To the editor:

The editorial, “Wilder’s books get a healthy reassessment” (Independent, 7/9/18) left me feeling ill — children’s literature wise.

The Rochester newspaper writer listed reasons why the American Library Association voted to remove Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from its award for children’s literature.

First reason: “In the 1935 text of ‘Little House On the Prairie,’ Wilder wrote, ‘there were no people. Only Indians lived there.'”

My copy of the book with a 1935 text, reads, ” . . . there were no settlers. Only Indians lived there.”

The Ingalls family’s move to Kansas in 1862 is the setting for the Prairie Book. According to the editorial, the American Library Association said, “(Wilder’s) works reflect mainstream, though certainly not universal, cultural attitudes toward indigenous people and people of color.”

Attitudes toward people of color? In Chapter 15, “Fever ‘N ‘Ague,” Laura is grateful for Dr. Tan, the traveling black doctor who tended to her and her family when they were all ill. ” He talked with Pa and Ma and laughed a rolling jolly laugh. They all wanted him to stay longer.”

Attitudes toward indigenous people? The Rochester editor wrote: “One line that runs hauntingly through the books is, ‘The only good Indian is a dead Indian.’ Thus, it was time to remove (Wilder’s) name from one of the top awards for children’s books.”

The Indian comment does not run through Mrs. Wilder’s books, and was not spoken by any member of her family. Their Kansas neighbor, Mr. Scott, makes the comment in the Prairie Book in chapter 22.

Why didn’t the Library Association reveal Pa’s response to Mr. Scott’s comment?

“Pa said he didn’t know about that. He figured the Indians would be as peaceable as anybody else if they were left alone. They have been moved around so many times they naturally hate white people.”

On the next page, Pa expresses his interest in joining the Indians hunting buffalo, and Mr. Scott says, “Well, maybe you’re right about it, Ingalls. Anyway, I’ll be glad to tell Mrs Scott what you say. She can’t get the Minnesota massacres out of her head.”

Perhaps Mr. Scott did not know that the Indians around New Ulm, MN were starving; digging for roots to eat because the men at the trading post refused to give them food when money did not arrive for the Indians to buy food. The money had gone to Union soldiers. It is interesting to know that the Schells’ Brewery, family and home were not attacked because Mrs. Schell had provided food for the Indians.

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote to preserve her father’s stories and songs, and to relate her childhood in the pioneering times of our country. Perhaps another generation will restore her name to the children’s book award, pointing out that Laura wrote in chapter 23: “No matter what Mr. Scott said, Pa did not believe that the only good Indian was a dead Indian.” Pa salutes the Osage Indian who convinced the other Indian tribes not to attack the white settlers, and at the Prairie Book’s end, the Ingalls family leaves Kansas. Pa states he did not realize they had settled 3 miles across the line marking Indian Territory and he was not going to wait for soldiers to drive them out.

Some schools have the “Little House on the Prairie” book on a censored list. That is unfortunate, not only for the opportunity to discuss the history of that time period but also because the illustrations by Garth Williams in that book have been cited as being among his finest work.

Trudy Madetzke

Marshall