Roderick Man
THE CHINA MAIL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1961,
columnist, goes scout
in Indian whätuot
Something Unforgettable Happens When You Give a Parker 61
To the attack-but behind the war-paint how many palefaces?
I track down Redwing
I WAS
A weekend guest at Cary Grant's home in Palm Springs, and we were out riding the range, drinking in the crisp desert air, when Mr Grant sudden- ly said: "Anytime now you'll see your Indians.”
I have been interested an Indians, you sec, ever since i gut a television set-first be- cause I was curious to know why it was they always lost, anl sndly because i was curious
to know where it was they all
-fastest gun
in the TV West
And there they all were, the Agua Caliente Indians. lolling
and making
like they millionuires.
which
abou were uli come
of them, galim
went after Maverick and Gun rapidly becoming. 5.oke were finished.
And Mr Grant, whom you can count on to produce anything at moment's notice (in London
1:
ence I asked him to bring along
ITALIAN-STYLE
Years
of brainwashing by Hollywood Westerns had led me
to suppose that some Ingens.
a dinner date for me and he turned up with Ingrid Berg- man), said he would be glad to least, still wandered around turn up an Indian or wo for wearing head-dresses
Ne
RICHEST TRIBE
As it was he turned up a whole tribe and the richest Indians in America at that. The Agua Caliente tribe, who own
t of Palm Springs.
Palm Springs is the plushy about 100 niles Jm los Angeles, where all the I'm sars
to F1 those speescolar subians.
៥
If you didn't know better you might suppose it was rather derent of a benevolent Ameri- en Government to have gives the idlaus such a choice spot to pitch their wigwams, or whate ever it is that Indians pitch,
over to the
With that, away he ride, pre- sumably to make sure his. ich little Indian was not fogging off mure territory while his any back was turned
Now Mr Grant is not the man to do things by halven
Realising that I was taking this Red Indian thing seriously, be decided to produce A full- for ne. And not blooded one one who lived off the fat of his land either, but une who work
thal was
ed hard for a living.
And so il smok-
Redwing.
ing pipes or holding an peca- slonal pow-wow
were.
But, no. There they Ail in their Havan-style suits and shazzy loutwea leaning against their cars, and obviously not giving a damn at living up
to their
television-brand
image.
Presently Mr Grant and I were joined by ta!! rangy- looking character who turned out to be the Mayor of Palm Springs, Frank Bogert.
liked
him immediately, which was just as well, for he stood about ft. tall in his row- boy boots.
Redwing.
} met
Chicasaw Indian, is one of the most sensational pistol shots in the world 11 he who teaches most of the Hollywood cowboys in shoot, and If you ever see Yul Brynner. Tony Quinn, or Marlon Brando being fast on the draw. 11
kimost certainly because
Redwing's expert roaching.
of
At 2011. be can fire at a knife. split the bullet on it, and shalter two targets.
His drawing and firing speed is a Difth of a second, and if you think that's fasl you don't should see it
Or rather try to see it, for the hand is shoply a blur.
Redwing, th my disappoint- ment, showed up in a smart brown the
silk suit and chose Bloody Mary as his particular brand of firewater.
These here Indians," said Mr Bogert, "are the luckiest god- dam Indians alive. There are only about 100 of them En Agua Caliente
be- tribe, and tween them they own 46 per
of Palm Springs. "Can you imagine what that means in
fast-growing,
cen
But the truth is, of course, inst when they handed Palm wealthy community like ours? Springs
Agua And what do they do? Nothing. Calicole some 70 years ago, it Boy-you've never seen anyone was nothing but a
worthlessler
as lazy as a lazy Indian. I ought piece of desert.
to know.
Jus how much that useless pleve of desert is worth today can be judged by the fact that recently one Indian got $100,000 for 20 acres of land which the city of Palm Springs needed to extend its airport.
Mr Grant and I rode on across the
desert, and pretty sure enough, we found Sour.
ourselves in Indian lervitory.
WOTAN
I am the conservator of a young Indian called Pete Siva. That means
Str. officially to look after his appointed interests by the State.
TYPICAL
"Pete is 3 typical Indian. Twenty-two years old and com- pletely irresponsible. Before I became his conservator he sold some of his land and went through $80,000 within 8lx
months.
was happening to so many Indians out here that two years ago they began appointing conservators to look after the indians' interests.
"Now Pete can't do anything without my 0K.”
your job is to teach him to be + good, careful, rich little Indian?" I said,
"Yessuh," said Mr Bogerl. 9ft. of lean mayoral dignity, "that's my job."
I told him what I had learned about his red brothers in Palm Springs, and he said "Ugh." At Jeast, that's what it sounded like though it might have been him choking in his drink.
LIKE CHILDREN
"Shall I answer you in Indian or American talk?" he asked.
"Try a bit of both," I sug- gested.
"Right." he said. makum me Rick."
"Paleface
"Why?" I asked. "Listen," he said "Have you any idea what a rotten deal the Indians have had from the American Government over the years?
"Do you
know that until a few years ago we were not even allowed to drink on the reser- vations? It was against the law for E white man to sell 08 liquor. We could not vote: we could not gel a passport.
We were treated like children.
They gave you all that stuff about putting us on reservations to help maintain our ancient
"Do
you think
for a minute the
while man would have given us that lood in Palm Springs if he had thought it would one day be worth
dime? Не thought fl Wax useless descri-
CHICABAW 'REDWING
and that was why we got it" Redwing sank his Bloody Mary in stience staring gloomily at the table,
"Let me tell you something about my race," he said
Indians "Do you know the only ever lost two battles against the white man during the whole of the territory wars?
"Yet on television we lose five & night. It makes me mad. When the white man wins it's
If we ever win. great victory by some mistake, it's always a
massacre
yesu tell "Everything they aboul Indians is usually
They'l tell wrong.
we you would never fight at night, that too scared. It's not we were
We didn't fight at night because al night the great spirit couldn't see
our brave dreds, and if we were killed we would no! Ire sure of going to the happy hunting ground.
true
IMPOSSIBLE
"Also, to get
日 new feather in our bonnets which was the same as the white man earning a medal we had to be seen touching our enemy.
· Paleface makum me sick
He spread his arms wide in a gesture of despair.
"Do you know how many Indians there are working in Hollywood movies?" he domand- ed. "Eight Eight that's all. but plays Indians Everyone Indians.
"Italians play Indlas we call them Wopahos, Jews play adians we call them Scimo- hawks. Everyone plays us, ex- cept Indians.
When
"So what can we do? people ask me why it is that the
Indians
on tele- always tose vision, 1 always answer the thing: 'Because white man writum scripta.""
I told him that after all this I would never again feel the same about television Westerns.
was concerned, As far as those Indians could tear Robert Horton limb from limb, because would know, of course, thai they weren't really Indians at all
bunch merely a
of big phoneys from Falermo or
or Tel bucks. Aviv earning a couple of buc
Redwing, I could Bee, was these sentiments, pleased with
but he did hasten to point out that he was earning his bread and butter by teaching the heroic-looking television pale faces how to shout, and would I please not be too hasty in kicking my television set out of the window.
We got up to go, and I walked with him out to his car.
"You know something." he "there's st A law in said, operation which prohibits the shooting of Indians trem moving street cars.
That's how much they think
"So you see, it was impossible for us to fight in the darkness.
And you want to know some- thing else? We copled many of from the white our criselts man. It was the white man who started scalping. They scalped Indians for hair to send back to Europe to make up as wigs.
"A good scalp would fetch as much as $500, even in those days. Well we thought it quite of us: they haven't even bother-
good idea.
started
to repeal it. So remember, "d to scaloing ton."
"But there's something very if
you want to take a shot at one of us, for heaven's sake walt few people know. A few people We lived after being scalped.
the car until
stops, otherwise thev'il fine you." only
"I will
I said will remember," solemnly.
-If you'd like to see me shoot sometime," will be happy Redwing said. "just
so we
ever took one or two square inches from the top of the head." He sat back and gave a wide smile and ordered another round of drinks.
me
DESPAIR
"If you Indians take all this
culture and way of life. The so much to heart," I said, "why truth is we were dumped on the don't you refuse to work in reservations to get ds out of the films where they always show way.
you losing?"
get in
"Just
to vive you a demonstration."
"I would enjoy that," I said, "How do I reach you
"Oh," he said dryly. send up some smoke signals. No, on second thoughts, that's rather a messy business. Use the phone, I always do."
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