Читать книгу A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner. U.S. Interpreter at the Saut de Ste. Marie онлайн

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That summer of 1846 in Sault Ste. Marie was known as the Tanner Summer; everything bad that happened was accredited to John Tanner. He was hunted by soldiers and bloodhounds, accused specifically of the murder of James Schoolcraft, but he was never found. He disappeared completely, and the time and manner of his death are yet a mystery; the last resting place of his bones is yet unknown to man.

Years later a skeleton was found in a swamp near Sault Ste. Marie and was thought to be his, but there were some doubters. Years after that an ex-army officer confessed the killing of James Schoolcraft, but it was too late to help John Tanner. To the people of Sault Ste. Marie he was still known as Old Tanner, or the White Indian, or the Old Liar.

The book itself has been both praised and condemned. The charge is made that he gives himself the benefit of all doubts, but this, remember, means doubts from the “civilized” point of view. It rather seems that from the Indian point of view he was quite honest. He did not equivocate over the fact that he had been spending his nights in Mis-kwa-bun-o-kwa’s teepee before he married her, nor is he in any manner boastful. He seems honest enough about his drinking; for a long time he did not drink at all, but later on he took it up to a certain extent. Likewise he tells in Indian fashion—the usual word is “stoical”—about sending a little slave girl into the cold without a blanket because she had allowed his tent to burn down. Actually stoicism implies the control of feelings, but it was not that with Tanner. He had no feeling about the matter; the girl had caused them suffering; therefore she was sent away. The element of punishment was not as large as the element of self-protection—which was why Tanner took the girl’s blanket from her: he and the surviving boy would need it to keep warm. In a country where all one’s resources are called on to maintain existence, there is not, biologically speaking, much encouragement to sentiment.