Numerous studies report the predominance of positive and negative stereotypes and the pervasive tendency to present a monolithic image of Native Americans that is largely inaccurate.
Author and illustrator Paul Goble (and the adopted son of Chief Edgar Red Cloud) has written dozens of children's books that retell ancient stories.
Authors—such as Joe Medicine Crow[2](Absaroka), Vivian Arviso Deloria[3] (Navajo), Joseph Bruchac[4](Abenaki), Lauren Waukau-Villagomez[5] (Menominee), Robert Lewis[6] (Cherokee/ Navaho/Apache) and Albert White Hat Sr.[7] (Lakota)—have publicly stated their support of Goble bringing traditional Native American stories to the public’s attention, going so far as praising his attention to detail and his use of primary sources.
For example, Hoke Denetosisie said: "The nature of the series, being concerned with Navajo life, called for illustration genuine in every sense of the word.
In 1954, D’Arcy McNickle, who was Chippewa Cree, published her historical novel Runner in the Sun about a teenager being trained to lead his people.
In 1960, world-renowned artist Pablita Velarde of Santa Clara Pueblo retold and illustrated stories told to her by her grandfather in Old Father, the Storyteller.
Also during that time, the Council on Interracial Books for Children was instrumental in publishing the work of Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, a Rosebud Sioux.
It covers the history of Native Americans from creation to the present day, but also includes content omitted or glossed over in other narratives about the settlement of the United States.
Ortiz includes the forced removal of Native peoples from their homelands, the brutal periods of early government-controlled boarding schools, and the social movements of the 1960s.
In the 1990s, many Native-authored books for children were published, including the work of Louise Erdrich (Ojibwa), Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek Nation), Michael Lacapa (Apache/Hopi/Tewa), Gayle Ross (Cherokee Nation), Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Creek), Joseph McLellan (Nez Perce), N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa), Cheryl Savageau (Abenaki/Metis), Jan Waboose (Anishinaabe), and Bernelda Wheeler (Cree).
In 2007, Sherman Alexie joined the growing list of Native authors writing for children with the release of his young adult fiction The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
Her blog and scholarly works seek to provide critical analyses of representations of Indigenous peoples in classic literature, such as Little House on the Prairie, as well as contemporary publications.