Native Americans in Western Novels

I did not discover the part of my heritage that is Native American until the mid-1990s. There had been some vague references during my early childhood to one of my grandfathers. He had reportedly disappeared before my mother, his daughter, was born and he was said to have been part French and likely Native American. I did not think much about this until decades later, although I always had Native American history books at home to enjoy. I admired the "Indians" and loved to read about how they survived and even thrived on the land across America. I loved the clothing and the artwork and the horses.

Even as a young child, I was impressed by Native reverence for nature and all living things. I enjoyed the story of Pocahontas and loved the poetry of the river Gitcheegoomee by Longfellow. I did not know at that time that I am related to Pocahontas and Hiawatha. I learned about the Great Spirit at the same time I learned about God and Christmas in school in the first grade. I guess they become synonymous to me.

After high school, I worked for a couple of years and the summer I was 19, I visited friends in Washington DC and was able to witness the National Pow Wow. I was able to stand on the steps of the Capital as a 19-year-old Native American US Marine Corp officer was introduced just below me. He left shortly and returned in full Southwestern Native dress to perform a traditional dance. I was just yards away from him. I witnessed the maturity of someone who had just returned from fighting in Viet Nam and also had the courage to don his traditional outfit and perform traditional customs without any thought for hecklers. I didn't hear any hecklers, though. Everyone was silent as they listened and watched. A year later in college, one of the first courses I took was a series of anthropology courses about Native Americans throughout the western hemisphere and about Indigenous Peoples of all lands.  

Later on as an adult, I worked with employees that had been injured on the job, in a state-operated health facility. It was during this period that I met a wonderful gentleman who was a Native American that was coming through this particular health system. Through several conversations, it was discovered that my grandfather's surname had also belonged to an earlier full-blooded Native American man who translated French and an Iroquois language at the Battle of Fort Pitt. I became more interested in Native Americans and started reading everything in the state university and public libraries about them. I even discovered that one Iroquois language or dialect is related to the language of the Zulu in Africa, the marker for that connection being the identical work for "cousin." One day, I opened a large history of the tribes of the mid-west and become so surprised by a photograph and that I literally dropped the book.

I picked the book up and studied the picture for 10 minutes. There on the page was a photograph of a 5-year-old Iroquois female child in Native outfit. She was a full-blood Mohawk. She looked 100% like my sister, but that was impossible, because my sibling was born many years after that picture had been made. Now I understood why everyone in the family had black hair except me - someone married a blond at some point to create my light-brown hair and my cheekbones only gave away Native heritage if my hair was pinned up a certain way. I was always very pale, while the other females on the maternal side of the family had olive, almost orange, skin tones. One day I'll be able to trace the lineage back completely and work on it as I can.

Native Americans have been portrayed both falsely and in a more positive light in books, on TV, and in the movies. I am always surprised by prejudice and racism, because I never understood why people would feel those horrible things about others. Prejudice against Native Americans really took me aback, though, when I witnessed it against our Native populations in my home town. After my initial shock, I learned to have some fun with bigoted people.

Mind you, I have always worked at least two jobs, done community service, coached sports, etc. and have a masters and two bachelor's degrees, blah, blah, blah. Often I would listen to friends and new acquaintances spew negative comments to me about Native Americans, always ending with, "And they're lazy, won't work, and are all thieves and alcoholics!" -- to which I would reply, "Oh, like me?" They would ask me what I was talking about and I would tell them that I am probably 3/8 Native American, and then listen to them sputter. It was a good object lesson, I think, and funny for me.

James Fenimore Cooper is said to be the first American writer to seriously consider Native Americans as subject matter. Daughter Susan Cooper wrote in Small Family Memories (1883) that James talked with Pawnee and Sioux people and researched many tribes extensively. After The Last of the Mohicans (1826), Cooper thought of a romance novel about Great Plains Native Americans. Another author, Helen Hunt Jackson, wrote seriously about Native People. They were the first American novelists successful in about Native People. In addition, Literary History of The United States: Bibliography by Lewis H. Morgan, the Father of American anthropology, shows that he began his research with Native Americans. The characters in Cooper's novels are individuals living in community in the forests of America, making a life for themselves and expanding their territories for the future. Cooper also establishes cooperation between Natives, African Americans, and Caucasians all at once.

In reality, the Mohawk nation was able to assimilate itself into white society and take up business and trade in such a manner as to leave few on its one reservation straddling New York-Quebec.

In 19th Century America, the civilized move westward was enabled by the doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" that resulted in taking land away from Native People and relegating them to reservations, circuses, and Wild West Shows. The Wild West Shows depicted Native People in a stereotypic fashion and gave rise directly to the "Western" novel and movie in which "Indians" are often portrayed as blood-thirsty savages and vicious or goofy drunkards. They scalped white men and stole their women, but could be distracted with whiskey while white men did the same to them.

In actuality, Europeans first attempted to enslave Native Americans before Africans. However, the male Native People simply stood in the fields and stared at the white men, even when they were whipped. The "braves" walked home at the end the day. When the Europeans next stole Native wives and children for enslavement, the Native males came and took them back. Then the Europeans turned to enslaving Africans, more easily subdued since they were sick, chained, and nearly starved to death on the voyage over. All this would not sell many Western novels, however.

Some of Western tales showed a few "Indians" as loyal guides for "good white men" or evil guides for the enemies of the US in the wars of the times. These "good Indians" were like the "nice" aliens from outer space like Mr. Spock and Mr. Worf who helped the United Federation of Planets in the Star Trek saga. One of these types of Western stories resulted in The Lone Ranger show on radio and TV and I respected Jay Silverheels, as Tonto and as himself, very much. One very famous Western series is called LongArm and a spin off series called Lonestar pits a young cowgirl and her trusted Asian martial arts grandmaster - body guard against whites and Indians alike.

Here is an good situation summary found in the following excerpt from recommendations about Western novels dating back as far as 1936, from the Metropolitan Library System of Chicago:

Readers Advisory - Westerns & Novels Set in the West

Westerns could be as formulaic and romanticized as any romance novel. One participant referred to them as "men's romances." Westerns, or other novels set in the west, could also be spare and unsentimental. Racism existed toward Native Americans and Mexicans, but unlike other marginalized groups, there was often a respect and admiration for Indian culture. Humor was not a prevalent element in these books. There was sometimes humor in the books we read, but it was seldom a primary ingredient. Humor was often of a rough and ready sort.

(Link accessed from: http://www.mls.lib.il.us/consulting/ra/ra_westerns.asp)

In the 20th Century, the TV show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, gave a more accurate portrayal of Native People. Today, we can see Graham Green in movies like Dances with Wolves as well as on The New Red Green Show reruns. The first is a serious role and the second is totally comedic. However, Mr. Green does not portray a stereotypical "Indian", but just a man that likes to blow things up. He could be any ethnicity and it would still be a funny character.

In my opinion, stereotypic Western novels are like the minstrel shows that the African Americans endured for years -- shows in which they were made to look stereotypically foolish. However, it did get these minorities recognized so that they could do something more worthy of them as people in the future. Roots, White Man's Burden, in which the plight of whites and blacks are reversed, and Hollywood Shuffle have paved the way for some pretty good stuff.

All this also reminds me of the "humor" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries performed in the Borsch Belt that gave rise to first, Ted Healey and His Stooges, and then The Three Stooges at Coney Island and then in movies and on TV. I always enjoyed Larry, Moe, and Curly, but part of what they did made physical and verbal abuse appear funny and that has had a direct effect upon the perpetrating of abuse in US culture. Some people in the 21st century still either strike a person or verbally abuse them and say, "It was only a joke."

Zane Grey novel series

The Zane Grey's West Society

http://www.zgws.org/

Death Valley Days

Debuted on radio in 1930. "Brought to you by 20 mule team Borax"...and Ronald Reagan on TV.

http://www.deathvalleydays.com/

Rawhide

(with Clint Eastwood as Rosdy Yates)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052504/

Longarm novel series

adult westerns (1978 - present)

by Tabor Evans (publishing house pen name for a number of authors)

The Lone Ranger

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041038/

Lone Star novel series

adult westerns (1982 - 1995) by Wesley Ellis

"THEY CALLED THEM THE LONE STAR LEGEND: Jessica Starbuck - a magnificent woman of the West, fighting for justice on America's frontier... Ki - the martial arts master sworn to protect her and the code she lived by... Together they conquered the West as no other man and woman ever had!"

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

http://www.drquinnmd.com/

Dances with Wolves

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099348/