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Campfires: An Unprompted History
These days we’ll do a “Pirate’s Cove” theme one year, “Adventure Inland” the next, then something controversial like “A Week at the Movies” before returning to “Pirate’s Cove,” but there was a time when Indians were the theme, the pull, the selling point. Boys slept in teepees and arrowed straw buffalos. Each camp had a brave to call its own, right there on the front of the pamphlet. Solemn, full-headdress Indian was more fun; plainclothes, nature-survivalist Indian had more dignity. Later, due to the rightful concerns of the Moms, natives were replaced by safe whites in redface who’d hung around the real thing for a long weekend, taking notes. My own Pap used to polish his face up burnt orange, then monotone to the kids about the tribal councils, the first Thanksgiving, headdress color combos, names that’re almost sentences, swinging from trees to cover tracks when pursued, and of nightly meetings at the burning council ring. Some bits were of disputed authenticity, like the ole hand over mouth “wa-wa-wa,” but it was loud and felt great to do. Great enough that everybody felt their racism shedding, letting themselves think of Indians as this far off dodo dream when, fewer miles away than you’d think, reservations still got their monthly deliveries of government hoof meat, a big step forward for our domestic diplomacy in that the cans weren't secretly coated with smallpox. But then the soldiers killed Hitler, came on home, squinted at how their boys got funny, and we soon cut the teepees and resident redman from the prop roster. We scrubbed the campfires white and used them for their hypnotic potential, for singing Eagles hits, for life-changing emotional appeals, and for tales of hook-handed lady-scrapers. They were too pretty to discontinue, too much fun, and budding girls looked too good in their light.
Gabe Durham lives with his wife in Nashville. He's a recent graduate of the MFA program at UMass, Amherst. He edits Keyhole Magazine and gives away free words at gatherroundchildren.com. These shorts are from a project called Fun Camp. You can read more of them in Hobart, Quick Fiction, Gargoyle, and elsewhere.
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