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debreese's profile
Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)
Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)
Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)
@debreese

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Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)

@debreese

Tewa Name: P'oesay P'oekwîn Founder: American Indians in Children's Literature PhD Education; ALA's 2019 Arbuthnot Lecturer; she/her.

My homelands: Nambé Pueblo
…ricanindiansinchildrensliterature.net
Joined January 2009

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    1. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      In that prologue, "Koleili" is giving birth. "The People crouched outside the hut of woven mats, silent, expectant, for they felt the chill of magic in the air." My guess is that most ppl won't see "hut" or "crouched" or "magic" as problems.

      1 reply 15 retweets 211 likes
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    2. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      There's several midwives tending the birth, including "Kwiaha, who had the gift of siwan--the little magic." The word "siwan" is in italics. I guess we're supposed to think it is a Salish word. Is it? And if it is, does it mean magic?! I doubt it.

      2 replies 12 retweets 192 likes
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    3. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      The baby is born. The midwives usually splash a newborn with "sacred water to wake her sleeping, unborn soul." Hmm.... is that how Salish people think of infants in utero?

      1 reply 11 retweets 178 likes
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    4. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      Before they used that sacred water, however, this newborn opens her mouth and smokes come from it. The hut is filled with soft blue light. This newborn then turns on her stomach, lifts her head and looks at them with "eyes the color of an Island lake - clear, ageless, and wise."

      4 replies 10 retweets 165 likes
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    5. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      Outside that hut, "the sacred wolves" that are spirits of revered ancestors, make a circle and howl, thereby claiming "the girl child". Owls hoot. The newborn's mother hears the hoot and says her child will be a dreamer.

      3 replies 8 retweets 157 likes
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    6. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      Raven circles, and "Hawilquolas" (the man who would be father to the child) says "The child will be a Dancer." "Thunderbird moved through the heavens..." and Kwaiha (the siwan) says "The child will be a healer." The baby opens her mouth again but instead of a cry...

      1 reply 6 retweets 151 likes
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    7. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      ... her voice "flows like water, like the silvery music of the birds." She's "the Prophet" who would bring her people to thrive. The prologue ends with "So it was promised, so it had come to be."

      3 replies 7 retweets 155 likes
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    8. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      I'm sighing and full of questions as I read this prologue.

      3 replies 7 retweets 200 likes
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    9. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      The book I'm tweeting about (SING TO ME OF DREAMS), by the way, is by Kathryn Lynn Davis, a writer who filed a complaint about Courtney Milan. You can read the complaint here:https://www.docdroid.net/uMizS30/kathryn-lynn-davis-formal-rwa-complaint.pdf#page=10 …

      6 replies 24 retweets 230 likes
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    10. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      Davis's complaint, and another one from Suzan Tisdale led the RWA's Ethics Committee to take action against Courtney. Over at @SmartBitches, there are links to the docs. https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2019/12/wtaf-rwa-courtney-milan-banned-suspended-from-rwa/ …

      2 replies 19 retweets 200 likes
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      Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

      There's people in RWA characterizing Courtney and others who publicly critique books as a "mob." That kind of characterization is said about me and others in kid/YA lit who do public critiques of books.

      5:27 AM - 25 Dec 2019
      • 27 Retweets
      • 305 Likes
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      3 replies 27 retweets 305 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo) Retweeted RWA

          RWA received enough pushback to their decision on Courtney, that they've rescinded it, "pending a legal opinion." https://twitter.com/romancewriters/status/1209632798832812034 … I'm taking a look at Davis's book because she and her bks mattered, somehow, to RWA.

          Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo) added,

          RWA @romancewriters
          At a meeting today that identified a gap between policy and process, RWA’s Board of Directors rescinded its vote accepting the findings of the Ethics Committee report and the consequent penalties against Courtney Milan pending a legal opinion. 1/2
          Show this thread
          2 replies 25 retweets 257 likes
          Show this thread
        3. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          I've now opened (in Amazon's look inside) Davis's second book in the Dream Suite. In the Acknowledgements she thanks Suzan Tisdale. She did that in the acknowledgement for the first book, too. I know not to read too much into Acknowledgements but... hmmm.

          1 reply 18 retweets 221 likes
          Show this thread
        4. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          In bk 2, WEAVE FOR ME A DREAM, the year is 1894. Place is Vancouver Island, British Columbia. No prologue in this one. Instead, there's "The Storyteller." She is "Old Grandmother" weaving at her ancient loom. Weaving stories. What I'm seeing in Davis's writing is stereotyping.

          2 replies 17 retweets 222 likes
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        5. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          I think it is accurate to say that she really likes Indians. That's why she wrote these two books in the 90s and reissued them in the 2010s as ebooks. But the "Indians" she likes/creates do not exist in real life. This is all romantic nonsense that is harmful to everyone.

          3 replies 39 retweets 356 likes
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        6. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          There is a defense of Davis over the bk Courtney critiqued, w/ people saying Davis wrote that bk in the 90s. Implied in that defense is that she wouldn't write it today. Implied is that she knows more today than she did then. Ppl are also saying "nobody said anything" (then).

          2 replies 14 retweets 174 likes
          Show this thread
        7. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          Those defensive arguments are put forth all the time, but they are not valid. Davis first published these Dream bks in the 90s and reissued them now, in the 2010s. I can't compare the two, but the ones available now are dreadful.

          1 reply 19 retweets 201 likes
          Show this thread
        8. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          And the "nobody said anything" defense is so weak! Maybe people didn't want to make Davis uncomfortable, so they didn't say, HEY THIS IS A MESS. They let her be. If they are friends of hers, they aren't very good friends. They've let her republish this deeply flawed series!

          5 replies 19 retweets 210 likes
          Show this thread
        9. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          If they are friends who did not see the problems, and are reading/learning in this thread, they better talk to her right away. AND they better speak up whenever they see an outsider trying to create characters like this.

          1 reply 9 retweets 167 likes
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        10. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          Just pause a minute and think about what writers who create historical fiction/romance are trying to do when they're not of the culture or nation that their story is about. They're leaping backwards in time but they're making other kinds of leaps, too. Language is one.

          2 replies 24 retweets 199 likes
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        11. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          As I read thru Davis's book, I see another italicized word. "Siem." Supposedly, it means "Head Man." What is Davis's source? I also see that she has created several characters whose names start with a K. Why?

          1 reply 10 retweets 144 likes
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        12. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          Another leap: from whatever Davis believes (spiritually or religiously), to what she *thinks* Salish ways are... And I wonder if Davis would call, for example, Christianity "magic" (in the bk, some of the characters have "magic").

          1 reply 13 retweets 150 likes
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        13. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          Circling back to the prologue. The baby born in the prologue is called Tanu. The Salish man named Hawilquolas... he's a man of status. He's that "Siem" I mentioned a couple of tweets back. His protection keeps Tanu and her mother from being despised because...

          1 reply 5 retweets 99 likes
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        14. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          "... Tanu had been illegitimate, the seed of a stranger. The People would have cast out Koleili and her baby." Is that accurate? Would Salish ppl of the 1860s do that? As before: what is the source for this information? I'm remembering Cassie Edwards defending her stories...

          2 replies 10 retweets 147 likes
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        15. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          So anyway, Tanu and her friend Kitkuni are bathing... ‘Our ancestors pounded their chests with flat stones to keep themselves from growing here.’ Kitkuni pointed at her swelling breasts. ‘Perhaps they were wiser than we.’ What is the source for THAT?!

          5 replies 13 retweets 170 likes
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        16. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          I'm not far into the book and it is more and more of this same kind of thing. I'm not tweeting every thing that makes me cringe. Some may think it is cruel to do that to Davis. The sympathy is for her rather than for readers who are misinformed by what she's written.

          1 reply 15 retweets 173 likes
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        17. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          Oh... now there's a "Trickster, and, a few pages later, a "shaman."

          1 reply 7 retweets 120 likes
          Show this thread
        18. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          Over and over there's evidence that this is a not-Salish person creating the words, thoughts, actions of what they think a Salish person would say/do ... and over and over, it is a mess. Now, Davis's character is calling the shaman's clothing a "sacred ceremonial costume."

          1 reply 10 retweets 149 likes
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        19. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          Tanu is also called "She Who Is Blessed." And... the people view her as their Queen. Much is made of her green eyes.

          1 reply 6 retweets 112 likes
          Show this thread
        20. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          Now, Tanu meets her real father. Nicolas. Things about her that are revered, she realizes, come not from her Salish mother, but from her French father.pic.twitter.com/RH0qX8Hz99

          3 replies 16 retweets 169 likes
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        21. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          I am gonna step away from this book. I may pick it up again later but what good would come of doing that?

          4 replies 6 retweets 114 likes
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        22. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          My larger point is that @romancewriters has at least one writer who is creating harmful content about Native peoples. I'm calling it out. When Courtney Milan called out that author for harmful content, complaints were filed. RWA's ethics cmte decided to censure Courtney Milan.

          2 replies 47 retweets 294 likes
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        23. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 25 Dec 2019

          RWA has some work to do. I'm not a member. If I was, I'd cancel my membership but I'd keep putting public pressure on them, calling for change. Substantial change.

          3 replies 19 retweets 231 likes
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        24. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 28 Dec 2019

          In her complaint, Kathryn Lynn Davis said that she lost the promise of a 3-book contract because of Courtney Milan's "cyber-bullying." If the 3-bks are like SING TO ME OF DREAMS, then I hope the contract was cancelled because whoever that contract was with said "never mind."

          1 reply 11 retweets 114 likes
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        25. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 28 Dec 2019

          In defense of Courtney's tweets about TOO DEEP FOR TEARS she said that if Courtney had read the whole book, she would see that her objections are wrong. I'm still rdg SING TO ME OF DREAMS to see if there's anything in here that tells me I'm wrong to object to ...

          1 reply 2 retweets 59 likes
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        26. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 28 Dec 2019

          ... that passage the Salish girl says about how their ancestors pounded their chests with stones to keep their breasts from growing:pic.twitter.com/6mt9SPCtoC

          Kitkuni smiled wistfully, wishing she could hold the nickname close, and so cling to her childhood for one more day. ‘Our ancestors pounded their chests with flat stones to keep themselves from growing here.’ Kitkuni pointed at her swelling breasts. ‘Perhaps they were wiser than we.’

Davis, Kathryn Lynn. Sing to Me of Dreams . Duncurra LLC. Kindle Edition.
          2 replies 2 retweets 50 likes
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        27. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 28 Dec 2019

          What I usually do in my critiques is to note a passage (like that one) and see if I can figure out what the author's source might be. It is important to know what sources are--and to say "don't use this" because of unreliable content in some sources. Esp ones about Native ppl.

          2 replies 4 retweets 69 likes
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        28. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 28 Dec 2019

          It is, in short, a service I provide to writers when I do critiques. I do that even when the content in a passage (like that one) is ridiculous because obviously, Davis thought it was legit, and all the ppl who read the bk and didn't say 'wait" to it think it is legit, too.

          1 reply 3 retweets 74 likes
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        29. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 28 Dec 2019

          All of this matters so much! Davis is serving as an editor. If your book has Native content--I hope this thread is telling you that she might not be equipped to help you. Actually, because she's an editor, I think I'm gonna ask her a question in my next tweet in this thread.

          1 reply 8 retweets 83 likes
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        30. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 28 Dec 2019

          Hey, @kathrynlyndavis: I'm trying to verify information in your bk, SING TO ME OF DREAMS. Can you tell me the source you used for that passage abt Salish ppl using stones to pound their chests?

          1 reply 12 retweets 93 likes
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        31. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo)‏ @debreese 28 Dec 2019

          And, @kathrynlyndavis, can you tell me the source you used for the words you present as being Salish words?

          1 reply 8 retweets 79 likes
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