Lil Hiawatha

Dwight Decker deckerd at agcs.com
Tue Apr 12 20:20:55 CEST 1994


Since there's been some discussion of Lil Hiawatha stories here, I'd
like to ask the Europeans a question. How are the Lil Hiawatha stories
translated in your countries? That is, are they written in some sort
of Indian dialect (the American English equivalent would be something
on the order of "Me scalp-um heap bad paleface, ugh!"), or are they
more dignified? I ask because I've had to translate/rescript some
Lil Hiawatha stories in English for Egmont in the past and I haven't
been sure how the stories will be handled when they're translated
into other languages based on my English scripts. I've been writing
them in proper English, if a little "poetically" elevated: "My son,
why do you spend your time chasing butterflies? Why do you not hunt
the mighty buffalo?" "Because the net's too small, Father!" Given
the growing sensitivity to ethnic matters in the US, even the most
harmless Lil Hiawatha stories may be unpublishable here, but for the
European market I'm trying to make them as inoffensive as I can even so.
	I think this all reflects a European fascination with American
Indians (and more generally, the American West), and European writers
despite their good intentions are still working at a distance. When
they write about Indians, the writers get things wrong or fail to
realize that times have changed. They're in love with the long-dated
view of Indians as cute characters with colorful names and charming
habits and customs, and don't consider that in the United States of
1994 Indians are very real people caught in changing times, with very
real problems. An example might be Peter Pan, both Barrie's original
play and the Disney version, which is starting to draw complaints
every time it's released (I fully expect that Peter Pan will one day
be on the shelf with Song of the South), because of its depiction of
Indians. The explanation is that those aren't real Indians, but British
storybook Indians (and the Darling boys aren't sure whether to fight
them or join them), and reflects mainly that fascination from a distance
Europeans have for Native Americans.
	That being as it may, I've worked on stories in the past by 
European writers that made me wince because of how they depicted 
Indians. The writers weren't trying to be offensive or insulting; 
they just didn't know.
	What do you Europeans think?

--Dwight Decker




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