In 1833 John Treat Irving, Jr., only 20 years old, set off
west in the footsteps of his famous uncle, Washington Irving. Indian
Sketches chronicles his experiences traversing the prairie and living among
the Pawnees, Otoes, and other tribes.
Looking at everything with fresh eyes, Irving's sketches of
the people and customs he encountered avoid the common stereotypes of
Indians. There is a tragically amusing scene of his first encounter with an
Indian on that man's native land. The Shawnee stands heroic and tall in the
distance, and Irving fancies him "as noble as the soil of which he was
the master." However, the closer the party gets, the more bedraggled
and wretched the man looks, and Irving's fantasies are shattered.
So, - these are the Indians! This is a specimen of the
princely race that once peopled the wilds of America...We were
disappointed and did not reflect that we were looking only upon the dregs
of that people; that these were but members of those tribes who had long
lived in constant intercourse with the whites, imbibing all their
vices...and that the wild savage could no more be compared with his
civilized brother, than the wild, untamed steed of his own prairie, could
be brought in comparison with the drooping, broken-spirited drudge horse,
who toils away a life of bondage, beneath the scourge of a master.
Irving recovers from his disappointment with all the
buoyancy of any 20-year-old, and the rest of the book is dedicated to
incredibly realistic and literary portraits of people. The language is
always vivid, and Irving gets the same thrill out of watching a dramatic
battle scene as he does from describing the mischievous antics of the three
toothless old women who torture his party's cook. Early in the book he
describes the "welcome" he and his party receive from one tribe:
Suddenly, the Iotan galloped a few yards in front, and
waved his arm, uttering a long, shrill yell. It was answered by a loud
whoop from those on the hill; who instantly commenced whirling their
blankets around their heads. Then all was silent. For a few moments we
were in doubt as to the meaning of the manoeuvre; but suddenly a loud roar
rose from behind the bluff, and a dark troop of wild horsemen burst round
its base, and came pouring down upon us. There must have been several
hundred of them. Every man was naked, but glaring with paint. They flooded
onward, pealing out scream upon scream, brandishing their spears, and
whirling their tomahawks around their heads...I looked around upon our
little band, there were several lowering brows and tightly compressed
lips, and the fingers of two or three were on their gun triggers.
Equally intense are Irving's descriptions of the prairie
itself, dramatized in this passage about a prairie fire he witnessed:
Another gust came rushing along the ravine. It was
announced by a distant moan; as it came nearer a cloud of dry leaves
filled the air; the slender shrubs and saplings bent like weeds - dry
branches snapped and crackled. The lofty forest trees writhed, and
creaked, and groaned. The next instant the furious blast reached the
flaming prairie. Myriads and myriads of bright embers were flung wildly up
in the air: flakes of blazing grass, whirled like meteors through the sky.
The flame spread into a vast sheet, that swept over the prairie, bending
forward, illuminating the black waste which it had passed...
Irving's enthusiastic narrative includes in-depth pictures
of domestic life in villages, reports of the Pawnees sacrificing young women
to the Morning Star, and dramatic retellings of ancient legends. Indian
Sketches is a real adventure story, told in electrifying detail.
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