Crimes of appropriation Serving World Famcus Fish & Chips in HORSESHOE BAY since 1946 White Canada consiructs the Imaginary Indian The Imaginary Indian, The Im- age of the Indian in Canadian Culture, by Daniel Francis, Publ. Arsenal Pulp Press, pp. 258, paper. ‘VE OFTEN wondered why tourists still buy those chocolate-skinned Indian doils as souvenirs of their trip to Canada. Would it not be equally appropriate to buy a white-skinned doll in a three-piece suit? Barbarc Black BOOK REVIEW Read North Vancouver author Daniel Francis’ book The Imagi- nary Indian and you will under- stand why. in it he ex plains how white Ca- nadians have compiled an image of the Indian based on their own fictions and biases and how they have then appropriated aspects of this ‘‘imaginary Indian’’ into their ewn culture. Francis traces the evolution of this ‘‘fictionalizing’” process from the 1700s to the present day. The main focus, saturally, is on the colonizing days of this grand country, when white culture came face to face with an obstacle to their vision of progress: the Indian. In the beginning, however, the indian got good, if unrealistic, press. Natives, says Francis, were viewed as ‘‘a symbol of the natu- ral virtue of the New World.” The indian was the noble sav- age, the first link in the great chain of civilization. Truth be told, most people didn’t havea clue how indians looked or behaved. Their image of the Canadian native was largely derived from popular (and often highly roman- tic) paintings oi the time, Painters such as Pau! Kane believed that by painting the In- dian they were preserving for eternity a disappearing race. In the early 1800s Kane travelled across Canada capturing the natives in their “natural” state. But as Francis points out, Kane’s paintings, much adored by the public, were not entirely authen- tic. Like other artists who would follow, Kane altered the landscape or added details to his canvases that were not native to the natives. Rather than documenting a “dying race,"’ Kane was unwit- tingly documenting the attitude of his own race in the 19th century —~ that, duc to the influx of whites, Canadian natives were doomed to extinction. This belief fuelled a romantic cult of the Indian that would carry on for years to come. (And en- dures in those plasticated Indian souvenir dolls.) Tourists were lured to Canada with the image of the noble red man. The CPR capitalized on the curiosity by publishing photos of natives one might hope to see on rail travel. Crowds swarmed to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show to see real natives participate in a fic- tional drama of bad Indians versus good white guys. Ironically, while the government was busy eradicating the pesky natives (not by killing them but their culture), they were going to huge efforts to documeni aboriginal life. Francis is careful not to paint his own biased picture of the white culture in early Canada. To assure us that our race is not peopled solely by cretins, he pro- vides examples of officials or artists who had a deeper understanding of the natives and great sympathy for their plight. But however sympathetic, mést were convinced either that the natives would die out or that their only certainty for survival was to assimilate, Qn the other hand, Canadian respectables such as writer and in- tellectual Stephen Leacock held the rather unkindly view that natives were the fowest rank of civilization. In a very unhumorous history book he wrote: ‘Their (natives’) use of the resources of the coniti- nent was scarcely more than that by crows and wolves, their devel- opment of it nothing.”’ Although the Indian would not vanish, the whites were convinced the ‘‘true Indian’’ (whatever that was) no longer existed. The image of the noble savage -soon developed alter egos — the tuthless savage and the childlike savage. Popular Mountie fiction in the early 1900s, writes Francis, por- trayed the Indians as “superstitious and credulous,”’ and in dire need of protection. In the late 1800s and early 1900s penny dreadfuls and Hollywood movies oifered up the image of the blood-thirsty