Earlier this month, rather quietly, one of those long-awaited books arrived. Scholastic published If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving, a new title in its long-standing "If You" series. Written by Chris Newell, a citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe from Motahkmikuhk (Indian Township, Maine) and illustrated by Winona Nelson, a member of the Leech Lake Band of Minnesota Chippewa, If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving is an effective re-examination of the events of 1620-1621. It's the first book that I know of since Margaret Bruchac, Abenaki, and Catherine Grace's 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (2001) that is written from an Indigenous perspective and offers background information about both the Wampanoag and the English.
Newell gently reminds the reader that "[t]he story of the Mayflower landing is different depending on whether the storyteller viewed the events from the boat or from the shore." This expository book covers a lot of content, from basic concepts (colonization, pilgrim), to background information on how earlier European fishermen and slave traders shaped Indigenous people's perceptions of the English, to basic information on the daily lives and beliefs of both the Wampanoag and the English. Throughout the book, Newell threads in that background context, reminding his readers of the larger forces and events that influenced and shaped the relationship between the Wampanoags and the English. In keeping with the series, a question and answer text structure is adopted; all headings are phrased as questions, inviting readers to engage with the text.
Newell does not sugar coat this history; he invites readers to engage with it. In his introduction, he reminds readers that "Before the arrival of any Europeans, Native peoples lived in America by the millions. Entire nations of people connected by land, kinship, language, and culture existed on the continent for more than twelve thousand years." The book concludes with contemporary Indigenous views on Thanksgiving, leaving the reader with the knowledge that despite centuries of policies to remove Indigenous tribes and nations from their lands, they remain a vibrant part of our nation's culture.
Gratefully, Winona Nelson's illustrations offer elementary readers a vision of what Patuxet/Plimouth looked like in 1620-1621 that steers clear of the inaccurate and often racist 19th and early 20th century paintings that manage to dominate so many nonfiction books on this topic.
One concern - the title of the book includes, and therefore privileges, the "Plimouth Thanksgiving," an event that never happened. The inclusion of the phrase certainly grabs the attention of teachers, librarians, and other adults eager to share this history with the young people in their life. But I wonder if it might confuse elementary age readers?
Scholastic has assured readers on the back cover that the manuscript was "[v]etted by experts," and a Linda Coombs, Aquinnah Wampanoag, is thanked on the verso page. I still wish there was a bibliography, but I'm not sure I've ever seen that kind of back matter in this series.
You can read reviews from Kirkus Review and School Library Journal.
As always, if you seek information on the representation of Indigenous peoples in children's literature, these are our go to resources:
American Indians in Children's Literature Blog
The American Indian Library Association and its American Indian Youth Literature Award
Social Justice Books: American Indians/Indigenous Peoples/Native Nations Booklist
Additional Information:
