I used the above term yesterday, and someone whom I did not know, injected himself into the conversation and lectured me about prejudice. Come again? How humorless does someone need to be not to remember childhood games? In no uncertain terms, I told this person to shove it where the sun don't shine. To this person's mind, playing cowboys and Indians plays on negative stereotypes which reinforces bigotry and results in discrimination. I think he needs to get a grip.
My people are cattle and horse people. We're also a mixture of several races, mostly white and Indian. I think the unkind term is "breed," as in "half-breed." We don't use that word. In 1807, my gggggrandfather and his family were in Texas capturing wild mustangs to bring back to Louisiana and sell. By 1835, my family had the largest cattle herds in Texas. Cowboying and being an Indian is just who we were. When we were kids, our games reflected a lot of that heritage. Since my cousins and I were often darker than the neighbors, and because of our Indian blood, we almost always got to play the role of the Indians. We were very proud to be Indians. We knew the stories of Chief Joseph, Tecumseh, Pontiac, Cochise, Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse. We knew more great Indian Chiefs than the White kids knew White generals.
I remember the summer I turned 11. I was spending that summer with my Aunt Lela and her family. Their farm had horses for us kids to ride. Playing cowboys and Indians with real horses is the ultimate experience for an eleven-year-old. That was also the summer I learned that riding low and shooting at the enemy under the horse's neck is a lot more difficult that it looks, especially at a full gallop. My older cousin, when he stopped laughing at me laying in the dirt, explained to me that usually when you saw an Indian riding a pony with a blanket, the blanket was generally covering a saddle. Saddles gave you something substantial to hold onto when you were trying to do tricks. That was not the last time I fell off a horse, but by the end of that summer, I was a pretty darn good rider.
This is me at eight.
Yesterday, when I used the term, I was inviting some guys to come to the rodeo in Calgary this summer. I wasn't thinking about the trick riding from so many years ago, but I was thinking about the physical wrestling that often accompanied our games of cowboys and Indians. All those Canadian cowboys looking so cute in their wranglers and loud shirts, two-steppin', partying like there's no tomorrow in the tent and camper city set up next to the rodeo grounds. I had such a good time year before last that I get a big shit-eating grin on my face each time I think about it.
So, you bet I'm going back up to Calgary this summer and play cowboys and Indians, and just like I did when I was eleven, I get to be the Indian. If that bothers some politically correct yahoo with no sense of humor and no memory of his childhood, well then, tough shit. I'm fortunate in that I get to choose which side I want to be on.
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