It’s fall. And that means holidays like Columbus Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving. These holidays that frequently bring images of Native Americans into popular culture can be problematic.

Literary critic Dr. Debbie Reese writes about native people in the Americas and says frequently in popular culture, native people become cardboard depictions that exist only in the past or that lack any nuance. And she said it’s important to talk about it.

"Given the prof baseball’s season's conclusion, we have the World Series, and one of the teams playing is Cleveland Indians. So tossing those images of that mascot into the mix of what native people are dealing with in today’s society right now. It’s an opportunity for us to speak back to those images. I don't want those opportunities. I don't want to suggest that those are good things. They aren’t," Reese said.

Reese said if depictions of Native Americans in literature and popular culture were more accurate and nuanced from the start, Americans we would be more educated about Native Americans and more educated about our own American story.