ibe he has only found Goshoots more or less modified by circumstances and surroundings (Hill 168-9)." Searching deeper one realizes that we are all the same, more or less modified by circumstances and surrounding. I could comically write that I met the most uncivilized group of creatures in a trailer park in Los Angeles. Would that be racist or is would it only be considered racist if the inhabitants were non-white? I wish I could see Twain’s notes on the Goshoot Indians to shed light on the true meaning of Twain’s opinion of them. The Dervish and the Stranger while satiric, indicates that he knew of the injustice caused to the Natives. The character of the Dervish believes that there is such a thing as a good deed. The Offensive Stranger, arguing with the Dervish, prophesies that "from every impulse, whether good or evil, flows two streams; the one carried health, the other poison (Budd, Tales 547)." As an example he shows a white Chief telling his people how their "heaven blest industry" allowed them to dam the river which helps them become "prosperous and happy (Budd Tales 548)." The next paragraph contains an Indian Chief lamenting that "The white American has dammed our river . . . and turned our field into a desert, wherefore we starve (Budd Tales 548)." Those thoughts seem more progressive than America’s modern high school textbooks. The Offensive Stranger further proves his case with Columbus. Columbus "gave to the plodding poor and the landless of Europe farms and breathing-space and plenty of happiness (Budd Tales 548)." But the Europeans "hunted and harried the original owners of the soul, and robbed them, beggared them, drove them from their homes, and exterminated them (Budd Tales 548)." This tit for tat doesn’t condemn nor support the persecution of the Natives but it at least acknowledges it. This was a very liberal step at the time. I noticed that the rest of the examples in The Dervish and the St...
