Doris Seale

Doris Seale (born Doris Marion Seale; July 10, 1936 – February 17, 2017) was a Santee Dakota, Abenaki and Cree librarian, poet, writer, and educator. She worked as a librarian for 45 years.^[1][2] She has written about Native Americans sending positive messages to children. Her work has helped to educate teachers about the truth about Native American people and cultures. She was a co-founder of Oyate, an advocacy and education organization which reviews children's literature to ensure it treats Native Americans with "historical accuracy, cultural appropriateness and without anti-Indian bias and stereotypes".^[3]

She wrote poetry and non-fiction that focused on these themes. Her last published work, A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children, dealt with issues of cultural appropriation. It included a chapter on deconstructing the myths perpetuated about the first Thanksgiving, helping educators create more culturally appropriate activities for the holiday.^[4] Her activism extended into other areas of her work. When she received the ALA Equity Award in 2001, the ceremony was being held at the Marriott Hotel in San Francisco, a hotel that was in a labor dispute with its workers. Seale joined that picket line rather than go inside to accept her award.^[5]

Awards

• 2001 American Library Association Equality Award^[6]
• 2006
  American Book Award

Works

Poetry

• Blood Salt. American Native Press Archives. 1989.
• Ghost dance: new and selected poems. Oyate. 2000.
  ISBN 978-0-9625175-8-7
  .

• Caucasian Americans: Basic Skills Workbook. Berkeley, CA: Oyate. 1994.
• How to Tell the Difference: A Checklist for Evaluating Children's Books for Anti-Indian Bias. New Society Publishers. 1992.
  ISBN 1-55092-163-0
  .
• Little Whitepeople. Berkeley, CA: Oyate. 1995.
• The Multicolored Mirror: Cultural Substance in Literature for Children and Young Adults. CCBC/Highsmith Press. 1991.
• Thanksgiving : a native perspective. Berkeley, CA: Oyate. 1998.
• Through Indian eyes : the native experience in books for children. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: New Society Publishers. 1992.

Editor

• Doris Seale; Beverly Slapin, eds. (2005). A broken flute: the Native experience in books for children. Rowman & Littlefield.
  ISBN 978-0-7591-0778-6
  .

External links

• "Doris Seale", Native American Authors Project
• "Resources for Teaching About Native Americans", Encyclopedia Smithsonian