For one view, you might glance through my article, "Cowboys and Indians in
King Arthur's Court: Hank Morgan's Version of Manifest Destiny...," in *The
Mark Twain Annual *for 2007. For another, there is Kerry Driscoll's "'Man
Factories' and the 'White Indians' of Camelot: Re-Reading the Native Context
of *A Connecticut Yankee..."* in the 2004 *Mark Twain Annual,* which is one
of several she has written on the subject. For broader views of the
subject, see some of her other writings and what Joe Coulombe has to say in
his book, *Mark Twain and the American West *(2003). For a much less recent
take, see Lynn Denton's article in *Mark Twain Journal* from the early
1970s. The issue of his prejudice. lack of, or changed attitude may not be
entirely settled as yet.
.On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 8:48 PM, Scott Holmes <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> I've been working my way through Roughing It (again) recently, doing
> public readings. It caused me pause when I reached his description of
> the Goshoots Indians. It's quite common for discussion of Twain to
> center on assumed racism because of his use of a particular word but
> rarely have I seen any discussion of his prejudice against native
> Americans - Indians. When it does come up it is generally in regard to
> Injun Joe. Injun Joe is an entirely different matter, he is for the
> most part a product of the dominant culture, the "white" culture. The
> Goshoots are part of an entirely foreign culture to Twain and he seems
> unable to understand it or even recognize that it is a foreign culture.
>
> Roughing It comes from very early in Twains career so I'm wondering if,
> after all his world travels, he ever came to see native Americans in a
> better light.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of
> in your philosophy.
> http://bscottholmes.com
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
--
John H. Davis, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Department of Language and Literature
Chowan University
Murfreesboro, North Carolina 27855
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