Dancing with the Indians

by Angela Shelf Medearis, Samuel Byrd (Illustrator)

A black family attends a Seminole celebration and participates.

Genres: Picture Books, Native American, Historical Fiction, Childrens, African American, Realistic Fiction, Cultural

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Hailey Forbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: poetry
Reading Level: elementary

This books is about visiting the Indians so I️t give some information on how their life was. Medearis adds rhyming and poetry to the story to draw the reader in. I thought I️t was very interesting and for young students I️t would be a good read.

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet story combining a runaway slave who was helped by a tribe. Generations through the years return to be part of the Pow Wow

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hard day's work continues into a night dancing with Indians.

[Morgan Dugas]

M

[Colin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dancing with the Indians is a rhyming book that tells the story of a escaped slave that is recused by Native Americans of the Seminols from Oklahoma. This is a book of Historical fiction, but not a great one. It is very weak if we were to evaluate it using the guide provided. I would not use this in a classroom. A lot of sterotypes are portrayed of which I just get a negative feeling about. The book does not give any facts on slavery even though it is about the life of an escaped slave. The book does have some fact about Native Americans, but it could use some improvement on the presentation. The book does model a lot of descriptive writing. "Warriors' moccasined feet make rumbling, thundering sounds, wheeling, whopping, whirling, stomping on the ground" is just one example of this writing, and there are pages in this book with far better descriptive writing one them. It's a catch 22 for using this book in the classroom, yes the language used in this book is excellent, but the context of how it is used not so great.

At the end of the book the author explains how this is the story of his Great Grandfather ran away from slavery, was rescued by the Native tribe, and how he lived amongst them. The author also gives factual information on this page about Native Americans in Oklahoma.

[Isabel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the concept of this book. I thought that introducing the relationship between Indians and slaves was an great idea to share with children. It is a great way to explain the importance and blending of various cultures that makes Americans what they are today. However, for a children's book, I thought the time shift was unclear. The story is told by a young girl in the 20's (?) reflecting on her great grandfather's life in the 1860's. This bit was lost on my 7 year old when she read it.

The illustrations represented the Seminole clothing as beautiful and colorful. There was enough detail to guess at what materials the Seminole used to make their costumes, too. By contrast, the narrator is very bland and her outfit is nondescript. Not sure if that was intentional, but it sort of detracted from the sense of identity of the black family that went to see the Rainbow dance. I think the story might have been better with a bit more detail about the narrator's life--not so much as to distract, but enough to convey that both cultures had something of value in them.

[Hakeem Bashir]

“A young girl in the 1930s joined her family on an outing to a Native American pow-wow. They plan to dance with the Seminoles whose ancestors rescued Grandpa from slavery and accepted him as their brother”.

The Seminoles Indians removed from their land in Florida and were forced to settle in Oklahoma. A black boy who was sold into slavery escaped the plantation and was accepted by this tribe as a blood brother. He grew up in this tribe and married with one child. Eventually, he moved from the reservation to Oklahoma City where he remarried to black woman and had nine children.
The annual week long pow-wow of this tribe is the focus of the story. In this pow-wow celebration, members of the black man family attend the honor their generosity and share their culture as well

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A family of a former slave visits with the Native Americans who he found refuge with after running away from the plantation. It's interesting to see the mingling of the cultures of two exploited peoples.

The story is told in a rhyming scheme, accompanied by lovely watercolor illustrations. Be sure to read the author's note in the back which tell of the inspiration for the story.

[Jill Wolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Multicultural #2
This book is about a family visiting the Indians because they took their grandfather in, as he was a Seminole. They are at first shocked by the traditions the Indians have. Once the Indians invite them to to their dances and traditions, the family realizes how much they enjoy their entertainment and life style.

[Natalie Hoist · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It tells the story about a young black girl and the history of where she and her family members came from. It would be a great book to have in your classroom, to add some diversity. I would highly recommend this book in an elementary classroom, and you could do a diversity lesson as a follow-up.

[Kelly Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book about the grandchildren of a run away American slave who sought refuge with American Indians. The Grandchildren go and spend a night dancing with the Indians who saved their grandfather. Awkward rhyming.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young African-American girl travels with her family to dance with the Seminole Indians. The tradition honors the Seminole people who rescued her grandpa during slavery and a friendship developed.

[Elizabeth]

I was really excited by the idea of a story about mixed Native American and African American heritage (because there's a lot of that, but we don't think about it much) but the rhyming nature of this text felt kinda forced to me, and aside from a few lines at the beginning about how the narrator's grandfather lived with Indians "because slavery was wrong," it's mostly just a descriptive litany of a variety of dances at this pow wow -- which is fine, I guess, but I was hoping for more from this story.