"All the Indians in films spoke a sort of English..." (p. 9) <this no doubt refers to "pidgin English">
"This Indian-his Indian- was behaving in every way like a real live Indian brave, and despite the vast difference in their size and strengths, Omri respected him..." (p. 10)
"...he said, in what he supposed was Indian English, "Me-no-hurt-you." (p. 10)
"And what about a drink? Milk? Surely Indian braves did not drink milk? They usually drank something called 'firewater' in films, which was presumably a hot drink..." (p. 18)
<This brings forth the idea that people assume all Indians are alcoholics who cannot resist the 'firewater". >
Omri assumes Little Bear lives in a teepee but L.B. says longhouse (p. 21)
"...yet when he saw how the Indian, who was altogether in his power, faced him boldly and hid his fear, he lost all desire to handle him- he felt it was cruel, and insulting to the Indian, who was no longer his plaything but a person he respected." (p. 22, talking about Omri)
"Surely you sleep in tepees sometimes?"
"Never," said Little Bear firmly.
"I've never heard of an Indian who didn't," said Omri. (p. 23)
"The Indian stood calmly with folded arms, evidently disapproving of this display of excitement. 'So? Magic. The spirits work much magic.'" (p. 27)
"It occurred to Omri for the first time that his idea of Indians, taken entirely from Western films, had been somehow false." (p. 29)
"The Indian hadn't seemed very surprised about being in a giant house in England. He had shown that he was very superstitious, believing in magic and in good and evil spirits." (p. 30)
<belief in spirit realm, a 'natural' connection to the sacred and supernatural)
"What else? A horse?"
"Horse!" Little Bear seemed surprised.
"Don't you ride? I thought all Indians rode."
Little Bear shook his head. "Iriquois walk." (p. 32)
He then shows a mystic connection to the horse and soon rides very well. (p. 35)
Discusses the actual foods of the Iriquois, the "Three Sisters" of Maize, corn & squash (p. 51)
"The book (On the Trail of the Iriquois), in its terribly grown-up way, was trying to tell him something about why the Indians had done such a lot of scalping. Omri had always thought it just an Indian custom, but the book seemed to say that it wasn't at all, at least not til the white man came. The white man seemed to have made the Iroquois and the Algonquin keen on scalping each other, not to mention white men, French or English as the case might be, by offering them money and whiskey and guns..." (p. 51)
Boone, the cowboy, won't eat with Little Bear.
"Don't be silly, Boone," he (Omri) said firmly.
"Ah ain't bein' silly! Them Injuns ain't just onery and savage. Them's dirty." (p. 99)
<concept; how "cowboys" are thought to have perceived Indians.>
"Looka here, Injun," said Boone. "If we're gonna fight, we're gonna fight fair. Probably ain't even a word for 'fair' in your language..." (p. 102)
"It was the usual sequencee in which the pioneer's wagons are drawn into a circle and the Indians are galloping around them while the outnumbered men of the wagon train fire muzzle-loading guns at them from through the wagon wheels." (p. 198)
Little Bear: "White men move onto land! Use water! Kill animals!" (p. 150)
"And when Boone is better, do you know what you're going to do? You're going to make him your blood brother!"
Little Bear shot him a quick, startled look. "Blood brother?"
"...It's an old Indian custom."
Little Bear looked baffled. "Not Indian custom."
"I'm sure it is! It was in a film I saw."
"White man idea. Not Indian." (p. 167)
Little Bear raised his arm in the Indian salute. (p. 178) <WHAT "Indian salute"?>
No comments:
Post a Comment