Book Review: the Education of Little Tree

The history of Native Americans is somewhat consistently being drained from the history that is taught in American schools, and thus only remembered by the few privy to the information. The history taught in American schools is, frankly, a White history. There are a few lessons on Black history, perhaps, but few others. Interactions between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans are told of-almost as a fictional story-to supplement parents' explanation of the Thanksgiving holiday to children. When they are younger, the White children in our society enjoy playing the occasional game of "Cowboys and Indians." This game is often similar to "Cops and Robbers"-the bad guys are the Robbers-and the Indians. What has driven society to teach their children that Native Americans are all horrible people? Perhaps this cannot be answered, but it is important to note that few parents have ever attempted to stop this stereotypical behavior. They likely even subtly-or directly-encourage it.

Because the history of Native Americans is almost entirely unknown to the vast majority of Americans, we, as a people, do not care about them. We are ignorant of the prejudices they face in their lives, so we do not care. Because we do not care, their history and culture is dying a slow, painful death. We must ask ourselves, then: what is being done to battle this cultural extinction? The answer is literature. While it may be few in comparison to the seemingly infinite pages in existence, literature has been and is being published on the history and culture of Native Americans. One of these publications, The Education of Little Tree, is not only a fairly detailed description of Cherokee culture; it is a touching story of a young boy, raised in the ways of the Cherokee. Through the young boy, the author, Forrest Carter, successfully educates readers about the Cherokee culture. Not only are readers educated on the history and culture of the Cherokee, but also are encouraged to respect and cherish it. Through a Cherokee perspective of universal concepts and American culture during the depression-era 1930s, Carter conveys the slow, sad death of Native American culture.

While the majority of the book is concerned with Little Tree's education, it is only a medium through which the author conveys the true goal of the work: Native American culture, and the prejudices they faced in the 1930s. It is very important to note that after everything was stripped from them by White men in America, one of the few things they had left was their pride. This is shown in telling of the story of the Trail of Tears, as the White man calls it. According to Little Tree's grandparents, "the Cherokees had nothing left. But they would not ride, and so they saved something. You could not see it or wear it or eat it, but they saved something" (p. 41). And so they saved their pride, and even today, it seems they have little but their pride. This is made clear in the interactions between Little Tree, Granpa, and the White people in town. Native Americans are referred to as "lazy" (p. 94) and "heathen savages" (p. 96). It seems, then that Native Americans share the hardships of many other so-called "minorities" in the United States. They are continuously thought of as less than the White man and thus constantly being held down-from any kind of advancement. This oppression has substantially affected the Native American outlook on life, and even their way of life-as Little Tree's grandfather says, "... they was only one thing certain. The Indian was not never going to git control" (p. 86). Later, when Little Tree and his grandfather were checking the ripeness of a watermelon, Little Tree notes, "you have got two chances to one against you, as Granpa said is true in everything" (p. 141). What has made Native Americans-and other "minorities"-so pessimistic? It certainly hasn't been themselves, for humans are not innately pessimistic. Studying the history of all peoples, the answer seems clear: the White people have oppressed other races for so long, that it has had dramatic effects on the lives of the oppressed. This book does not deal only with issues of Native American oppression and White prejudice, however. In fact, it seems to focus more on the culture of Native Americans. While the majority of the passages I disliked were the interactions with White people in the novel-because it seemed to ruin the beauty of the novel's story of the Cherokee-the passages I liked most lie in the deep, natural, transcendental moments. These moments were, by far, the most emotional. Combined with the politically rousing moments, the book finds the perfect balance to appease all topical aspects of modern Native American culture.

Towards the end of the novel, when Little Tree is taken from and returns to his grandparents, and the natural world he knows so well, I had to stop often to let my emotions settle so that when I finished the novel, it didn't look like I had been reading in the middle of a thunderstorm. A most notable passage is when Little Tree returns from the seemingly ridiculous, corrupt world of the orphanage to his well-known, loving world of nature: "I was washed clean by the feeling song of the wind and the trees and the spring branch and the birds. They didn't care or understand how the body minds worked, no more than the men of body minds understood or cared for them. So they did not tell me about hell, or ask me where I come from, or say anything about evil atall. They didn't know such word-feelings; and in a little while I had forgot them too" (p. 203). This love of nature seems central to Native American culture, and for whatever reason, the White race has equated this with laziness and indifference. The novel successfully dispels these stereotypes, and thus should be read by anyone who does not wish to be ignorant and apathetic when it comes to cultural awareness. The Education of Little Tree teaches its readers to cherish Native American culture, treat Native Americans like any other human being, and take action to battle the death of Native American culture, and as well, the death of all disappearing cultures in the face of White American oppression.

References

Carter, F. (1985). The Education of Little Tree. University of New Mexico Press.