THE INDIAN AND FRANKNESS
Another thing the white race might learn from the Indian, and it would
be well for them if they did, is the virtue of frankness. If an Indian
likes you or dislikes you, he lets you know. There is no pretense, no
hypocrisy, and in his speech he indicates his feelings. Then, too, he
is not offended by plain speech. If he lies and you tell him so, he
honors you; and if you lie, he will not hesitate to say so. Making the
fingers of both hands as a tongue on each side of the mouth, he says:
“You talk two ways at once,” which is Indian for our ruder vernacular:
“You are a liar!” There are no conventional lies among Indians. They
do not speak untruths for the sake of politeness. They have learned
the lesson of the Man of Galilee, who two thousand years ago taught,
“Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay, for whatsoever is more than
these cometh of evil.” Of course there are untruthful Indians, but
with the major part their word is never broken. I would just as soon
take the simple word of most of the Indians I know as that of the most
upright and honored of the old-fashioned Southern gentlemen. And I
would no more think of insulting the Indian by putting his integrity in
speech on the same plane as that of the ordinary society or business
man or woman of America than I would insult the lion by calling him a
wolf. Strong words, but true, and capable of demonstration. Too often
Indians who come in contact with the whites learn to lie, but the pure,
uncontaminated, uncivilized Indian hates a lie and a liar as much
as the proverb says the devil hates holy water. I shall never forget
the impression made in the court-room at Flagstaff, Arizona, when
Bigwoetten, a Navaho Indian, who had been charged with murder, and who
had sent word to the sheriff that it would be useless to hunt for him
as he could never be found, but that, if he was wanted, he would come
in when the trial began,--I say, I shall never forget the marvelous
impression caused by the proud stalking into the court-room of this
old and dignified Indian, and his speech to the judge: “Though I am
sore wounded, and the journey over the desert has been dreary and long,
and has well-nigh killed me, I gave my word that I would be here,--the
word of a Navaho that never was broken--so here I am. Do with me as you
will, so that you do honestly.”
[Illustration: THE AUTHOR HAVING A POW-WOW WITH THE YUMA INDIANS.]
Several times, with perfect confidence, I have risked my life in
exploring trips, on the mere word of an Indian that he would be at such
a place at a certain time with food and water. And such has been my
experience that now I never hesitate to accept the simple word of any
Indian who has an ordinarily good reputation.
I have often had pow-wows with various tribes and whatever they have
promised me in such councils has invariably been performed.
And yet there is a peculiar twist to the mentality of many Indians
that needs comment here. When a stranger is questioning an Indian
about anything that she (or he) deems of no great importance, as, for
instance, the meaning of a certain design on a basket, the Indian
conception of politeness leads her to give you the reply your question
seems to call for. For instance, if you see a zigzag design on a basket
and you ask her, “Is this to represent lightning?” she thinks that is
what you want it to represent, so she says, “Yes!” Ten minutes later
and her questioner asks, “Is this the ripple of the sunshine on water?”
Again with the same thought uppermost in her mind, that she must be
polite to her questioner, that that is the answer asked for, she says,
“Yes!” And so on with a dozen different questioners, and all of them
with a different interpretation of the same symbol, her answer would
be “yes” every time. This, however, is not untruth. It is because the
white questioner does not know that his is not the method of extracting
truth from an Indian. He has asked for a certain answer and he has it.