ain always tried to dispel myths and Cooper’s "Noble Red Man" image obviously chaffed him as evidenced by Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences (Quirk 377). He worked so hard at dispelling this myth that he likens the coyote, vulture, and Indian by claiming that they go about "hating all other creatures (Hill 79)." If you read Twain’s commentary on other races you will realize that without a few jokes at their expense the Indians would be left out and might be seen as superior to the other races. That would be racism. Twain also used his satire of the Goshoots to sustain other attacks one on the Baltimore and Washington railroad companies and another on religion. I think that an intelligent critic will notice Twain’s curious call for us to "find it in our hearts to give these poor naked creatures our Christian sympathy and compassion (Hill 169)." Twain thought little of what he considered oppressive and contradictory religious teaching so he was obviously joking. Although he claimed the Goshoots are extremely uncivilized The United States of Lyncherdom calls on Missionaries in China to return because "The Chinese are univerally considered to be excellent people, honest, honorable, industrious, trustworthy, kind-hearted . . . and besides, almost every convert runs the risk of catching our civilization (Budd Tales 484)." He didn’t highly value civilization so calling them uncivilized is a compliment. "It was curious to see how quickly the paint and tinsel fell away from him and left him treacherous, filthy and repulsive" also seems racist on the surface (Hill 168-9). Twain seemed to take a shot at Natives although it’s more of an attack on Cooper for painting and tinseling them up whenever Cooper needs either an eloquent speech or a trail followed. Twain felt that Cooper was being unfair in depicting the Indians as he did rather than how they really were. He continued with "wherever one finds an Indian tr...
