Pidgin english was a way for the settlers and cowboys to trade with the various tribes. That "How!" isn't making fun of them, it's what an old-timey indian would learn as a greeting.
The etymology of "red skin" was probably a french translation (peaux rouges) in the early 1700s, and it didn't have a pejorative meaning until around 2005. Just like "black" or "white" isn't considered prejudiced in modern context, but "yellow" is, I'd say it's murky waters where wording is concerned. Did natives actually have red skin? I'm not sure, but I know I get flushed when I drink. I always thought the Peter Pan indians were all drinking and having a solid pow-wow, didn't they smoke a pipe with children in that movie? That cartoony caricature wasn't seen as problematic until the late nineties in my memory.
Well, they're actually pretty brown; but out in the sun, yeah, they can burn like a white man, so it kinda gives them a reddish tinge, I guess. Had a weird argument with some kid lately about how their school teams in some game/exercise shouldn't use white armbands any more (it involved team spirit cheers) because of the "connotations". I got them to admit that black ones should probably be off the list, too, but when she argued that Natives aren't really "red" and Orientals aren't really "yellow", (I suggested those and brown should also be on the "naughty racist colours" list) she couldn't understand that whites aren't really "white". It was weird to see the mental dissonance happen there.
And yeah, I do believe they smoked a peace pipe. Not only is tobacco itself the devil now, but they smoked stuff that was a lot stronger than any commercial stuff they sell now, strong enough to reportedly cause mild hallucinations. Not to mention that weed was a lot more common than the 20th century generations had come to believe, once trade between the continents started ...... (When I was a kid, I remember reading old-timey books where kids would make a big fat deal over poppy-seed cakes. What I didn't know, after trying a modern one, was that they were talking about real poppy seeds, which had a bit of your opium effect ...) Peter Pan and certain other stories date from before Prohibition and all that brought in the idea that maybe kids shouldn't be allowed things like booze, smokes, and other drugs ... (Hell, when I went to Greece in 1992, they didn't have min. age laws yet, and I saw a 10 year old kid buy a beer from a kiosk.)
Pidgin english was a way for the settlers and cowboys to trade with the various tribes. That "How!" isn't making fun of them, it's what an old-timey indian would learn as a greeting.
The etymology of "red skin" was probably a french translation (peaux rouges) in the early 1700s, and it didn't have a pejorative meaning until around 2005. Just like "black" or "white" isn't considered prejudiced in modern context, but "yellow" is, I'd say it's murky waters where wording is concerned. Did natives actually have red skin? I'm not sure, but I know I get flushed when I drink. I always thought the Peter Pan indians were all drinking and having a solid pow-wow, didn't they smoke a pipe with children in that movie? That cartoony caricature wasn't seen as problematic until the late nineties in my memory.
AIPE
Well, they're actually pretty brown; but out in the sun, yeah, they can burn like a white man, so it kinda gives them a reddish tinge, I guess. Had a weird argument with some kid lately about how their school teams in some game/exercise shouldn't use white armbands any more (it involved team spirit cheers) because of the "connotations". I got them to admit that black ones should probably be off the list, too, but when she argued that Natives aren't really "red" and Orientals aren't really "yellow", (I suggested those and brown should also be on the "naughty racist colours" list) she couldn't understand that whites aren't really "white". It was weird to see the mental dissonance happen there.
And yeah, I do believe they smoked a peace pipe. Not only is tobacco itself the devil now, but they smoked stuff that was a lot stronger than any commercial stuff they sell now, strong enough to reportedly cause mild hallucinations. Not to mention that weed was a lot more common than the 20th century generations had come to believe, once trade between the continents started ...... (When I was a kid, I remember reading old-timey books where kids would make a big fat deal over poppy-seed cakes. What I didn't know, after trying a modern one, was that they were talking about real poppy seeds, which had a bit of your opium effect ...) Peter Pan and certain other stories date from before Prohibition and all that brought in the idea that maybe kids shouldn't be allowed things like booze, smokes, and other drugs ... (Hell, when I went to Greece in 1992, they didn't have min. age laws yet, and I saw a 10 year old kid buy a beer from a kiosk.)