by Laura Ingalls Wilder (re-read)
I picked this up to re-read after reading something about the ‘problematic’ discussion of and portrayal of Native Americans, and the stripping of Wilder’s name from what is now called simply the Children’s Literature Award.
Indians play a prominent role in this installment of the Little House series. They are sometimes threatening and thieving. Ma, Mr. Scott, and Mrs. Scott are scared of them and full of dislike; but Pa feels that Indians are surely just ordinary folks who want to be left alone. Laura, about 6 or 7 in the book, is full of questions. Why is the family even here in Indian Territory?
This is a book about the 1870s. The characters have the attitudes of the 1870s. Pa and Laura are enlightened for their time.
I notice I have an expurgated version. When Pa talks Ma into resettling in Indian Territory, the original book said that there were no people in the territory; only Indians lived there. This was changed, appropriately, to say that no settlers lived there; only Indians lived there.
Tytania 