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To: Texas Montgomery Library Services

Save Indigenous History

A Texas county has mandated public libraries move a well-regarded children's book documenting the mistreatment of Native Americans in New England — Colonization and the Wampanoag Story — from the "non-fiction" section to "fiction." The decision was made after the government of Montgomery County, under pressure from right-wing activists, removed librarians from the process of reviewing children's books and replaced them with a "Citizens Review Committee." Colonization and the Wampanoag Story was "challenged" by an unknown person on September 10, 2024. The Committee responded by ordering that the book be moved to the fiction section of public libraries in Montgomery County by October 17, 2024, according to public records obtained by the Texas Freedom To Read Project shared with Popular Information.

The author of Colonization and the Wampanoag Story is Linda Coombs, a "historian from the Wampanoag Tribe." Coombs spent three decades working at the Wampanoag Indigenous Program, an initiative to preserve the history of the Wampanoag people. The book is published by Penguin Random House, which describes the book as "the true story of the Indigenous Nations of the American Northeast, including the Wampanoag nation and others, and their history up to present day."

Colonization and the Wampanoag Story tells the real story of the brutalization of the Wampanoag people by European settlers. An excerpt:

Certain ship captain began kidnapping Wampanoag men and those of other tribal nations along the coast. Sailors invited them aboard their ships under the pretense of trading, then lifted anchor and sailed away. The men were prisoners, stolen from their families and homes. 

They were taken to England and Spain to be sold into slavery and paraded through the streets as "novelties," something for the people of Europe to gawk at as curiosities — not as human beings. Imagine how these men must of felt when they realized their situation: they would never see their children, parents, wives, relatives or communities and homelands again. What a terrible shock for all their families when they realized their men were gone — just disappeared forever. 

This is fact, not fiction. Please join us in letting Montgomery County in Texas know history told in the voice of Indigenous people should never be censored. 

Why is this important?

For too long, the voices of Indigenous people have been pushed to the margins of history books and distorted into harmful stereotypes. This book finally allows history to be told to our children and families across the Country with balance and perspective that can only come from the very people who derive from it. History should never be censored and certainly never reclassified as fiction. When we understand our past and can tell it with a fair and open mind, we become more compassionate and free to move forward in a better way. 

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Updates

2024-10-23 16:48:52 -0400

We are glad to report that the County in Texas has reversed its decision and this important educational resource has been moved back to the library's nonfiction section. We still have work to do to find balance in how Native Americans are portrayed, but today is a win for truth. Thank you for standing with me on this important issue.

2024-10-23 13:48:25 -0400

1,000 signatures reached

2024-10-23 13:28:34 -0400

500 signatures reached

2024-10-23 13:14:04 -0400

100 signatures reached

2024-10-17 15:50:05 -0400

50 signatures reached

2024-10-17 00:22:46 -0400

25 signatures reached

2024-10-16 13:36:17 -0400

10 signatures reached