Indians
Indians Author: Arthur Kopit
First Performance: 1968, London
Published: 1969
Genre: Hist. drama in 13 scenes
Setting: Wild West Show and US government building, 1886
Cast: 36m, 4f, extras
Scenes alternate between Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show and the hearings of an Indian Commission. The Wild West Show scenes promote an apolitical championing of the frontier spirit and celebrate the heroic myths of the white settlers who make the land their own. This is contrasted with the debate in the Indian Commission, where the whites cannot understand why the Indians keep breaking their treaties, and the Native Americans cannot comprehend why these treaties are based on the possession of territory, since owning land is a totally alien concept. When Colonel Forsythe excuses a massacre of Indians with the words: ‘Of...
[The entire page is 299 words long]
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