I just wrote a series on American history books for kids and I included Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie" series because it re-released in 1971 when the last one, "The First Four Years" was published. I loved it as a kid with the iconic Garth Williams images. But as adult, I find deeply troubling aspects like racial slurs and Pa's squatting on native reserve land.
I didn't remember this but it was there, in all it's gingham covered schmaltz I so loved. I see now how stories like these, sanitized atrocities and soft-soaped in themes of Manifest Destiny into popular fiction of the time. And we didn't even realize it. Or maybe we just overlooked it because it wasn't "our people" who were being insulted.
The Pancake Men Problem
This is mild and more laughable than anything. But the fastidiousness bordering on OCD with which Ma Ingalls does things is a little bit much. A friend and I got to discussing them and realizing that the stories were pretty far-fetched. It's hard to believe that a mom working night and day just to keep the family alive, would have time or inclination to make "pancake men." And I see now her galling perfection was my first clue.
Pa's euphemized wandering foot
White supremacy
When I made the book list, a historical warning was included regarding slurs and very dehumanizing behavior. I couldn't recall so I asked AI what the racial slurs were in the books because it had been so long since I'd read them. And come to find out, Goody Two-Shoes Ma was one of the biggest offenders of all. So much for her Sunday Bible readings!
"The only good Indian is a dead Indian"
This genocidal phrase is repeated multiple times in the book.
The Context: While Laura Ingalls Wilder uses Pa to actively dispute this phrase—explicitly stating later that he does not believe it, especially after the Osage chief Soldat du Chêne prevents a war—the raw phrase is left entirely unedited in the text and can be incredibly jarring and harmful to young readers encountering it without context.
"There were no people, only Indians"
In the original 1935 edition of the book, the opening chapter described the setting of the territory by stating that the land had "no people; only Indians lived there." * The Dehumanization:
The Revision: In 1952, a reader wrote to the publisher to protest the line.
Laura Ingalls Wilder apologized, calling it a "stupid blunder," and the line was officially amended in subsequent printings to read: "There were no settlers; only Indians lived there." (Older copies and audiobooks sometimes still feature the original line).
Dehumanizing Adjectives and Textual Imagery
While not a single-word slur, the narrative repeatedly uses heavily charged, degrading descriptors to strip the indigenous characters of their humanity, framing them through a lens of fear and disgust:
Native Americans are routinely referred to as "savages" and "wild men."
The book emphasizes their speech as animalistic "harsh sounds" and describes their physical presence and clothing by focusing heavily on odor (e.g., "the smell of skunk skins"). (NB: I don't imagine Ma smelled too fresh after a day of chicken plucking.)
Ma Ingalls repeatedly expresses an explicit, intense prejudice, stating flatly, "I just don't like them," while young Laura at one point objectifies a Native baby (papoose), begging Pa to let her catch it and keep it like a pet or a doll. And good Christian woman makes her girls dutifully read from the Bible about God's love.
Other Slurs in the Broader Series
If you expand past Little House on the Prairie into the other books, additional explicit racial slurs appear:
Little House in the Big Woods: Features a traditional folk song detailing a racist caricature of a Black character ("Uncle Ned"), using the anti-Black slur "darkey."
Little Town on the Prairie: Features an entire chapter dedicated to a town minstrel show, where Pa and other town leaders put on blackface and perform deeply offensive, racist songs of the era.
The Ingalls and other settlers were the illegal immigrants
It is the ultimate historical irony as I said to AI. The sheer nerve of it is exactly what makes reading Little House on the Prairie as an adult such an eye-opening—and often infuriating—experience. When you dig into the actual history behind Laura's story, the reality is even more stark than she portrayed it:
They Were Squatters
Charles Ingalls didn't just accidentally wander across a boundary line. He knowingly took his family into the Osage Diminished Reserve in Kansas before it was legally open to white settlement. Rumors were circulating that the U.S. government was going to strip the Osage of the land soon, so Pa decided to "jump the gun" to claim the prime topsoil and timber before the rush. By all legal definitions of the time, the Ingalls family were illegal intruders on sovereign native land.
The Ultimate Cognitive Dissonance
The psychological gymnastics required to squat on someone else's land while simultaneously viewing them as the dangerous trespassers is incredible. Throughout the book, Ma Ingalls is terrified and disgusted by the Osage people coming near "her" house. The narrative treats the indigenous people checking on the cabin or taking food as a violation of privacy—completely blind to the fact that the cabin itself was built with logs chopped down from Osage forests, sitting on an Osage hunting ground.
It reminds me of the Disney Pocahontas song (which movie and song had problems itself) but I was struck by one line as it applies to people like the Ingalls family.
You think you own whatever land you land on.
The Doctrine of Discovery
And there it is. Literally, under that doctrine, European Christian nations declared that any land they "discovered" was legally theirs to claim, completely disregarding the sovereign nations, sophisticated agricultural systems, and millions of people who had been living there for millennia. The monstrous egotism just take my breath away. And that was Charles Ingalls crossing into the Osage Reserve—the unquestioned belief that stepping foot on a piece of earth somehow transfers ownership to him.
Why the Ingalls Family Actually Left
In the book, Laura frames their sudden departure from Kansas as Pa just getting restless and deciding to move on because he heard the government was sending soldiers to clear out settlers. In reality, the federal government did put its foot down. The U.S. Army threatened to use force to evict the illegal white squatters and return the land to the Osage (before later treaties officially forced the Osage out anyway).
The Ingalls were the very thing they hated
Pa was a wanted man!
And he was on the lam, trying to outrun creditors. So a thief as well. He left a string of debts in Burr Oak, Iowa. He packed up the wagon and family and fled in the middle of the night because he knew he was facing arrest or forced eviction by the military for land encroachment. He made his family live in a mud hut dug in a river bank. It never occurred to me that "By the Banks of Plum Creek" literally in the banks!
So who is the problem?
Laura's narrative is clouded by her mother's intense prejudice, but the facts she records prove that the Ingalls family likely would not have survived their time in Kansas without the direct intervention and restraint of the Osage people. There are two major instances in Little House on the Prairie where the Native people stepped in—one that saved their physical lives, and one that saved their peace of mind.
The Intervention of Chief Soldat du Chêne (The Life-Saving Help)
This is the most significant historical and narrative event in the book. As more and more illegal white squatters poured into the Osage Diminished Reserve, tensions reached a boiling point. Many of the tribal factions gathered to debate whether they should launch a full-scale defense to wipe out the illegal settlements and reclaim their territory. I mean who could blame them. Would any of us what someone must moving into our home and kicking us out?
For days, the Ingalls family lived in absolute terror in their cabin, listening to the distant sound of war drums echoing from the Osage camps.
What Happened: Soldat du Chêne, a historical chief of the Osage (and a leader of the Great Osage), vigorously opposed the war. He rode from camp to camp, using his political influence and immense respect to convince the other chiefs not to attack the white settlers.
The Reality: By refusing to let his people retaliate against the illegal intruders, Soldat du Chêne single-handedly saved the lives of the Ingalls family and hundreds of other squatters. Even Pa acknowledges this immense debt in the book, telling a terrified Ma that the chief was "a king" and a "good Indian." So patronizing, Pa. And Ma has the nerve to call them savage?or days, the Ingalls family lived in absolute terror in their cabin, listening to the distant sound of war drums echoing from the Osage camps.
What Happened: Soldat du Chêne, a historical chief of the Osage (and a leader of the Great Osage), vigorously opposed the war. He rode from camp to camp, using his political influence and immense respect to convince the other chiefs not to attack the white settlers.
The Reality: By refusing to let his people retaliate against the illegal intruders, Soldat du Chêne single-handedly saved the lives of the Ingalls family and hundreds of other squatters. Even Pa acknowledges this immense debt in the book, telling a terrified Ma that the chief was "a king" and a "good Indian."
2. The Tall Indian and the Prairie Fire (The Ecological Help)
Earlier in the book, a massive, terrifying prairie fire sweeps toward the Ingalls' homestead. The family is entirely unprepared for the sheer speed and fury of a Great Plains fire, which could easily consume a wood-and-thatch cabin and everything in it in minutes.
What Happened: Shortly before the fire, two Osage men had visited the cabin. Pa observed them closely and noticed they were traveling with purpose. It turned out the Osage were performing controlled burns—a sophisticated, centuries-old land management technique used to clear old brush, encourage new grass for the buffalo, and ironically, create natural firebreaks.
The Reality: Because the Osage knew how to manage the plains with fire, the area around the Ingalls' immediate vicinity was left with a burnt-out buffer zone. When the wild fire came roaring through, it slowed down and spared the homestead. Furthermore, later in the text, when an Osage rider encounters Pa during a time of intense tension, his calm, non-violent demeanor serves as a stabilizing force that keeps Pa from panicking and doing something reckless with his rifle.
The Bittersweet Conclusion
The ultimate tragedy—and the part that highlights the audacious entitlement of the settlers is the famous "Indian Departure" chapter at the end of the book. Just another trail of tears and broken treaties in our inglorious American history. After saving the settlers from a massacre, the Osage are the ones forced to pack up their families, their homes, and their entire lives to march away to a new, smaller reservation because the U.S. government decided to legalize the white squatters' theft.
Laura describes standing by the road watching the long, silent line of Osage people riding away in the dust. Pa stands there watching with deep respect, but Ma is openly relieved that they are finally gone. From their land. That was never her home. Where she is the outlander. he very people who showed the Ingalls family mercy, ecological protection, and restraint were rewarded by having their homeland stolen by the people they spared.
