Texas county condemned for recategorizing book on colonization as fiction

A Texas county’s decision to shelve a nonfiction children’s book about colonization in the fiction section is facing backlash.

Montgomery County Commission decided to reclassify Linda Coombs’ book Colonization and the Wampanoag Story as fiction in the seven libraries in the county — a move that has sparked criticism from the book’s publisher Penguin Random House and advocacy groups.

Coombs is a historian from the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah. Her book documents the “Indigenous perspective of the tribes of the New England area on the impacts of European colonization,” according to PEN America, a nonprofit group committed to free expression.

In an October 16 letter, the anti-censorship coalition asked the Montgomery County Commission to reverse the decision: “Moving it to the fiction section communicates distrust of material that reflects the truths of our American history. It diminishes the legitimacy of Coombs’ perspective as a member of the Wampanoag Tribe and Indigenous educators who recommend its use.”

Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read Program, said in a statement: “The restriction of the children’s book and subsequent reclassification is a threat to the freedom to read and essentially eliminates the opportunity for a young reader to discover and learn the true story of the discovery of the Americas through an Indigenous perspective.”

Dr Debbie Reese, founder of American Indians in Children’s Literature — one of the groups that signed the letter — also warned about the consequences of reclassifying a book on such an important subject.

“Books like Colonization and the Wampanoag Story are important to Native kids because they affirm our existence as Native people in the present day. But they’re also for non-Native kids, because those kids are being shaped by the information in books,” Reese said in a statement. “To claim this book is fiction dismisses our perspective and history.”

Montgomery County is about 40 miles north of Houston. Houston Public Library labels the book in question as non-fiction, as does Penguin Random House.

“As Texas parents we object to the actions taken by the Montgomery County Citizens Review Committee to reclassify a nonfiction book to fiction.

“If this decision is allowed to stand, what will stop the elected officials, or their politically appointed surrogates, from reclassifying other nonfiction books that contain perspectives, facts, or ideas they don’t like or disagree with?” Anne Russey, co-founder of Texas Freedom to Read Project, said in a statement.

These groups aren’t the only ones trying to reclassify the book as nonfiction. The National Campaign for Justice launched a petition called “Stop the Whitewashing of Native American History in Texas Libraries Now” which asks people to sign and send a message to the county’s commissioners to move the book back to the nonfiction section.

“This attack on truth is part of a larger trend of right-wing groups trying to sanitize American history in our schools and libraries. We cannot allow extremists to rewrite history and erase Native American voices,” the group wrote. As of Monday morning, it has garnered more than 34,000 signatures.

The Independent has reached out to the commission for comment. Its next meeting is scheduled for October 22.

The state of Texas has banned the second-most books in the country, according to PEN America. From 2021 through 2023, the state has banned more than 1,500 books.