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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From:
Mike Hurst <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:05:08 -0400
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In the sketch "Hannibal, Missouri" (1852) Twain discusses Native Americans
in the
familiar noble savage mode. In "The Noble Red Man" (1870) Twain takes quite
a
different tone, offering an extremely vitriolic and negative portrayal of NA
Indians. There are also passages of *Roughing It* that depict NA Indians.
The
incomplete "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians" is the fullest and
most
direct fictional treatment I know of--its tone, like most of Twain's work on
NA
Indians, echoes "The Noble Red Man." Other places where NA Indians appear in
some
semblance or other include "The Extract from Captain Stormfield's Heaven"
(as
denizens of heaven), in *Life on the Mississipi* (Schoolcraft Legends), in
"The
Dervish and the Offensive Stranger" (some discussion of wrongs done to NA
Indian
culture), and, of course, in the form of Injun Joe in *Tom Sawyer*. Twain
also
sometimes uses NA Indians for analogical purposes (usually negative) in
works
like *Innocents Abroad* and the sketches "A Day at Niagara" (1869) and "The
Pah-utes"(1862).


I don't know that this list is exhaustive, but I hope it helps.

Best,

Mike Hurst

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