Curriculum Resources: An Annotated Bibliography for Maize Day

This annotated bibliography accompanies my article “Maize Day: A Holiday for All Americans.” It is the same article published at garretandstudio.wordpress.com on November 26, 2008, but this time I have added tags for the article before publishing it so that it will be easier to find on search engines. I have also added direct links for most of the books recommended.

Finding a new way to approach your Maize Day or Thanksgiving celebration can be challenging, but here are some resources to get you started. It is better to use one high-quality resource than dozens with inaccurate information and offensive portrayals of American Indians and other indigenous people of North, South, and Central America.

One of the first books I bought seemed like an obvious choice at the time. It’s called Corn is Maize: The Gift of the Indians, written and illustrated by Aliki. But once you have done a little research, you’ll know that the corn was not literally a gift but was in fact stolen and that the title is only one of numerous inaccuracies in the book.

To the untrained eye, differences may seem subtle, but a subtle difference can have a powerful impact—for better or worse. Books such as Through Indian Eyes and Pact’s Multicultural Resource Guide explain errors in some popular books and provide guidelines for evaluating children’s books in particular.

References

Chase’s Calendar of Events 2009 (paperback + CD-ROM). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Maize Day is listed on page 567 of the 2009 edition of Chase’s Calendar of Events, an authoritative guide for librarians, marketers, journalists, and other professionals to special occurrences, holidays, anniversaries, religious observances, sporting events, and more from around the world.

The Teacher’s Calendar School Year 2008–2009. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Maize Day is listed on page 84 of this edition. Geared to K-8 teachers, librarians, and other educators, The Teacher’s Calendar offers classroom ideas for every day of the year from August 1 to July 31. The book includes suggestions for class activities, bulletin boards, and school calendars. Fifty sidebars highlight specific dates and provide curriculum ideas, lists of appropriate books, and related websites. Written by the in-house staff of Chase’s Calendar of Events with contributions by writers specializing in child education. (Note: I have not seen what activities or books Chase’s recommends for Maize Day.)

Books

American Indian Contributions to the World: 15,000 Years of Inventions and Innovations. Emory Dean Keoke and Kay Marie Porterfield. New York: Facts on File, Inc. 2002. This comprehensive encyclopedia makes it easy to make “history” relevant for your family or students, highlighting American Indians’ numerous inventions, innovations, and contributions to modern-day medicine, languages, calendars, mathematics, agriculture, and more. In addition to an index, the book offers a glossary, a chronology, maps; a bibliography and suggested reading list, and useful lists in the following categories: tribes organized by culture area; entries by tribe, group, or linguistic group; tribes by geographical culture area; and entries by subject.

American Indians: Stereotypes & Realities. Devon A. Mihesuah. Atlanta, Georgia: Clarity Press, 1996. Clear, concise, and easy to use, this book directly addresses 24 stereotypes about Indians, provides do’s and don’ts for those who teach American history and culture, and offers curriculum guidelines, along with suggested projects.

Clambake: A Wampanoag Tradition. Russell M. Peters. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publications Company, 1992. Informative text and photographs show the life of a modern-day Wampanoag boy as he and his grandfather prepare a traditional meal.

Four Seasons of Corn: A Winnebago Tradition. Sally M. Hunter. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publications Company, 1997. Using the true story of a 12-year-old boy of mixed American Indian heritage, the text and photographs depict the role of corn in Hochunk (Winnebago) tradition.

Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus: What Your History Books Got Wrong. James W. Loewen. New York: The New Press, 1992. Loewen examines the depiction of “America’s discovery” in 15 high-school and middle-school textbooks, sorting fact from fiction.

Native American Gardening: Stories, Projects, and Recipes for Families. Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac. Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 1996. An invaluable resource whether or not you actually plan to garden. Joseph Bruchac is a popular children’s book author.

Pact’s Multicultural Resource Guide. Pact: An Adoption Alliance. San Francisco: Pact Press, out of print. This “opinionated guide” rates children’s and adult books for accuracy and appropriateness using a five-point scale with accompanying summaries and explanations.

People of Corn: A Mayan Story. Mary-Joan Gerson. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1995. This beautifully illustrated retelling of the Mayan Creation Story explains to readers young and old the centrality of corn in the religion, diet, oral literature, and history of ancient and modern Mayans.

A People’s History of the United States: 1492–Present. Howard Zinn. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. See Chapter 1 for an altogether different account of the European invasion using Christopher Columbus’ own words, quoting from his captain’s log, reports to the Spanish government, and other original sources. Updated editions are available.

Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children. Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: New Society Publishers, 1987. This volume includes the very useful checklist “How to Tell the Difference” for evaluating children’s books, as well as articles, poetry, book reviews, a list of recommended books, and a resource section.

Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué rico! America’s Sproutings. Pat Mora. New York: Lee & Low Books, 2007. The luscious illustrations that accompany Mora’s haiku about native foods make this book an excellent choice for reading aloud to young children. Longer text in smaller type gives more information for older readers.

1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving. Catherine O’Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2001. The authors provide an easily-accessible introduction for adults and children to the actual facts behind the traditional Thanksgiving story: “Generations of schoolchildren have imagined brave, peaceful settlers—the ‘Pilgrims’—inviting a few wild Indians over for dinner. In the myth, the Wampanoag side has been left out. The true story is a lot more complicated.”

Cookbooks

Spirit of the Earth: Native Cooking from Latin America. Martin Jacobs and Beverly Cox. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001.

Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking. Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs. New York: Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 1991.
Copyright © 2008 Corinne Lightweaver.