Two of the 1963 images featured a mouse as a "brave" paddling a
canoe and a mouse as a chief. In 1991, the paddling mouse was no
longer an Indian and the mouse chief was gone. A few points to
consider: 1) No other race appears in outdated and stereotypical
costumes in The Best Word Book Ever. Only Indians. As I've said
before, Indians are the last US minority it's "safe" to
stereotype. 2) Native stereotypes were as accepted then as other
stereotypes--e.g., men had jobs while women kept homes. No one
thought twice about them. 3) Twenty-eight years later, Scarry
and his publisher have removed the stereotypes because they're
clearly wrong. Most people today would say the gender
stereotypes are wrong, but they still don't understand why the
Native stereotypes are wrong. 4) The revision shows how easy it
is to update and eliminate stereotypes. It doesn't harm the
book's content, it improves it. The same thing happens whenever
people eliminate stereotypes they claim they can't live without.
For more on the subject,