By taking this stand, the government allowed American Indians to be forced out of their homelands. In the government’s view, to civilize meant to make the area more similar to white civilization. I explained that the government felt white people would “civilize” the land. She felt it was “snotty,” which, while not a word we typically use in our house, is pretty accurate and I feel a close synonym to privilege. After the first mention of that, I stopped and asked if my daughter thought that is was fair for the Ingalls family to move onto land that belonged to someone else. We weren’t too far into the book when I found myself having to explain why the settlers felt like they were free to move into “Indian Territory.” Throughout the book, Pa is often the voice of reason, appearing to understand that the American Indians’ upset is justified, and yet still also believing in his own right to settle on Indian land. In this post, I will sometimes refer to American Indians as “Indians” when speaking in context of the novel, which is how the author refers to them throughout. Little House on the Prairie is one of a series of semi-autobiographical (but technically fictional) books for middle grade readers about a family of five who moves to Kansas during the western settlement that drove many American Indians from their land. Without the sentimentality that some people have attached to these books, reading this book with a critical eye was not difficult. Therefore, as a 40-year-old white mother, I didn’t approach sharing this book with my 8-year-old white-appearing daughter with much more than a purpose to have intentional conversations about the racism found within. I should probably begin by saying that I did not read any of the Little House books as a child.
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