Native Americans and Racism in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

What I researched and why: As I read through the critical, secondary text "Why Mark Twain Murdered Injun Joe" I came upon an interesting passage: "We know what was done to Blacks, so we care about Jim; we don't know what was done to Indians, so we care nothing for Joe" (Revard 338). This passage made me question the circumstances and history surrounding the Native Americans and the underlying cause of the racism against them, which could possibly answer why Mark Twain was so hateful towards Injun Joe in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". To answer my questions, I turned to the internet to get a brief history of what led to the prejudice against them.

What I found: I searched the web to gain a better understanding of what exactly happened to the Native Americans because I am not as familiar with their history as I am with African American history. I found on essay about the Native Americans that includes an unauthored very concise history (only a couple of sentences) explaining the impact Europeans had on Native American life. Although some of the claims may not be based on fact, the essay provides an interesting insight as to the development of racism against the Native Americans. The author suggests that the treaties made between the American government and the Native Americans was the start of the racism against them. Here is the web address to this site that I discuss in my post: http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/24163.html. I also found a site that discusses Twain's ideology concerning American Indians when he wrote this novel, which suggests that Twain viewed Indians as not having a place in American culture and the idea that their bad behavior was caused by bad Indian blood. The web address to this website is http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/joe.html.

My interpretation: No where in the history of Native Americans did I find a description of them being murderous or overly criminal, as Mark Twain portrays Injun Joe to be, in fact Native Americans "were overall a peaceful people who enjoyed family, prayer, and creativity" (http://www.indians.org/articles/american-indians.html). The only reason, according to history, that Indians are 'hated' is because Europeans wanted their land, and fought to the death for it. I feel that this history is important in analyzing "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" because when I read it, I first thought that Injun Joe was only a bad character because he was criminal. I did not realize that the author, Mark Twain, was deceptively inserting his own racist feelings into the text. If Twain's goal was only to depict an criminal character then there is no need to insert the derogatory title 'Injun' in front of his name. Although Mark Twain may have very strong feelings as to why Indians are terrible people, I could not find anything to support the fact that Indians were anymore or anyless criminal than the next person, which completely rejects Twain's "culture of violence" theory he had about Native Americans.

What this adds to our discussion: I feel that this adds to our discussion in that it is important to acknowledge the fact that Mark Twain is wrong in his portrayal of Injun Joe, solely because his basis for Injun Joe's behavior is due to the fact that he is Indian, and not just a bad person. I first read this book in grade school and am concerned that children may also relate Injun Joe's behavior to his ethnic background, as Twain did, thereby reinforcing the unfounded racism against Native Americans.