I'd second the recommendation of Driscoll's recent article.  _Tom and Huck Among the Indians_ has the interesting element of a white frontiersman (Brace Johnson) who converts to Plains Indians' religious beliefs.  The big work that influenced him was Dodge's _Our Wild Indians_, and marginalia from his copy is reprinted in Gribben's library reconstruction.
  
Twain's opinions on the topic are covered in Stone's _The Innocent Eye_ and (if I recall correctly) Pfitzer's article on Twain and dime-novelist Edward S. Ellis.  

Best wishes,

Nathaniel Williams
Lecturer, University of Kansas
________________________________________
From: Mark Twain Forum [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Kathy Farretta [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2011 10:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A Prejudice against Indians

Though I have not read _Tom and Huck Among the Indians_, I have spent a
great deal of time puzzling over this.  I think that as Twain moved
West, one of his "pull" factors to the West was the same mythology of
the American West as so many others.  When he saw these poor and
desperate Native Americans, his imagination and reality had a violent
crashing introduction.  In "James Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses,"
Twain expresses a great disgust with the "myth of the Noble Savage"
perpetuated by Cooper.   But, even in _Roughing It_, in which I think he
is still grappling with his own dismay, there is a tiny spark of
realization as to why the Native Americans are in their reduced
circumstances. I have some citations from his later mentions of Native
Americans in which I think I can demonstrate his characteristic battle
for minorities.  One which does come to mind now is Captain Stormfield's
description of the other people in Heaven he arrives.

Cheers,
Kathy

Kathy Farretta, M.A.
Museum of Northern Arizona
Education Program Manager
Flagstaff, Arizona

On 4/22/2011 6:56 AM, David Davis wrote:
>> 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. =20
>
> Not that I know of. I would think the uncompleted "Tom and Huck Among
> the Indians" would be a good next step for looking into the question.
>
> Further on topic: Does he ever say anything nice about "the French" Or
> someone who was French?=20
>
> /DDD
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott
> Holmes
> Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 8:48 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: A Prejudice against Indians
>
> 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. =20
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>   There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of
>                            in your philosophy.
>                          http://bscottholmes.com
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>