friday the temps have been more like summer: going as high as the 70s, enabling me to rock shorts and my Troy Jackson tee shirt. Very rare for November. This weekend Maine is getting the gift of gentle beneficial rain we're very much in need of. Yesterday at the Black Bear Mutual Aid Fund meeting our ice breaker question was what we're optimistic about. We all mentioned the Blue Wave that is ushering in Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. We finally have the potential to end the illegal war, bring down the cost of essentials like food and heating fuel driven up by that war, rein in the proliferation of super data centers that suck up irreplaceable natural resources, and accomplish so much more. I can't remember a time I've been this hopeful about election results.
A great big shout out goes out to all the voters who ushered in the Blue Wave.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
