Act 2

Act 3

What is our responsibility to the things we loved the most? One answer is to be brutally honest about who and what we love. That’s what we’re doing in this episode. We’re going to take a long, hard look at the worst parts of Laura: the racism, the violence, and xenophobia present in the Little House series. There’s more than you might think. Even Glynnis, a person who thought she knew Laura all the way through, was surprised and sometimes shocked. We also talk about the harm the books have caused and investigate whether the Little House books should still have a place in our classrooms or even on our shelves. 

Go deeper: 
On Native American History
Mni Sota Makoce: Land of the Dakota by Gwen Westerman and Bruce White
Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan
More on government operated boarding schools for Native children

On Native representation and racism in the Little House books 
Little squatters on the Osage Diminished Reserve by Frances W. Kaye 
Lizzie Skurnick on Little House’s “Myth of White Self-Sufficiency”

On Black prairie narratives
More on Doctor George A. Tann
Era Bell Thompson: A North Dakota Daughter

Alternate children’s book recommendations: 
Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park
Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
Forever Cousins by Laurel Goodluck
More recommendations from Dr. Debbie Reese

What is our responsibility to the things we loved the most? One answer is to be brutally honest about who and what we love. That’s what we’re doing in this episode. We’re going to take a long, hard look at the worst parts of Laura: the racism, the violence, and xenophobia present in the Little House series. There’s more than you might think. Even Glynnis, a person who thought she knew Laura all the way through, was surprised and sometimes shocked. We also talk about the harm the books have caused and investigate whether the Little House books should still have a place in our classrooms or even on our shelves. 
Go deeper:  On Native American History <a href="https://shop.mnhs.org/products/mni-sota-makoce">Mni Sota Makoce: Land of the Dakota by Gwen Westerman and Bruce White</a> <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/mean-spirit-linda-hogan/6763015?ean=9781501112454">Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan</a> <a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/code-talkers/boarding-schools/#:~:text=Indian%20boarding%20schools%20were%20founded,the%20government%20or%20Christian%20missionaries.">More on government operated boarding schools for Native children</a>
On Native representation and racism in the Little House books  <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/188052255.pdf">Little squatters on the Osage Diminished Reserve by Frances W. Kaye </a> <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/in-promoting-the-myth-of-white-self-sufficiency-the-little-house-books-rewrite-history/16545/">Lizzie Skurnick on Little House’s “Myth of White Self-Sufficiency”</a>
On Black prairie narratives <a href="https://pioneergirlproject.org/2019/02/26/george-a-tann-and-black-history-in-the-west/">More on Doctor George A. Tann</a> <a href="https://www.history.nd.gov/publications/era-bell-thompson.pdf">Era Bell Thompson: A North Dakota Daughter</a>
Alternate children’s book recommendations:  <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/prairie-lotus-linda-sue-park/17211259">Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park</a> <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-birchbark-house-louise-erdrich/17373791?ean=9780063064164">Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich</a> <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/forever-cousins-laurel-goodluck/18493949?ean=9781623542924">Forever Cousins by Laurel Goodluck</a> <a href="https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/p/best-books.html">More recommendations from Dr. Debbie Reese</a>

Jack Kerouac but make it a girl with braids. Carrie Bradshaw, but without the sex, and also braids. An American Icon. An American Odyssey. American propaganda. Violently so, in some cases. Laura Ingalls Wilder is evergreen. For better or worse. Since the first Little House book was published in 1932, generations of readers have flocked to Laura’s cozy stories of the Ingalls family settling the Western frontier. The series inspired a TV show, pageants, and entire fashion lines. Behind this franchise is a woman who experienced almost a full century of American history. She’d made her first trips in a covered wagon, and eventually flew on a jet plane. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life and legacy remain as powerful, mesmerizing, controversial, and violent as the America she represents. In a country currently at odds with itself and its history could there be a better time for an exploration of this woman?

Jack Kerouac but make it a girl with braids. Carrie Bradshaw, but without the sex, and also braids. An American Icon. An American Odyssey. American propaganda. Violently so, in some cases. Laura Ingalls Wilder is evergreen. For better or worse. Since the first Little House book was published in 1932, generations of readers have flocked to Laura’s cozy stories of the Ingalls family settling the Western frontier. The series inspired a TV show, pageants, and entire fashion lines. Behind this franchise is a woman who experienced almost a full century of American history. She’d made her first trips in a covered wagon, and eventually flew on a jet plane. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life and legacy remain as powerful, mesmerizing, controversial, and violent as the America she represents. In a country currently at odds with itself and its history could there be a better time for an exploration of this woman?

Wilder

7. The Problem of Laura

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/5a7db9ce-0600-416c-b448-b04401577858/transcript

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