'Like a living scrapbook': 'My Powerful Hair' is a celebration of Native culture
Carole Lindstrom's new book My Powerful Hair features illustrations by Steph Littlebird.
My Powerful Hair
is a new picture book that turns a painful truth about racism into a celebration of Native culture.
When Carole Lindstrom was a little girl growing up in Bellevue, Nebraska, she
really
wanted long hair. She would put the blanket she had as a baby on her head and, "pretend I had long hair, you know, swing it around," she laughs.
/ Abrams Books
/
Abrams Books
With illustrations by Steph Littlebird, author Carole Lindstrom's new children's book celebrates the significance of hair for Native Americans.
She couldn't understand why her mother wouldn't let her. "Every time it got a little bit long, she said, 'We have to cut it. It's too wild,'" Lindstrom remembers.
She says her mother didn't seem to have a good explanation. One clue was a black and white photograph that sat on top of the TV set a picture of her grandmother and two great aunts. "They were wearing these white smocks and their hair was just really chopped short and they had bangs. They just didn't look right," says Lindstrom. "And I remember asking my mom about that picture...and my mom didn't really know much about it other than to say, 'Well, that was when grandma and your great aunts were sent to boarding school. Indian boarding school.'"
A brutal effort to erase Native culture
At Indian boarding schools, children were forbidden to speak their Native languages and forced to cut their hair, among other indignities.
As an adult, Lindstrom set out to find out more about her culture and learned the truth about hair. "The hair is such a big part of who we are and our identity," she says, "It's like a living scrapbook."
In
, a little girl relates the events of her life with the length of her hair.
/ Courtesy of Carole Lindstrom
/
Courtesy of Carole Lindstrom
Native American children were sent to boarding schools where they were forced to cut their hair. "The intention," says author Carole Lindstrom, was "to forget who you were and where you came from."
"When my baby brother was born, my hair touched my shoulders. The gift of welcoming him into the world is woven into my hair," Lindstrom writes.
Lindstrom is Anishinaabe/Mtis and an enrolled citizen of of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe.
Ten year old Talon Jerome, who lives on the Turtle Mountain Reservation, identifies with her new book. "Our hair is the source of our strength and power and memories," he says.
Talon and his mother, Cherona Jerome, are members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. Cherona teaches at Talon's school. She says books like
My Powerful Hair
are important for her students to read
.
"It's a beautifully written story and very relatable to our own experiences," Jerome says. "My mother was a boarding school survivor and I do recall pictures of her also with very, very short hair. Her and some of my aunts who went to boarding school also."
In the story, the young girl cuts her hair when her grandfather (Nimishoomis) dies. "I sent it into the spirit world with him so that he could have my energies," she says.
"[This] kind of brought back some memories of my grandmother's passing," says Jerome. "I also cut my hair...and it went with her in the grave. It's just a sign of mourning for us."
/ Abrams Books
/
Abrams Books
The girls Carole Lindstrom saw in books growing up were blonde with light skin. "I just didn't know where my people were," says the author. Her book My Powerful Hair features illustrations by Steph Littlebird.
Bringing more diverse books to readers
Jerome also relates to Lindstrom's desire to teach children Native traditions. She says the hard truth is that her mother and grandparents' were taught to be, "ashamed of their culture. They they weren't allowed to be proud of it." She continues, "We're the generation that's teaching them our culture again."
/ Courtesy of Cherona Jerome
Wednesday, March 22, 2023 at 9:13 am