U & D

We will be looking at this road sign after our week at Camp Kieve. It is a powerful reminder that bias and stereotyping are alive and well in Maine. It’s not funny.

But there are puns and irony in the sign as well – it is a Literacy lesson. Tradin’ is one. Trade was the purpose of the 1st communications between the Wabanakis and the Europeans. Its use here with the image is an unfunny pun. It is also ironic that the the Native trader became the pawn of the European trader, who often purposely manipulated and cheated, and who even went so far as to trade disease-infected blankets (that should and could have been burned) for furs and alcohol. It is ironic that the Indian became the “logo” for the cigar store, that a cultural habit related to peace time, story telling, ceremony and spirit came to be used by the white man for economic gain.

That is going to be a reach for 8th graders. I began the exploration of those ideas – cultural collision and collusion, stereotyping and its negative effects, historical ironies, cultural continuity – with a storybook called How the Indians Bought the Farm. This is one of the few children’s books with a Native theme or character(s) that is recommended by the Native community and Native scholars.

We used the book for Literacy lessons: personification, incremental repetition, repetition, closure, fulcrum, simile, metaphor, idiom, irony and pun are all found in the language or situation of the story. As I do with all picture books at this point, I read aloud and stopped to note some of the language. Students discovered additional examples on their own and we added examples (and terms, if they are new) to our Great Language Wall

With this book, the title is the key to deeper reading of the story. It has several levels of meaning, all of which are built by a close look at the story itself.

“Bought the farm” means died. When the Native Americans lost their traditional lands to farms and were told that they, too, had to farm new “reserved” lands, many aspects of their culture died – and that was, in fact, the purpose of moving them off of their lands. Many Indians did die as a result of the “Indian Wars.” The title refers to the death of traditional Native culture as well as to the decimation of the Native population post-contact. At the same time, the “great Indian Chief” in the story uses his connection to the land [moose, bear, beaver, fish] to outsmart “the Government,” keep the farm, and be “busy enough just taking care of the animals.” In doing so, the Indian family has redefined and adapted to the “Great White Father’s” concept of “farm.” In an ironic reversal of the historic outcome, the white man’s cavalry (“the men in green”) cower behind wagons when the animals make sounds in the night, and the Government man runs away with them, “leaving only his tracks behind him.”

The book, then, is full of irony and puns. In the fullest sense, the greatest of each is that Death is not death at all. Considered closely, it is no surprise that this books is one of the most highly recommended Native picture books.

The title is pun on an idiomatic expression (“bought the farm”). Humor is a main component of Native stories and life that often seems a bit dark to non-Natives. The title is appropriately humorous. This humor was lost on many of my students; they are going to be exposed to more of it when we read The Heart of a Chief.
The text contains true humor of an earthy, dry, and honest nature. My students laughed their way through much of the book.
It is ironic that the Indian Chief, whose culture does not have land or animal ownership, recognizes that the pigs, sheep and cows along the river bank are “owned” by someone – he does not take them.
It is ironic that it is the animals “unowned by anyone” that come to the aid of the Indian Chief and live eventually on the farm. They come by choice to the farm. These animals are also fur, pelt and antler “trade” animals. This is a great time to reinforce with students native concepts of conservancy and to read again stories of Goosklap (sic. – in Maine) and the animal world.
It is ironic that the Government agent disappears in a way that reflects the “vanishing Indian” stereotype (the one found in Sign of the Beaver).
The book contains multiple incongruities, such as a Government that uses wagons but expects the Indians to have lightbulbs in the barn. My students were struck by the unfairness of the this, as well as of the overall actions of the Government man.

It is no wonder that this little book speaks so forcefully for the Native population. It’s overall message is that Indians are real, are intelligent, are adaptable, maintain a deep relationship with Nature, and have been treated with great unfairness by cowardly government agents. It should be read in every middle school in Maine, accompanied by an appropriate study of Native history.