Critical Resource-Cheyenne Again

Eve Bunting's CHEYENNE AGAIN

Slapin, Beverly. 'Eve Bunting's CHEYENNE AGAIN'. A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children. AltaMira Press. Maryland. 2005.

I found this critical review written by Beverly Slapin for Cheyenne Again on Debbie Reese’s blog. I actually just stumbled upon this review and was very excited to see what this individual had to say about the book. The review originally appeared in the book, A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children.

Slapin first starts her review by talking about the illustrations drawn by Irving Toddy. She comments on his ability to correctly illustrate what a boarding school would look like and it’s surrounding environment. Toddy was an actual student who went to an Indian boarding school so he was able to use his prior experiences in his drawings.

Then Slapin goes on to talk about the author, Eve Bunting, and respond to how her story was not very realistic. Slapin states in her review, “In Bunting’s telling, on the other hand, conditions appear far better than they were.” She goes on to explain that there were many deaths brought on by malnutrition, disease, and beatings. It is interesting to think why Eve Bunting left out such drastic measures that were done to Native Americans. Was it because it would be too graphic for children to read? Or was it left out because she didn’t know this took place? One could ponder these questions for a while. Another piece of information that Bunting tends to leave out according to Slapin, was the fact that when parents would voluntarily send their children to these boarding schools it wasn’t because they wanted their children to ‘learn the white man’s ways’, but rather to learn English. Slapin also adds in her review that there would have been no teacher telling the students to hold on to their memories, the teachers would force the children to forget their 'Indian-ness' inside and out.

So all in all, Slapin doesn’t agree with this text and thinks that it doesn’t promote the correct ways of the Indian boarding schools. This is not a recommended book to read to a class because it doesn’t portray the boarding schools in the correct light. They are made to seem a lot less harsh than they really are.

After reading this review my outlook on this book was changed a lot because I was taking what the author was telling me as the truth. However, it wasn’t the truth I was reading. It is the teacher’s responsibility to make sure what they are reading to their class is being correctly portrayed. Reading Beverly Slapin’s review really opened my eyes to things that I never would have known before. I am grateful for her insight on this particular book and her feelings toward it.