News

Simmons, Marc Millie Cooper’s Ride: A True Story from History illustrated by Ronald Kil University of New Mexico Press, 2002 56 pages, color illustrations grades 3-6

Set on the Missouri frontier during the War of 1812, this is the story of how a brave young settler girl saves the lives of her family and community from an Indian attack. When her family and friends living at Fort Cooper are besieged and about to be massacred by Indians allied with the British, 12-year-old Millie Cooper volunteers to ride to nearby Fort Hempstead to get help.

According to the foreword, the British “sent their agents to stir up Indian tribes on the frontier and persuade them to attack American settlers.” In times of warfare, Indian nations coalesced into traditional and political military alliances, with leaders making military decisions no less complex than those made by their white enemies. To suggest that Indian “tribes” were “stirred up” and had to be “persuaded” to attack American settlers greatly oversimplifies the situation.

In many ways, this story is reminiscent of Walter D. Edmonds’ The Matchlock Gun, originally published in 1941. The Indians are illustrated, in word and picture, as hideous, war-whooping, unthinking savages, lurking behind trees, menacing and attacking the besieged innocent settlers. There is not one word, not one picture, about the settlers’ encroachment on and destruction of Indian land. The whites are fighting for land and freedom. The Indians want to kill them.

The writing is truly godawful:

That evening at the supper table, Colonel Cooper said to his wife, “The situation looks bad for us. I fear this is the beginning of many bloody attacks upon our people.” “Oh, mercy. I pray that isn’t true,” replied Mrs. Cooper…. “Dark days lie ahead,” [Colonel Cooper] concluded.

Upon entering the thick trees, Millie disappeared from the settlers’ view. Her father had been right. The Indians were busy eating and napping.

The illustrations, besides showing the Indians as a mindless and terrifying threat, whooping and hollering and storming the fort on foot, are also extremely unattractive.

More than anything else, Millie Cooper’s Ride resembles a 19^th century piece of propaganda for Manifest Destiny. Simpleminded, grossly one-sided, and artistically unappealing, this picture book is not suitable for children of any age.

—Beverly Slapin