Little House on the Prairie

One of the most prevalent threads running through Little House on the Prairie is white settlers’ marked racism toward Indigenous Americans. Unlike their open gratitude and respect toward the book’s lone Black character, Dr. Tan, the settlers hold distrustful and prejudiced views toward the people whose land and homes they are usurping. The Scotts voice this prejudice the most bluntly when Mrs. Scott tells the Ingallses, “She did not know why the government made treaties with Indians. The only good Indian was a dead Indian. The very thought of Indians made her blood run cold” (211). As she alludes to the fact that she had relatives who were involved in conflicts with Indigenous Americans in Minnesota, her descriptions reveal the deep-seated fears and hostilities that both sides felt toward each other, but Wilder’s depiction of these attitudes is one-sided, showing no critique or awareness of the injustices that white settlers perpetrated against Indigenous people during this era. Crucially, when Pa knowingly chooses to situate the homestead within government-designated Indigenous territory, he bases the entire endeavor upon the presumption that this territory will eventually be opened up to white people . 

In the aftermath of encroaching upon the Indigenous people’s land, the Ingalls family vacillates between begrudging acceptance of the original inhabitants’ presence and fear that the Indigenous locals will harm them.