If anyone still questions Twain's prejudice against the American Indian
they need but reread "The Noble Red Man." Link below:

twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/redman.html

Or as the fans claim, he was merely mocking Hawthorn's overly-beatified
description.

JERRY VORPAHL






On 8/17/13 12:28 PM, "Scott Holmes" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Some of you may be aware of my attempts at recording readings of Mark
>Twain and producing videos. I have more than 300 of them on YouTube at
>this time. Lately I've been reworking my videos for the Roughing It
>chapters. I became annoyed with chapter 19 and decided not to enhance my
>video for it. In my mind this chapter presents Twain at his worst. It
>presents Twain as prejudiced and a bigot in regards to the Indians of
>the Great Basin, the “Goshoots”. The one moment of humor is a sarcasm,
>that the “Goshoots” are not quite as bad as the employees of the
>Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company. Chapter 20 is also a
>relatively inferior production, merely repetitions of an anecdote of an
>event that never occurred, Horace Greely and the stagecoach driver Hank
>Monk. The chapter is saved, however, by poignant description of his
>penultimate day on the road. These two chapters leave this portion of
>the country without adequate description.
>
>
>Rather than produce new videos for these two chapters (my original
>videos remain on YouTube) I have created a video based on a Google Earth
>Tour of the Overland Stage/Pony Express trail through the Nevada
>Territory. I have included in the narration what bits exist of his
>description of this territory along with material describing the
>stations and something of their history. This left some rather large
>gaps of dead air which I have attempted to fill with material related to
>the Paiute/Pyramid Lake War of 1860. This conflict and the circumstances
>that created the conflict were largely responsible for what Twain
>encountered between Utah and Carson City. Bottom line is Twain was
>grossly unfair in his portrayal of the Paiutes, or “Goshoot” Indians
>and
>he was entirely ignorant of the cause for their apparent impoverishment,
>the destruction of much of their food source and the monopolization of
>the water supply and grazing lands. Perhaps he can be excused a bit for
>likely being ignorant of the original cause of the Paiute war, the
>kidnap and rape of two Pauite girls by some men from the Williams
>Station, a stagecoach stop, saloon and general store on the Carson
>River.
>
>
>The video is approximately 52 minutes long and includes some very nice
>banjo music from the Heftone Banjo Orchestra (made available through the
>Creative Commons ShareALike license).
>
>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phpqWwNWdD0