Author of Wampanoag history discussed her children's book and erasure

Summary

NPR's Book of the Day: Detailed Summary

Episode Title: Author of Wampanoag History Discussed Her Children's Book and Erasure
Release Date: December 10, 2024
Host: Andrew Limbong & Robin Young
Guest: Linda Coombs, Author of Colonization and the Wampanoag Story
Podcast Series: Race to the Truth of Middle School Chapter Books on North American History
Publisher: Penguin Random House

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Introduction

In this episode of NPR's Book of the Day, host Robin Young converses with Linda Coombs, a seasoned author and Wampanoag historian. The discussion centers around Coombs' recently published middle school history book, Colonization and the Wampanoag Story, and the controversies it has sparked, particularly its brief removal from the nonfiction section in a Texas library. The conversation delves into themes of historical erasure, colonialism, and the importance of accurate representation in educational materials.

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Context: Book Recategorization Incident

The episode opens with Andrew Limbong introducing a troubling incident where Coombs' book was not outright banned but was recategorized from the nonfiction to the fiction section in a Texas library. This decision was overturned by a judge, restoring the book to its original classification.

Andrew Limbong [00:02]: "But here's a story about a book that wasn't banned per se, but recategorized."

This action by a five-person county review committee in Montgomery County, Texas, followed a complaint from an anonymous library cardholder. The episode highlights the significance of this decision in the broader context of book censorship and historical revisionism.

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Author's Perspective and Book Content

Robin Young introduces Linda Coombs, praising her for her work and probing into her feelings about the book's temporary reclassification.

Robin Young [03:18]: "I would say congratulations, I guess, but how do you feel about just this latest move that your book, which is history."

Coombs expresses her initial surprise upon discovering the recategorization and shares her dismay at the perceived entitlement behind such decisions.

Linda Coombs [03:42]: "I kind of found out that this had happened by the back door... what was more shocking to me was just the entitlement that people felt that they could make such a decision."

She elaborates on the intent behind her book, aiming to provide an authentic portrayal of Wampanoag history and culture, something she felt was lacking in existing literature. Coombs meticulously details the devastating impact of European colonization, including the introduction of diseases that decimated the Wampanoag population.

Linda Coombs [07:09]: "In my book I discuss a formula because I've always heard it was 75 to 90% death rate from that 1616 plague."

Her narrative includes both historical facts and a fictionalized account of a young Wampanoag girl named Little Bird, designed to give middle school readers a personal connection to the tribe's history and traditions.

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Support and Reactions

The episode highlights the widespread support Coombs received following the controversy. Organizations like the Texas Freedom to Read Project, Authors Against Book Bans, and the American Indian Library Association publicly defended her work, condemning the recategorization as an attempt to censor history.

Robin Young [07:09]: "A lot of people came to your book's defense. The Texas Freedom to Read Project... Author Theresa Kenney... wrote a Call to action."

Coombs expresses her gratitude for the national and international support, emphasizing the collective effort to uphold historical truth and the importance of educating future generations accurately.

Linda Coombs [08:30]: "I was just overwhelmed by the people that came out nationwide... Anybody and everybody who came out to defend this book. That was just an amazing gesture."

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Broader Themes: Erasure and Colonization

The conversation extends beyond the specific incident to discuss the broader issues of erasure and colonization. Coombs connects historical events, such as epidemics that wiped out significant portions of the Wampanoag population, to ongoing acts of cultural and historical erasure.

Robin Young [09:10]: "A Massachusetts museum educator noted the irony that a book about people whose history is being delegitimized and erased."

Coombs articulates how colonization employs various tools, including disease and cultural suppression, to dominate indigenous populations. She underscores the enduring impact of these actions on language, traditions, and the very identity of Native American communities.

Linda Coombs [09:55]: "Colonization is far more than just disease. Disease is one weapon that is a tool of colonization."

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Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, Robin Young reflects on the significance of the recategorization incident coinciding with Thanksgiving—a day that holds deep historical resonance for the Wampanoag people, symbolizing both cooperation and subsequent suffering.

Robin Young [10:32]: "This day for you, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning."

Coombs' story serves as a poignant reminder of the fragile nature of historical truth in educational contexts and the ongoing struggle to preserve and honor indigenous histories. Her book's reinstatement in the nonfiction section stands as a victory against erasure and a testament to the power of community support in defending accurate representation.

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Additional Information

Linda Coombs' Colonization and the Wampanoag Story is part of a five-book series by Penguin Random House titled Race to the Truth of Middle School Chapter Books on North American History. The series is notable for being written by the communities and individuals whose histories are being portrayed, ensuring authenticity and respect in storytelling.

For more information on the series, listeners are directed to herenow.org.

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Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Limbong [00:02]: "But here's a story about a book that wasn't banned per se, but recategorized."
• Linda Coombs [03:42]: "What was more shocking to me was just the entitlement that people felt that they could make such a decision."
• Linda Coombs [07:09]: "In my book I discuss a formula because I've always heard it was 75 to 90% death rate from that 1616 plague."
• Linda Coombs [08:30]: "Anybody and everybody who came out to defend this book. That was just an amazing gesture."
• Robin Young [09:10]: "A Massachusetts museum educator noted the irony that a book about people whose history is being delegitimized and erased."
• Linda Coombs [09:55]: "Colonization is far more than just disease. Disease is one weapon that is a tool of colonization."
• Robin Young [10:32]: "This day for you, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning."

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This episode serves as a crucial conversation on the intersection of education, history, and cultural preservation, highlighting the importance of supporting truthful narratives in shaping informed and empathetic future generations.

Transcript

[Andrew Limbong]

Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. We hear a lot about book bans, right? Counties or school districts removing books from library shelves, that sort of thing. But here's a story about a book that wasn't banned per se, but recategorized. Linda Coombs Book Colonization and the Wampanoag Story is a middle school history book about a Native American tribe that's based up north in the Massachusetts area and yet over in a Texas library. It was moved from the nonfiction section to the fiction section. That decision was overturned by a judge and the book is now back in the nonfiction section. Coombs spoke with Here and Now's Robin Young a few weeks back, just before Thanksgiving, about the incident and its place in the history of erasure and colonization. That's coming up.

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[Robin Young]

And this day before Thanksgiving, it's worth noting that this month the Herring Pond branch of the Wampanoag tribe in Massachusetts joined other Indigenous peoples in receiving formal state recognition, giving them access to grants and a bigger voice. They hoped to also get federal recognition, which two other tribes in Massachusetts already have. But it was the Wampanoag who first encountered the Pilgrims when they arrived in 1620, and are credited with teaching the Pilgrims the skills to survive, signing a treaty with them in 1621, first between a native American tribe and the English settlers. And then came War Disease. It was the Wampanoag struggling to survive. Their story is told in Wampanoag Author Linda Coombs, 2023 Middle school history book Colonization and The Wampanoag Story, part of a Penguin Random House series. And not her first history book or book for young readers, but the first that was moved to the fiction section in March. A citizens panel in Montgomery County, Texas, voted to do so following a complain by an anonymous library card holder. And now a Texas judge has ruled it has to be put back to its rightful place as nonfiction. Well, in addition to Linda Coombs writing, she has spent decades helping Massachusetts museums showcase Native American history. And she joins us now. Linda, welcome.

[Linda Coombs]

Thank you for having me.

[Robin Young]

And I would say congratulations, I guess, but how do you feel about just this latest move that your book, which is history. I'm looking at the files about what happened, for instance, in 1616. Yellow fever, killing two thirds of the Wampanoag, brought by European traders. This is truth. And a judge has agreed to it.

[Linda Coombs]

Yeah, I kind of found out that this had happened by the back door, if you will. And it took a few emails from various people for me to, you know, realize what had actually happened. And I wasn't shocked that this happened to my book because we contend with some form of erasure every day, you know, whether it's through what people know historically or, you know, an attitude that has come forward into the present time. But what was more shocking to me was just the, the entitlement that people felt that they could make such a decision.

[Robin Young]

Well, and we should flesh that out a little bit. This is A five person county review committee was appointed to privately review children's books in Montgomery County. Librarians are not a part of this process. This county review committee had total oversight over books that were challenged. That's changed. Commissioners are now putting the committee on hold. But tell us a little more about this book and the story you were trying to tell.

[Linda Coombs]

Well, I was asked to write a book about racism against Native Americans for middle school age children. And that was rather a broad topic for me to speak about that generally, you know, on a nationwide level, because my entire museum career has been focused on Wampanoag and southern New England, you know, through, through all of the different institutions that I've worked in and whatnot. So they finally said, well, write about what you know. And that's what I did. So I wrote about the history and starting in the 15th century with the doctrine of discovery, because that is what opened up the age of exploration or set it up. And people from Europe started venturing out and going to other continents and other countries to create colonies. Those are money making ventures. And they were to help the country. They were sailing for to build empire, which is again, about money. So I said, well, I'll just write about the history because when you go to colonize someone, it's all about racism. The idea is to dominate those people so that you can take their land or whatever resources are on the land. And that fits the definition of racism to a T. I also created a story to describe what our traditional life was like prior to any European contact. And there's nothing out there that documents this. There's a number of authors who have written about what our life may have been like, but I. I am not satisfied with their representation because I find it either wrong or completely offensive or racist itself or, you know, what have you. So I created a story. The main character is a little 12 year old girl named Little Bird. And it's about her family, her extended family, with all of her cousins and aunties and uncles and grandparents. And it begins in the spring and goes through. It's like a year in the life of these families.

[Robin Young]

Yeah, it's how the tribes tended to, you know, agriculture. They grew prepared for the seasons, you know, had traditions. And that also brings us to, as we said, the epidemics. Europeans who carried disease to the Wampanoag nation. And again, I'm reading in government statistics that an estimated 45,000 2/3 of your nation died.

[Linda Coombs]

Yeah. In my book I discuss a formula because I've always heard it was 75 to 90% death rate from that 1616 plague. So I used a figure of 80%, sort of in the middle there, between 75 and 90. And in our entire nation, we had 69 villages. And we estimate that there were an average of a thousand people per village. So that brings it up to 70,000 people. And if you wipe away 80, that's like a loss of 56,000 people.

[Robin Young]

Look, these are seventh graders. This is history. This is truth. We know that these epidemics and plagues are truth. They're part of our history. A lot of people came to your book's defense. The Texas Freedom to Read Project. Authors Against Book Bans. The American Indian Library association sent an open letter to the committee calling the decision to move your book to fiction a naked ploy to censor history. Our children learn to. Theresa Kenney, I'm reading and reporting. She owns the Village Books in the Woodlands. It's a suburb in Montgomery County. Wrote a Call to action. I suppose that felt supportive.

[Linda Coombs]

That was amazing. I was just overwhelmed by the people that came out nationwide. I mean, I never did get to speak with them because the Whole situation got resolved. But even folks from the BBC reached out to talk to me about it. And I'm, you know, like to publicly thank people, anybody and everybody who came out to defend this book. That was just an amazing gesture to do so, not just for me, but for, you know, history in general and children and the future of America, all of it, because I did write it as truthfully as I could.

[Robin Young]

Well, one Massachusetts museum educator noted the irony that a book about people whose history is being delegitimized and erased, the book itself, the telling of the story was being delegitimized and erased. And again, to how much an epidemic erases a people. You know, the loss of elders, as the US Government notes, endangered the language, which endangered the ability of children to carry it on. I mean, it is epidemic is erasure. Book banning is erasure, or calling truth fiction is erasure. And this day for you, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning. And in ways we can see why.

[Linda Coombs]

Yeah, the day of mourning has been. Over the years, we've had indigenous people, literally from the North Pole to the South Pole come as speakers to talk about what are the same issues of colonization, which colonization, you know, is far more than just disease. Disease is one weapon that is a tool of colonization. But there were so many others and I do discuss that in my book, at least in terms of Wampanoag people or southern New England. But the elements of colonization were used across the country. Anywhere there's indigenous people.

[Robin Young]

Well, what do we wish you? What do we wish you on Thanksgiving?

[Linda Coombs]

I don't know. I don't know how to answer that.

[Robin Young]

Yeah, not happy, that's for sure. Well, Wampanoag historian, author Linda Coombs, whose history book Colonization and the Wampanoag Story for seventh Graders is now back in the nonfiction section of the Montgomery County Library in Texas after being moved to the fiction section when some anonymous card holder complained. We are grateful for you for that and thank you for talking to us today.

[Linda Coombs]

Thank you for having me.

[Robin Young]

And by the way, her book is part of the Penguin Random House 5 part series race to the Truth of Middle School chapter books on North American history written by the people they are about. For more go to herenow.org.

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