The racism that Hanna confronts is largely autobiographical: I have faced almost exactly the same incidents of racism depicted in the book. Whether outright hostility from strangers or thoughtless microaggressions from closer to home, such encounters are frequent, even daily, occurrences for me and almost every black or brown person I know. Racism is, however, not a series of incidents. Rather, the incidents are evidence of deeply ingrained states of personal bias and institutional injustice.

It wasn’t until I was well into adulthood that I learned something of the true history of the devastating effect that westward expansion had on Native Americans. Likewise, the true histories of other people of color here in the US are largely missing from our educational curricula and our national consciousness. The dearth of stories centered on the struggles and contributions of people of color has resulted in the pervasive, harmful, and sometimes even deadly attitude that we are not as fully human as whites. Those stories are of vital importance to every single one of us living in this country. To ignore them is an incalculable loss, because learning their truths makes us stronger and more capable of facing the challenges in our communities.

In Little Town on the Prairie, Pa takes part in a blackface minstrel show. The show is an obvious delight to Laura and the other members of the all-white audience. While both Laura and Pa in the books are often at odds with Ma’s mistrust of Native Americans, the portrayal of blackface evinces no such qualms.

There are those who argue that Wilder cannot be faulted for that attitude because she was “a product of her time.” Others point out that this is no excuse for treating any members of the human race as “lesser”—that there have been people in every time and place who have risen above the limitations of standard social mores. While I agree with the latter sentiment, I also can’t help pondering which of our current and widely held attitudes will be found lacking by future generations. Is our vision any clearer than that of our forebears?

Fans of Wilder’s work will, I hope, be able to recognize where I have both acknowledged and challenged her stories. The town of LaForge is modeled on De Smet, the locations of the homes and businesses based on the map that Wilder herself drew and labeled. The Harris family is partly inspired by the Ingallses; Dolly Swenson might remind readers of Nellie Oleson. As part of the research for this book, I visited De Smet, South Dakota, and Mansfield, Missouri, the two main sites for Wilder pilgrimage.