There's an interesting discussion going on at Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature blog, as the re-visioning of Laura Ingall's Wilder's Little House books continues. Reese references a speech Ingalls gave discussing the infamous Bender family, a group of serial killers, who never made it into the Little House books.
Wilder stated she felt the topic inappropriate for children, and Reese takes issue with the fact the author apparently felt it was permissible to portray Native Americans as blood-thirsty killers, but not whites who were illegaly settling on Osage territory.
Reese includes interesting excerpts from Wilder's speech, which I need to hunt down. Ex-English teacher that I am, I'm always fascinated by the intersection between life and fiction.
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