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Ahearn: An education from 'Little Tree'

By Lorraine Ahearn
Staff Writer
Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007 3:00 am

From now on, I've decided to get all my news from around the pool.

Take, for instance, a story in this space two Sundays back about the
seventh-grade summer reading list at Kernodle Middle School. The list
included "The Education of Little Tree," first published as a "true story"
by a Cherokee orphan but, in fact, penned by a white supremacist who was
Alabama Gov. George Wallace's speechwriter.

That was news to the Kernodle administrators who met with Guilford Native
American members Monday. But to a Kernodle eighth-grader I bumped into at a
pool party this past weekend, it was old hat.

"Yeah, we had to read that last year," the student said. "But didn't
(author Forrest, aka Asa, Carter) turn out to be some Klan guy?"

Indeed he did — a co-founder of the KKK of the Confederacy, whose outing
two years before his death in 1979 makes the uproar over "A Million Little
Pieces" look like child's play.

And though there's no statute of limitations on literary hoaxes, some
readers argue there should be.

Librarians and literary scholars alike say they enjoyed the colorful,
picaresque storytelling in "Little Tree," which has sold a million copies
since its 1976 release and won an American Booksellers ABBY award. Some
people still like the book, regardless of the author being an impostor with
a checkered past.

"Having been a fan of his (as a writer) for many years, and having heard
this same old drivel about his private life (which was reprehensible in
many ways), it amazes me that people focusing on this are missing the
POINT!" Asheboro reader Lane Batot wrote.

"The POINT is that 'Little Tree' is a beautifully written book chock full
of positive values, and although it may not have been a 'true' story, it
was full of truths, and obviously the author had some experience with the
times and an understanding of that, and expressed it beautifully."

Not everyone agrees. Some Native Americans, particularly Cherokees, raise
problems with the book itself, pointing out inaccurate portrayals of
Cherokee language and culture, and a survival-of-the-fittest mind-set that
borders uncomfortably on fascism.

Joe Benson, a professor emeritus of English at N.C. A&T, last year taught a
group of honors students who wrote about the consequences of the book he
calls "Little Fraud."

"When several educators, administrators, and readers were interviewed by
the students and informed of the duplicity," Benson wrote, "no one cared."

The Lumbee chairwoman of the State Advisory Council on Indian Education,
Louise Maynor, called the book's selection "insensitive," and urged parents
to consider the messages kids get about Indian culture.

Although Kernodle principal Charles Burns said the title was on a National
Middle School Association list, that group's executive director, Betty
Edwards, said Tuesday the organization has no such list.

"We haven't recommended that book," she said. "We should not have been
brought into the discussion."

Jennifer Revels, a Lumbee parent who complained about the book, said
Guilford Native American Association has long provided readings and
speakers to schools.

Too often, she observed, schools teach about Native Americans only as
history.

"Here we have the seventh largest tribe in the country as close as it's
ever been to federal recognition," Revels said of the Lumbee, "and you're
not going to find that in a textbook. But they have a responsibility to
teach it as current events."

Revels asked Kernodle to host a schoolwide program during November, Native
American Heritage month. In the meantime, Guilford Native has invited the
public to its 2007 powwow, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sept. 15 at Country Park.

Contact Lorraine Ahearn at 373-7334 or lahearn@...