Frank Triplett
CONQUERING THE WILDERNESS; OR, NEW PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE PIONEER HEROES AND HEROINES OF AMERICA . . . New York and St. Louis: N.D. Thompson & Company, 1883.

The Indian of the Novelist
Frank Triplett
[xE85 T83 p. 488]

The tenor of this work is perhaps best exemplified by a passage in the chapter entitled "Indian atrocities."

Triplett notes that "marauding Indians" did not meet a just death, as did others murderers, such as "the stolid German, the mercurial Frenchman, the loafing Spaniard, or the restless American; the Chinaman, the negro, the Scandinavian . . ."

These two images offer contrasting views of the American Indian. The first image (left), "The Indian of the Novelist," presents the romanticized view of the Indian as a noble savage, at home and at peace in the wilderness.

The second image (right), "The Genuine Article," offers the author's preferred characterization of the Indian as a drunken blight upon civilization. The sign in the window of the Great Spirit Saloon reads "Poor Indians Friend," and the empty bottle lying in the street at the feet of the drunken Indian is labeled "Stomach Bitters."

The author's outrage at the preferential treatment of Indians was expressed in bitter irony, as he bemoaned the fact that "the indian is taken to Washington, feted, loaded down with presents, and turned loose with the impression that these are the rewards of murder." To Triplett, a cabal of Indian agents, government officials, and "bottle-nosed humanitarians" pampered and protected their "savage proteges."

The Genuine Article
Frank Triplett
[xE85 T83 p. 489]