This paper examines the racial and cultural bias embedded in K–12 educational materials concerning Native Americans. Drawing on two children's books — Lynne Reid Banks's The Indian in the Cupboard and W.S. Phillips's Indian Campfire Tales — the paper identifies recurring stereotypes: objectification, generic "Hollywood Indian" imagery, demeaning language, and the "vanishing Indian" narrative. The analysis further argues that these misrepresentations are reinforced structurally by the Dewey Decimal Classification system, which marginalizes Native American knowledge by situating it in the past and outside the mainstream of human learning. Together, these curricular artifacts shape harmful misperceptions for all students and can cause particular harm to Native American children.
The paper demonstrates critical discourse analysis applied to educational materials: it isolates specific language choices (words like "roaming," "wandering," and "redskin"), visual descriptions, and narrative structures, then explains how each choice reproduces a broader ideological framework that dehumanizes Native peoples and erases their contemporary existence.
The paper opens with a contextual overview of how Native Americans are treated across K–12 curricula, then proceeds book by book through close textual analysis. It concludes by widening the lens to the Dewey Decimal system, arguing that institutional library organization perpetuates the same erasure. This movement from individual texts to institutional structures gives the paper a coherent argumentative arc.
Many artifacts used in K–12 curricula illustrate a racial bias against marginalized groups. Native Americans are one such group adversely affected by stereotypical and offensive portrayals in educational materials and literature. American Indians are typically not mentioned in American history textbooks beyond the 6th grade. When they are referenced, it is most often in the context of Pilgrims and Thanksgiving. At other times they are depicted as adversaries to be defeated in the "settling" of the West. Based on what most Americans have been taught, Native Americans virtually ceased to exist after 1890.
In addition, a pervasive and subtle dehumanizing stereotype of Native Americans has become ingrained in American popular culture — evident in sports team mascots, Halloween costumes, and similar imagery. These misrepresentations, and the misperceptions that follow, are commonly held by all Americans and have the power to impact Native American children themselves.
The Indian in the Cupboard is a beloved children's book by British author Lynne Reid Banks. First published in 1980, it received numerous awards and was adapted into a film in 1995. For Native Americans, however, it is an deeply biased work that perpetuates common myths and stereotypes. The premise — a miniature toy Indian that comes to life — immediately objectifies Native Americans. Moreover, though the character is described as an Iroquois warrior, he is dressed in the style of a Hollywood Western generic plains Indian "chief," complete with a full eagle-feather headdress and other attire that is not historically or culturally accurate to the Iroquois people.
The warrior speaks in grunts and partial sentences, in an attempt to evoke the "noble warrior" archetype reminiscent of the Tonto character. He is manipulated by a more powerful white child, reinforcing the notion of a simple-minded, socially inferior Indian whose contact with the white man will save him and his people. This book remains available in many school libraries in both print and media formats. Despite its exciting plot, it supports the continuation of persistent and damaging misperceptions about Native American peoples.
Another racially and ethnically biased work is the children's book Indian Campfire Tales: Legends About the Ways of Animals and Men by W.S. Phillips (1963). It is one of numerous collections of generic Indian legends that exist in school and public libraries. The author offers a compilation of stories described as a "history of the tribes," yet makes no effort to identify the original sources of these tales or their original authors. The language used throughout is also biased. Names such as "Big Feather Two Feet" are overtly stereotypical. Descriptions of Native Americans as "roaming," "wandering," or "roving" across the land imply that they did not rightfully belong where they lived — subtly justifying the seizure of Native lands by white Americans who, by contrast, "traveled" or "settled" their way westward.
One short story within the collection features a stranded-in-the-wilderness tale involving a white teenager and a Native teenager. All of the Indian characters are depicted as grunting savages. The time period, place, and tribal affiliations are left unspecified, and the storyline is notably dark. Other legends employ terms such as "squaw," "papoose," "chief," and "redskin." Wardrobe descriptions invariably feature beads, feathers, and buckskin. The "vanishing Indian" concept also operates throughout — Native Americans are portrayed as a soon-to-be-extinct species with no place or existence as human beings in contemporary America.
In one story, animals "become" Indians simply by carrying bows and arrows or dressing in Indian clothing. In another, children "play Indian" as if "Indian" were a role anyone could assume — as one might dress up as a doctor, a cowboy, or a baseball player. By comparison, it would be considered deeply offensive to suggest that animals or children could dress up as African Americans or "play Italian" in a similar fashion. The double standard reveals how normalized this dehumanization of Native peoples has become in popular children's literature.
You’re 58% through this paper. Sign up to read the full paper.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.