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Teaching American Indian Literatures
in South Carolina's Classrooms
Jim Charles
University of South Carolina
at Spartanburg
Question: What is the connection between Kevin Costner,
English class, and South Carolina? Answer: American Indians.
How so? Consider this logic chain.
Item: The Columbus Quincentennial Celebration forces
debate on the nature of the cultural cross-fertilization that
occurred between the cultures of the "Old" and "New" Worlds
(Auchincloss; Begley; Grey; Hughes).
Item: American Indians press successfully for the return and
reinterment of their ancestors' skeletal remains held in museum
and university collections (Arden; Deloria, "Simple").
Item: Several American Indian tribes battle the Forestry Service
and the Interior Department over the desecration of sacred
religious sites as these sites are opened to clear cutting by the
timber industry and to other forms of industrial development
(Deloria, "Sacred").
Item: the Catawba Nation approves the settlement of a long-
standing land claim against the state of South Carolina and the
United States government for $50 million (Connor).
Item: Kevin Costner's film Dances With Wolves reinvigorates
Americans' cyclical love affair with the "cultural mystique" of
pre-1900 Plains Indians.
And a final item: New state-adopted literature anthologies in
South Carolina contain 107 selections authored by American
Indians (SC Dept. of Education).
These seemingly disconnected items have converged, thrusting
American Indians into the public limelight, popular media, and
public school classrooms once again. As a result, students in
our English classes have questions about American Indians and
about the American Indian literature they are asked to read. As
English teachers, we need to answer our students' questions in an
informed manner. The aim of this article is to help in that
process by describing the American Indian literature available to
South Carolina's English Language Arts teachers in their new
state-adopted anthologies and by providing some specific
suggestions for teaching American Indian literatures to the
state's secondary level English students.
A Definition of "American Indian Literatures"
For the purposes of this paper, the term "American Indian
literatures" is defined as those literatures, both oral (or
traditional) and written (or contemporary), authored by American
Indians or collaboratively authored by American Indians and non-
Indians (as in the cases of some "as-told-to biographies" and the
translation and transcription of some American Indian oral
narratives and song-poems). Further, it is possible to describe
genres of American Indian literatures within each of these two
broad categories.
Oral (traditional) Literary Genres. Oral literary
genres of American Indian literature include both song-poems and
oral narratives. According to Rouff:
The oral literatures of Native Americans . . .
include songs, frequently categorized by modern critics as
poetry. . . . Songs can be divided into those which are part of
communal ritual and those which are not. Expressing religious
rites and supplications of the group, sacred songs utilize
repetition and incremental development. . . . Ritual songs
represent the major events in human life--birth or naming,
puberty, healing or purification, death and burial. . . . Songs
also express personal experiences of the individual to express
his or her own feelings. . . . Special occasions are celebrated
in song. . . . Other kinds of songs include elegies, lullabies,
women's work songs, and love songs. (8)
Narratives constitute another oral literary genre. Oral
narratives include tribal histories, creation stories (called by
some "myths" or "legends"), stories with a didactic function
(teaching lessons to young children about proper conduct, for
example), and stories of specific tribal lifeways. Rouff, among
other scholars, categorizes oral narratives by eras or "ages":
Myths describe a primal world, peopled by animal
spirits in more or less human form and by monsters and confusions
of nature. The Myth Age flows into the Age of Transformation,
during which a Culture Hero or Transformer orders the world,
turning animal people into animals per se and other beings into
natural landmarks. The Age of Transformation is followed by the
Historical Age of human memory. (5)
A final oral literary genre can be labeled oratory.
Transcribed and translated speeches delivered by American Indians
on important occasions such as council meetings, trials, and
treaty signings as well as the texts of contemporary speeches
comprise works in this category.
Written (contemporary) Literary Genres. There is a
growing body of written work in numerous genres by American
Indian authors. A complete study of American Indian literatures
includes an examination of this written work. There are many
critically acclaimed American Indian essayists, historians,
anthropologists, folklorists, literary critics, playwrights,
novelists, and poets.
While the above descriptive definition of American Indian
literatures is broad and inclusive, I want to be careful to point
out that it excludes works and authors thought by many to be
"American Indian." Among the excluded works are those authored
by non-Indians even if the works have American Indian
protagonists and even if they speak to American Indian thematic
content (Hal Borland's When the Legends Die [Bantam, 1972]
and Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee [Holt,
1970], for example). Also excluded by the definition are those
works by authors who claim but have failed to
adequately establish their American Indian ancestry
(Jamake Highwater, for example [see Hagan]).
South Carolina's State-adopted Literature Anthologies
Analysis of South Carolina's state-adopted literature
anthologies reveals the presence of a significant number (107) of
American Indian authored selections. The sample has several
significant features which are revealed through analysis at
particular grade levels.
Genres. The sample of selections anthologized
contains both fictional and non-fictional written (contemporary)
selections and examples of each of the three traditional (oral)
literary genres. Within the fiction category, poems and short
stories predominate with a few excerpts from novels included in
the overall sample. Neither plays nor experimental fictional
genres such as vignettes are included in the textbooks. In the
non-fiction category, essays and autobiographies are included in
the sample of anthologized selections by American Indian writers.
Three excerpts from William Least Heat Moon's Blue
Highways (Little Brown, 1982), a non-fictional account of the
author's travels on state highways across the country, are
anthologized as well.
All three oral (traditional) literary genres--song-poems,
orations, and oral narratives--are represented in the sample.
Table 1 summarizes frequency of occurrence of each genre by grade
level.
TABLE 1 - GENRES BY GRADE LEVEL
GRADE LEVELS
FORM LITERARY GENRE 7 8 9 10 11 12 TOT
Contemporary: Fiction: Novel excerpt 0 0 0 1 3 0 4
(Written) Short story 3 2 3 4 0 0 12
Poem 5 4 7 5 9 0 30
Play 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Other 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Non-fiction: Essay 1 0 0 0 1 0 2
Autobiography 0 1 0 1 0 0 2
Other 0 0 1 0 2 0 3
TOTAL CONTEMP 9 7 11 11 17 0 55
Traditional Song-poem 3 1 1 0 16 0 21
(Oral) Oratory 0 1 0 0 10 1 12
Narrative 3 6 2 1 7 0 19
TOTAL TRADITIONAL 6 8 3 1 33 1 52
TOTAL AMERICAN INDIAN SELECTIONS 15 15 14 12 50 1 107
Regional representation. In addition to genre,
another important descriptive aspect of American Indian
literatures is the tribal/ regional affiliation of the author or
authors of a work. The sample of Indian authored selections in
the South Carolina state-adopted literature anthologies contains
works by authors from six of the seven American Indian "culture
regions" of the United States. Despite the refinements in
anthropologists' (see Spencer, et al, for example) descriptions
of "culture regions" which have occurred over the years, numerous
problems with the concept exist. The major problem is that the
notion of a region that is unified culturally tends to blur the
distinctions between the individual tribes within each region.
Mindful of this major problem, the culture regions concept still
provides a convenient means to identify and analyze selections in
the anthologized sample.
Analysis of the regional representation of American Indian
selections in the anthologies reveals works by authors from six
of the seven regions. There are no selections in the anthologies
by authors from the Arctic/Subarctic region; five works are by
authors from tribes in the Northwest Coast region; ten from the
Plateau/Basin/California region; thirty-seven from the Southwest;
twenty-four from the Great Plains; twenty-one from the Eastern
Woodlands; eight from the Southeast; and two selections which
could not be linked to a specific region. Table 2 summarizes the
frequency of occurrence of regions by grade level.
TABLE 2 - REGIONAL REPRESENTATION BY GRADE LEVEL
REGIONS 7 8 9 10 11 12 TOTAL
Arctic/Sub-Arctic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Northwest Coast 1 0 0 1 2 1 5
Plateau/Basin/California 0 1 1 1 7 0 10
Southwest 5 3 7 6 16 0 37
Great Plains 2 7 3 1 11 0 24
Eastern Woodlands 4 2 1 2 12 0 21
Southeast 3 1 2 1 1 0 8
Other 0 1 0 0 1 0 2
TOTAL 15 15 14 12 50 1 107
Discussion of Findings
Grade-level considerations. Analysis by grade level
of the anthologized selections by American Indian authors in
South Carolina's state adopted literature anthologies indicates a
proportional representation of oral and written literatures at
the seventh and eighth grades. At the ninth and tenth grade
levels, the anthologies place more emphasis on contemporary
(written) selections. Such treatment brings Indian people into
the present, and taken as a whole, reading the selections would
help to change students' perceptions of Indians as a people
"frozen in the nineteenth century," a stereotype which depicts
Indians as "living fossils." During the eleventh grade, students
are likely to read more traditional (oral) literary selections as
thirty-three of the fifty (or 66%) anthologized selections are
from oral genres. Care must be taken by eleventh grade teachers
to include greater numbers of American Indian contemporary
(written) works in order to avoid perpetuating the stereotype of
Indians as a "dying race" of people, "frozen in the past," and
incapable of fluency in written English. On the other hand,
since American Indians continue to compose songs and stories of
the traditional types to this day, teachers should also take time
to present recently composed oral literary materials such as
those contained in works by Theisz, Black Bear and Theisz, Evers,
Evers and Molina, and Erdoes and Ortiz. These works contain
numerous examples of selections from traditional (oral) literary
genres which have been composed (or which continue to be told) in
the modern era. From such readings, students learn that oral
literary traditions among Indians persist in the present and that
these oral traditions continue to inform the written literature
produced by American Indian authors.
At the twelfth grade level when most students study British
literature, it is understandable that the anthologies would
contain few, if any, American Indian authored selections.
However, for World Literature courses at the tenth and twelfth
grade levels, such an argument is not reasonable. Teachers of
World Literature courses should supplement the anthologies
assigned to their students with works by American Indians from
other sources. American Indians have contributed and continue to
contribute greatly to the body of world literature as well as to
the American literary canon.
At each grade level, the lack of Indian authored selections
in the various non-fictional genres is apparent. Students might
conclude that Indians do not write much non-fiction or that
Indian writers do not comment on their own condition as peoples
or that they do not think and write about philosophical, moral,
ethical, educational, governmental, or social aspects of their
lives. This is false, and numerous volumes of Indian non-fiction
exist (see Deloria, Am. Indian, Custer, & We Talk;
Hobson; and James). Students need to learn that American Indians
have a great deal to say about themselves, their history, their
arts and cultures, their ways of life, and their world views.
Analysis of authors' regional affiliations reveals an
absence of works by authors from the Arctic/Subarctic region in
all grade levels. This omission needs to be corrected by
teachers through the use of supplemental materials. Again, we
run the risk of misleading students into believing that there are
no Indians in the Arctic/Subarctic region or that the Indians who
live there have no literary arts. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Only one American Indian literary work, representing
the Northwest Coast region, is anthologized at the twelfth grade
level. The problems associated with the lack of inclusion of
American Indian literary selections in World Literature texts
used in the twelfth grade have already been discussed.
Population data from the 1990 United States Census serves as
a convenient guide (not an absolute number or a "formula") for
determining the appropriate percentage of selections from each
region. This determination could be called "appropriate regional
representation." Table 3 summarizes American Indians' regional
population information.
TABLE 3
AMERICAN INDIAN POPULATION BY REGION
REGION AMERICAN INDIAN PERCENT OF
REGIONAL TOTAL AMERICAN
POPULARION INDIAN POPULATION
Arctic/Sub-Arctic 85,698 4.4%
Northwest Coast 119,979 6.1%
Plateau/Basin/California 357,022 18.2%
Southwest 337,882 17.2%
Great Plains 506,847 25.9%
Eastern Woodlands 274,924 14.1%
Southeast 260,090 13.3%
Other 16,558 .8%
TOTAL 1,959,000 100%
Teachers should attempt to represent each of the regions of
Indian America fairly, selecting or incorporating a number of
regional selections to be read which reflects the percentage of
the total American Indian population represented in each region.
Using this criterion, it is clear that in the South Carolina
state adopted anthologies, the Arctic/Subarctic, Plateau/
Basin/California, and Southeast regions are under-represented in
the texts and that the Southwest and Eastern Woodlands regions
are over-represented. The number of selections by authors from
the Great Plains and Northwest Coast regions approximates the
percentage of the total American Indian population of each
region. Under-representing regions could lead to students' and
teachers' falsely concluding that Indians from these regions "no
longer exist" or that they "no longer have a literary culture."
Over-representing regions could lead to the perpetuation of the
"generic Indian" stereotype--a dominant image of American Indians
usually as Plains "teepee-dwelling warriors" or Southwest
"pueblo-dwellers maize farmers."
Suggestions for Teaching American Indian Literatures
The preceding findings and discussion give rise to a number
of guiding principles and instructional strategies for teachers
of American Indian literatures. First, teachers must acknowledge
and teach to the rich diversity of American Indian cultures. The
unique qualities of each American Indian culture should be
emphasized whether considered individually, by state, or by
region of the country. English Language Arts teachers should
make every effort to teach Indian authored selections which
reflect the diversity of cultures represented in the
approximately 175 separate American Indian tribes/nations/
communities (Spicer). Where the state-adopted anthologies over-
represent particular regions of the nation, South Carolina's
teachers must rely on supplemental materials to help achieve a
more balanced representation of tribal or regional American
Indian literatures.
Secondly, teachers should begin by focusing their treatment
of American Indian literatures on oral and written works authored
by American Indians from South Carolina. Then they should move
"outwardly" to the literatures of American Indians from the
southeastern region of the United States. Again, this must be
accomplished through use of supplemental materials since the
southeastern region is under-represented in the anthologized
sample of American Indian literary works. There are numerous
collections of oral narratives and song-poems as well as written
work in various genres by members of the Catawba, Cherokee,
Lumbee, Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, and other tribes indigenous to
the southeast. South Carolinians, both students and teachers,
may more readily relate to the experiences of Indians from this
particular region of the nation. Certainly, the degree to which
the landscape shapes American Indian literature makes for a point
of immediate relevance to students in South Carolina's English
classes.
Thirdly, English teachers must make sure to bring American
Indians into "present tense." The degree to which the state-
adopted anthologies feature literature selections set in the past
tends to "freeze" American Indians in the nineteenth century.
This, of course, does a tremendous disservice to contemporary
American Indian peoples and their experiences. Further, it
denies our students access to American Indian commentary on
current issues. In South Carolina, students have a remarkable
opportunity to learn a great deal about how the federal govern-
ment and the state government view American Indian affairs
through carefully examining the Catawba Nation's land claim case.
Recent newspaper articles detailing both sides of the complex
legal argument make for interesting and relevant reading. The
case is a study of one people's persuasive persistence against
seemingly unconquerable odds. Catawba Chief Gilbert Blue's
statements, as well as those of other contemporary Catawbas,
deserve equal billing with those of other American Indian leaders
which, in the anthologies, tend only to "echo" from the nine-
teenth century.
and finally, it is clear that South Carolina's English
Language Arts teachers must move beyond their state-adopted
literature anthologies in order to treat American Indian
literatures in a balanced, representative, and more thorough
manner. Literature anthologies have improved with respect to
American Indian literatures. The state-adopted textbooks include
more selections by a wider and more representative range of
authors writing in various genres. The problems of the "generic
Indian" and "living fossil" persist, however, and teachers must
rely on supplemental materials in order to overcome these
problems.
South Carolina State-Adopted Literature Anthologies, 1992
Anderson, Robert, et al, eds. African American Literature:
Voices in a Tradition. Fort Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 1992.
---. Elements of Literature: First Course. Fort Worth,
TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1993.
---. Elements of Literature: Second Course. Fort Worth,
TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1993.
---. Elements of Literature: Third Course. Fort Worth,
TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1993.
---. Elements of Literature: Fourth Course. Fort Worth ,
TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1993.
---. Elements of Literature: Literature of the United
States. Fort Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,
1993.
---. Elements of Literature: Literature of Britain. Fort
Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1993.
Beatty, Jane N., ed. Literature and Language: Orange
Level. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 1992.
Bernstein, Barry, ed. Literature and Language: Yellow
Level. Evanston, IL: McDougal-Littell, 1992.
Boone, Robert S., ed. Literature and Language: Blue
Level. Evanston, IL: McDougal-Littell, 1992.
Cassidy, Jack, et al, eds. Introducing Literature. Lake
Forest, IL: Glencoe, 1991.
---. Enjoying Literature. Lake Forest, IL: Glencoe,
1991.
---. Understanding Literature. Lake Forest, IL: Glencoe,
1991.
---. Appreciating Literature. Lake Forest, IL: Glencoe,
1991.
---. American Literature. Lake Forest, IL: Glencoe,
1991.
---. English Literature. Lake Forest, IL: Glencoe, 1991.
Christensen, L. Jane, and Edmund J. Farrell, eds. Discoveries
in Literature. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1991.
Farrell, Edmund J., Ouida H. Clapp, and Karen J. Kuehner, eds.
Patterns in Literature. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman,
1991.
Goheen, Richard Craig, ed. Literature and Language: Purple
Level. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 1992.
McDonnell, Helen, James E. Miller, Jr., and Russell J. Hogan,
eds. Traditions in Literature. Glenville, IL: Scott,
Foresman, 1991.
Miller, James E., Kerry M. Wood, and Carlota Cardenas de Dwyer,
eds. The United States in Literature. Glenville, IL:
Scott, Foresman, 1991.
Millett, Nancy C., and Raymond J. Rodrigues, eds.
Explorations in Literature. Glenview, IL: Scott,
Foresman, 1991.
Pfordresher, John, Gladys V. Veidemanis, and Helen McDonnell,
eds. England in Literature. Glenville, IL: Scott,
Foresman, 1991.
Robinson, Katherine, et al., eds. Scholastic Scope
Literature: Level 3. New York, Scholastic, 1991.
---. Scholastic Scope Literature: Level 4. New York:
Scholastic, 1991.
---. Scholastic Scope Literature: Level 5. New York:
Scholastic, 1991.
---. Scholastic Scope Literature: Level 6. New York:
Scholastic, 1991.
---. Scholastic Scope Literature: Level 7. New York:
Scholastic, 1991.
---. Scholastic Scope Literature: Level 8. New York:
Scholastic, 1991.
Thompson, Eileen, et al., eds. Prentice Hall Literature:
Bronze. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991.
---. Prentice Hall Literature: Silver. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991.
---. Prentice Hall Literature: Gold. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991.
---. Prentice Hall Literature: Platinum. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991.
---. Prentice Hall Literature: The American Experience.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991.
---. Prentice Hall Literature: The English Tradition.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991.
---. Prentice Hall Literature: World Masterpieces.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991.
Wood, Kerry M., et al., eds. Classics in World
Literature. Glenville, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1991.
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