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

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Colonization and the Wampanoag Story is a 2023 history book for middle school readers about the tribe's first encounters with English settlers. In the early 17th century, European contact set off years of destruction for the Wampanoag Nation, including a disease that killed an estimated two-thirds of the population. Earlier this year, the nonfiction work was recategorized as fiction at a library in Montgomery, Texas, following complaints by an anonymous cardholder. But last month, a judge ruled that the book must be returned to the library's nonfiction section. In today's episode, Linda Coombs, Wampanoag historian and author, joins Here & Now's Robin Young to speak about how the recategorization of her book fits into the history of her tribe's erasure.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. We hear a lot about book bans, right?
0:08.1	Counties or school districts, removing books from library shelves, that sort of thing. But here's a story
0:14.0	about a book that wasn't banned per se, but recategorized. Linda Coombs' book,
0:19.2	Colonization and the Wampanoag story, is a middle school
0:22.1	history book about a Native American tribe that's based up north in the Massachusetts area. And yet,
0:28.5	over in a Texas library, it was moved from the nonfiction section to the fiction section.
0:34.8	That decision was overturned by a judge and the book is now back
0:37.7	in the nonfiction section. Coombe spoke with here and now is Robin Young a few weeks back
0:41.9	just before Thanksgiving about the incident and its place in the history of erasure and colonization.
0:48.6	That's coming up. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:55.0	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:59.5	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:01.6	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:05.3	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:09.2	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your
1:12.5	podcasts. And this day before Thanksgiving, it's worth noting that this month, the Herring
1:18.7	Pond branch of the Wampanoic tribe in Massachusetts, joined other indigenous peoples and receiving
1:23.8	formal state recognition, giving them access to grants and a bigger voice.
1:28.6	They hoped to also get federal recognition, which two other tribes in Massachusetts already have.
1:33.9	But it was the Wampanoag who first encountered the pilgrims when they arrived in 1620
1:38.6	and are credited with teaching the pilgrims the skills to survive, signing a treaty with them in 1621, the first
1:45.8	between a Native American tribe and the English settlers. And then came war, disease. It was the
	...

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