What we see

Because of our looking at the American Indians as something that is other than ourselves, we can effectively categorize everything they produce in the same way. Thus a book written by an American Indian is a publication of an American Indian, and must be judged by a set of standards reserved for that group. It falls into that group first, not the group of Literature or of Art. First it must be determined if it is suitable as a product of that culture, and then we can look at its literary or artistic viability.
If we gazed on American Indians and saw something that was similar to ourselves, this would never happen. A book would be a book, but because we see difference when we see American Indians, we change how we view what they produce and are a part of.