A Texas county commission ordered that a book about the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), written by Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal member and historian Linda Coombs, be moved back to the non-fiction section after outcry from authors, publishers and advocacy groups.
The book, Colonization and the Wampanoag Story, was published in 2023 to teach children about the colonization of the U.S. through the eyes of the Wampanoag people. In September, a Montgomery County commission appointed “citizens review committee” re-classified Ms. Coombs’ book to fiction after an unnamed resident challenged the book’s accuracy.
The classification change became public in mid-October after a records request by the Texas Freedom to Read Project, an organization that advocates for the right to read freely.
At a Montgomery county commissioners court meeting on Oct. 22, Montgomery County Judge, Mark J. Keough ordered that the book be moved back to the non-fiction section and the committee be suspended until a revised policy is in place.
“[The book] needs to go back,” said commissoner James Noack. “And just for the record, there should be no confusion, something is either true or it’s not true.”
Ms. Coombs credits the many organizations and advocates that spoke-out against the committee for the reversal. While she’s happy her book was put back on the non-fiction shelf, she said it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Ms. Coombs has been a historian for nearly 50 years. In that time, she has worked as the program director of the Aquinnah Cultural Center, associate director at the Wampanoag Indigenous Program of Plimouth Plantation and at the Native American Program at the Boston Children’s Museum.
She said the actions in Montgomery County reflect a long-standing history in the American education system where Indigenous peoples are mythologized. But it’s an indisputable fact that Native land, cultures and lives were violently taken by colonizers, she said.
Alterations to history and misrepresentations of Indigenous folks are an attempt to make America appear “shiny, sparkly and wonderful,” according to Ms. Coombs.
“People were asking me if I was shocked by the decision that someone would say [my book] was fiction,” she said. “My response is ‘No, I’m not shocked at all’ because in the field that I’ve worked in… I’ve heard that concept for 50 years. I’ve just never experienced it on a personal level with something that I did.”
The book is the first in Penguin Random House’s “Race to the Truth” series, which are written for young readers to show the non-white, and non-European, perspective of United States history, said Kelly Delaney, senior editor at Brown Books for young readers who works directly with Ms. Coombs. The series is a partnership between Penguin Random House and an organization called Race to Dinner, which advocates for anti-racism in books and movies.
There are eight books in the series, four of which have not been published yet. Others detail the history of slavery from the perspective of an African American woman, the history of Chinese-American immigration, and Mexican-Americans whose culture and practices were on the land long before there were borders. Ms. Delaney said they have not heard of any other instances of reclassification for the series.
Ms. Delaney said there’s no debate about the integrity of Ms. Coombs’ book. She noted that Ms. Coombs has a deep knowledge of Wampanoag history and that the book went through routine fact-checking before it was published.
“Linda is a historian herself, and that’s why we hired her in the first place,” Ms. Delaney said. “She comes with this deep knowledge – that’s her career work – and then our process is to have copy editors review everything and review her sources, too.”
Penguin Random House partnered with various advocacy groups and Pen America to publish a letter on Oct. 17, calling on the county to reverse its decision saying the reclassification “diminishes the legitimacy of Coombs’s perspective as a member of the Wampanoag Tribe and Indigenous educators who recommend its use.”
When the decision was reversed, the groups published an updated letter stating that the actions were “a mistake from the outset” and that they’re “relieved” the book was moved back to the non-fiction section. The letter warned that “this case demonstrates the danger [of] political appointees [ignoring] the expertise of librarians and any care for authors in exerting ideological control over the freedom to read.”
Maya Livingstone, the director of brand communications at Penguin Random House, said that re-classification of non-fiction books is harmful because it undermines the legitimacy of Indigenous histories.
“Our mission is really to create books for everyone, and we want everyone to be able to see themselves in books,” Ms. Livingstone said. “These efforts of book banning and this particular one of reclassifying, goes against everything that we stand for and we believe in as publishers.”
Ms. Delaney echoed Ms. Livingstone’s concern and warned that re-classification of these important histories could become more frequent.
“[The committee] was exploiting a loophole that I think we might see more of,” Ms. Delaney said.
She also warned that book-banning, while a national concern, often happens at a local level. However, just as these injustices happen at a local level, so can positive change.
“There was one person who made a complaint about this, and they had this impact of potentially getting the book moved,” Ms. Delaney said. “[Everyone] is also empowered to impact change… whether it’s investigating what’s happening in their own community, or just requesting the book be carried in their own library if it’s not already.”
Ms Coombs said she’s gotten support from the Island community in the wake of the reclassification. However, she said the whole ordeal has shown how deep ignorance runs throughout the country and there is still much work to be done.
“Hopefully this whole experience will open people’s eyes,” Ms. Coombs said. “This history needs to be told.”
This post was originally published on here
