The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

ISBN-10: 0812412818  

ISBN-13: 9780812412819

Publisher: Perfection Learning

I picked this up in a thrift store, remembering how some of my peers in elementary school had been assigned to read it. I never got that chance, so I’m reading it now, mostly curious about whether it is actually good or if it fails my morals in any way. 

I will begin by saying that I wish stories like this were presented from the Native’s point of view instead. It will always be a shame that White audiences won’t question their own biases unless they’re led into it by White protagonists (see: To Kill a Mockingbird, Dances with Wolves). 

I think it was a good choice to have Matt’s father have reserved respect for Native Americans. In this way, I think Matt can be challenged without the Native Americans entirely being race relations test subjects. I’m reminded of a scene from James Baldwin’s Another Country, where Ida says she doesn’t want to be Vivaldo’s racist family’s first “positive” encounter with a Black person. 

I like that Matt questions his favorite book, Robinson Crusoe, after Attean protests Friday’s slavery, and even starts to see that parts of it don’t make sense, like Friday’s ignorance of his own native land. I also like that Matt has questions about the Bible after Attean tells him about his tribe’s flood myth. This doesn’t really go anywhere, though?? He doesn’t go on to think about the applicability or truthfulness of his religion, even when Attean tells him of his spiritual beliefs or when Marie says she was baptized. 

Freeing Attean’s mangled dog from a trap was used as emotional leverage. That’s what it took for Attean’s grandmother to accept Matt? It felt bogus. She’s probably seen her people slaughtered in front of her eyes. 

I didn’t like how the Beaver tribe had a familiar patriarchal structure with Attean even looking down upon the women’s work. It’s to my understanding that many tribes had matriarchies and respect was evenly given. So though I’m sure tribes like Attean’s existed, I would have liked the viewpoint of a different social structure. Matt is already coming from this kind of society, even if Attean thinks his farming work is for women. I don’t know why Attean has so much disdain for women or why they’re called squaw. Pls stop.