Re: Mark Twain on Indians. I am have been in recording sessions for my next audiobook--Roughing It--for some months now, and yes, I do cringe (visibly, hopefully not audibly) at the references to Native Americans. I have to think that in reaction to Mark Twain's initial experiences on his way our west (a white man among a few white men vastly outnumbered by red men) that very likely adopted the attitudes of his fellow travelers and guides, as a matter of self-defense and group unity. I once took a job clearing small trees and brush in the Tennessee River Valley in 110º heat with a gang of local characters: mostly ex-cons and other unemployables--all white. One day a black man showed up to work with us. Several times during the day there were racist jokes told that started with the phrase "You're a good boy, I know you won't mind this little joke..." to the one black man. As he and I were so outnumbered, and half of the others were holding chain saws, neither of us objected to the telling of a racist joke. The next day the black man did not return. To my shame, I did not speak up. It's probably no defense, but we were out in the woods, it was too hot to argue, and several chainsaws and a large wood chipper, so we were in a situation that required cooperation and acquiesence. I lasted two weeks, then resigned without benefits. Anyway, in Mark Twain's case, he was in the wilderness, and his traveling companions and he were dependent on the drivers, conductors, hostlers, etc for their safety and survival, so it would be natural for him to pick up the attitudes (and prejudices) of the other white men around him. Also, if his story about being attacked by Indians on his way out west is creditable (and there's no reason to assume its not), then he might be more prone to adopt the opinions of those with the guns defending their lives. Bit there is a turnabout that is more than fair play in Capt. Stormfield's Visit To Heaven when the Capt. discovers that in heaven, everyone retires to a heavenly version of the continent of their physical lives. He ends up in 'North America' (much expanded, to admit room for a millennium's worth of dead people), where white, English-speaking men are only a tiny, tiny minority in a red-skinned population that lived (and died) there for centuries before the continent was "discovered" by white men. Happy Spring! Richard Henzel Rambler Audio LLC The Mark Twain In Person Audio Library http://www.richardhenzel.com/marktwain