https://vineyardgazette.com/obituaries/2021/09/01/arlene-hirschfelder-78
(with photo)

Most of it:

Arlene Hirschfelder died August 21 in Englewood, N.J., with her family surrounding her. She was 78.

She was born in 1943 in Chicago and grew up surrounded by history books and a family where reading and writing were deemed as important as breathing and eating. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and M.A.T. from the University of Chicago.

She started her career as an American history teacher in Ladue, Mo., before moving to the New York city area with her husband Dennis, to whom she was married for 55 years. She completed post-graduate work at Columbia University Teachers’ College. The Hirschfelders raised their two children in Teaneck, N.J.

A lifelong educator, respected scholar, award-winning author and champion of Native American and children’s rights, Arlene wrote and edited almost 100 nonfiction books and curricula, curated museum exhibitions and consulted with a vast array of institutions, agencies and corporations to improve their portrayal, awareness and presentation of Indigenous peoples.

She was key in debunking stereotypes and inaccurate information locally and nationally, and was considered a fearless and compassionate advocate in Indian country.

For more than two decades, she served as the scholarship director and education consultant for the Association on American Indian Affairs; her research there helped inform the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978. Later, she was a consultant at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian and a faculty member at the New School for Social Research.

The Hirschfelder-Molin Stereotype Collection, also named for her co-collaborator, Dr. Paulette Fairbanks Molin, is one of the largest of its kind and is housed at the Sequoyah National Research Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Her book Photo Odyssey: Solomon Carvalho’s Remarkable Western Adventure 1853-54 served as the basis for an award-winning 2015 documentary.

She championed Native American writers, enabling several to break into publishing. At the time of her death, she was working on the book Indigenous Firsts.

An ardent supporter of justice for children, she was the founding editor of Rowman and Littlefield’s award-winning series It Happened to Me, which targets teenagers searching for answers to life’s most difficult questions related to social issues, health matters and lifestyles.

She was a workshop facilitator, teacher trainer and presenter at venues ranging from the Aquinnah Cultural Center and Nathan Mayhew Seminars to Sun Valley Elementary School in San Rafael. She was an accomplished artist. Greeting card design, collage, paper-making, water colors and sketching were all talents.

Arlene was a loving mother, wife and grandmother who valued family as the most important thing in her life. A welcoming and non-judgmental presence, she created a spirit of community among all those who shared her world. She was loyal and her peers, colleagues and once-strangers became lifelong friends.

For 43 years, she and her family spent summer vacations on Martha’s Vineyard, her favorite place. She described it as her place of bliss and she worked on many publishing projects in the house the family rented every year in East Chop. Although she was gravely ill, she was able to be there with most of her family just days before she died.

She is survived by her husband, Dennis; son Adam and his wife, Jen Traeger; daughter Brooke and her husband, Kieran McConville; sister Judi; grandsons Micah, Elias and Hugh; and countless friends...

(snip)

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=578293274&q=Arlene+B.+Hirschfelder+books&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjE3rPTo6GCAxVlnokEHSCDDHwQ0pQJegQIFBAB&biw=1920&bih=925&dpr=1
(book covers)

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/arlene-b-hirschfelder/rising-voices/
(one Kirkus review)

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/315595.Arlene_B_Hirschfelder

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=578293274&hl=en&q=Arlene+B.+Hirschfelder&tbm=vid&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjtnIuEpKGCAxVAD1kFHbq-CiYQ0pQJegQICxAB&biw=1920&bih=925&dpr=1
(videos)

WORKS

BY THE AUTHOR:

American Indian and Eskimo Authors: A Comprehensive Bibliography, Association on American Indian Affairs (New York, NY), 1973.
This Land Is Ours: A Native American Anthology and Teacher's Guide, Northeast Center for Curriculum Development, 1978.
Annotated Bibliography of the Literature on American Indians Published in State Historical Society Publications: New England and Middle Atlantic States, Kraus-Thompson Organization Press, 1982.
American Indian Stereotypes in the World of Children: A Reader and Bibliography, Scarecrow Press (Metuchen, NJ), 1982.
(With Mary Gloyne Byler and Michael Dorris) Guide to Research on North American Indians, American Library Association (Chicago, IL), 1983.
American Indian Desk Calendar, Association on American Indian Affairs (New York, NY), 1985.
Happily May I Walk: American Indians and Alaska Natives Today, Scribner (New York, NY), 1986.
(With Paulette Molin) Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1992.
(Editor with Beverly R. Singer) Rising Voices: Writings of Young Native Americans, Scribner (New York, NY), 1992.
(With Martha Kreipe de Montaño) The Native American Almanac: A Portrait of Native America Today, Prentice-Hall (New York, NY), 1993.
American Indian Lives: Artists and Craftspeople, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1994.
(With Dennis Hirschfelder) The Tobacco Chronicles: Tobacco in the United States, 1880-1995. Tobacco Practices, Policies, and Research among American Indians and Alaska Natives, Columbia University School of Social Work (New York, NY), 1995.
Kick Butts: A Kid's Action Guide to a Tobacco-Free America, Julian Messner (Parsippany, NJ), 1998.
(With Paulette Molin) Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1999.
(With Paulette Fairbanks Molin and Yvonne Wakim) American Indian Stereotypes in the World of Children: A Reader and Bibliography, Scarecrow Press (Lanham, Maryland), 1999.
Encyclopedia of Smoking and Tobacco, ORYX Press (Phoenix, AZ), 1999.
(With Yvonne Beamer) Native Americans Today: Resources and Activities for Educators, Grades 4-8, Teacher Ideas Press/Libraries Unlimited (Englewood, CO), 2000.
Photo Odyssey: Solomon Carvalho's Remarkable Western Adventure, 1853-54, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 2000.
Native Americans: A History in Photographs, Dorling Kindersley (London, England), 2000.

Photo Odyssey: Solomon Carvalhos Remarkable Western Adventure, 1853-54, 2000;
(with Y. Beamer) Native Americans Today: Resources and Activities for Educators, Grades 4-8, 2000;
(with Y.W. Dennis) Children of Native America Today, 2003;
Squanto, 1585?-1622, 2004;
(with M. Ajmera, Y.W. Dennis and C. Pon) Children of the U.S.A, 2008;
(with Y.W. Dennis) A Kids Guide to Native American History: More Than 50 Activities, 2010; Tobacco, 2010;
(with P.F. Molin) The Extraordinary Book of Native American Lists, 2012.