The number of children books featuring Native American characters keeps on growing. However, it is worth noting that those books do not necessarily represent the Native American accurately. This study used a sociopragmatic approach to analyse the classic children book, The Indian in the Cupboard, with the aim of finding problematic narratives in the book. The book is chosen because of its controversy regarding one of its characters, Little Bear, who is a Native American. A total of three characters’ utterances namely Omri, Patrick, and Little Bear are analysed to find the maxims that are flouted. Next, implicatures are constructed to find the hidden meaning behind the utterances. The result showed that the book is regarded as racist due to its portrayal of the Native American character as a subordinate character. The book is also closely tied to linguistic imperialism because Little Bear is forced to speak in English to communicate with other characters rather than his own indigenous language. Additionally, the character was also built from common stereotypical images of Native American people. This becomes problematic because those stereotypes overgeneralize all of the Native American people. These findings suggest that despite its popularity, The Indian in the Cupboard failed to accurately represent Native American people through its racist portrayal of Little Bear.

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Jumlah buku anak-anak yang menampilkan karakter penduduk asli Amerika terus bertambah. Namun, perlu dicatat bahwa buku-buku tersebut tidak selalu merepresentasikan penduduk asli Amerika secara akurat. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan sosiopragmatik untuk menganalisis buku anak klasik The Indian in the Cupboard, dengan tujuan menemukan masalah pada narasi buku tersebut. Buku tersebut dipilih karena kontroversi mengenai salah satu karakternya, Little Bear, yang digambarkan sebagai penduduk asli Amerika. Sebanyak tiga karakter yaitu Omri, Patrick, dan Little Bear dianalisis ucapannya untuk menemukan maksim yang dilanggar. Selanjutnya implikatur dikonstruksi untuk menemukan makna tersembunyi di balik ucapan mereka. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa buku tersebut dianggap rasis karena penggambaran karakter penduduk asli Amerika sebagai karakter inferior. Buku ini juga terkait erat dengan imperialisme linguistik karena Little Bear harus berbicara dalam bahasa Inggris untuk berkomunikasi dengan karakter lain daripada bahasa aslinya sendiri. Selain itu, karakter Little Bear juga diambil dari stereotip negative penduduk asli Amerika. Hal ini menjadi masalah karena stereotip tersebut menggeneralisasikan semua penduduk asli Amerika. Hasil ini menunjukkan bahwa terlepas dari popularitasnya, The Indian in the Cupboard gagal merepresentasikan penduduk asli Amerika secara akurat melalui penggambaran rasis tentang Little Bear.