Big White Man visits White Fawn

Big White Man walks onto an Indian reservationA Dutch children's book author visits his muse in an American Indian reservation and, for an instant, four centuries of history are forgiven.

When the author, who introduces himself as "Big White Man," presents 28-year-old White Fawn with four copies of his latest book and a pair of traditional Dutch wooden shoes, her mother bursts into tears. In an instant everything is forgiven. "It's not everyday that such nice people come to see us," she says.

The "nice people" are children's author Rob Ruggenberg, a representative of his publisher, Querido, and thirteen Dutch children who live in the US. They have come to visit White Fawn, Ruggenberg's "muse" who lent her name to the heroine of his latest children's adventure novel, Manhatan (sic).If the name "White Fawn" makes you cringe, here's the reality of the situation:White Fawn, who has not read the book because it is in Dutch, has a "real" American Indian name, Waupatukway, and an American name, Shoran. In Ruggenberg's book she became White Fawn.

She has three children and worked in real estate until she recently lost her job. She now works as a bus driver. Her husband, a cook, was also fired. But despite her dire economic situation she will not ask publisher Querido for money--"although I wouldn't say no if they offered."

The reservation White Fawn lives on is one of the smallest native American reservations in the US. It quite literally consists of a front and backyard around one modest house in Trumbull, Connecticut. For the occasion, a table with CDs and faded posters--free upon a donation--of the late chief Big Eagle has been set up. As the people pray and sing in traditional clothing, traffic roars past on the highway.

White Fawn's tribe, the Paugussett, is not officially recognised by the federal government because it has not been able to prove that it is indigenous to North America. As a result it has not been allowed to open one of the casinos that have proved such a financial windfall for many other Native American tribes.Comment:  Freek Staps, the writer of this article, is apparently a Dutch visitor to the US. It shows. Staps calls Shoran by the made-up name "White Fawn" as if that's her real identity. Staps claims the term "Indian" is politically incorrect and offensive--wrong. Staps says the Paugussett can't prove they're indigenous; actually, they can't prove they've maintained their political and cultural continuity since the 1600s.

I don't know anything about Ruggenberg's book other than what's written here. But calling himself Big White Man and his character White Fawn are two bad signs. "White Fawn" has been a stereotypical Indian woman's name at least since the 1910 silent film White Fawn's Devotion.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Books.