> > I also knew a NYer who thought that if you went someplace like OK or
> > NM if you went outside of town an Indian might actually scalp you but
> > that isn't related to the point I'm making.
>
>
>Flashback or Phobia...
>It's hard to say.
>
>Anyone with a counter-cultural backround from the '60s can remember
>when Gallup, NM and Jackson Hole, WY were *extremely* fond of long
>hair hippie types(tongue planted firmly in cheek).
>
>The cowboys AND the indians had a problem with the lifestyle.
>For the cowboys, it was the hippie, pacifist, peacenik image.
>
>The indians? My guess is the voluntary "poverty" of all those
>middle class white kids was *really*, *really* annoying.
>
>Haircuts happened, and hippie "chicks" got raped on a regular...
Yes but these are examples of marginalized individuals being brutalized either by authorities or while the authorities were indifferent to their plight. This woman thought that WASPy types would be scalped and that the authorities would be unable to protect her and others from Indian savagery because efforts to pacify Indians had somehow failed in these areas of the country. A preposterous belief. It wasn't so much the voluntary poverty as much as the faux Native American spirituality, cliched Indian garb, and fake romanticization if some aspects of native culture that angered many. At least that is what I have been told by those who were there. I was five in 1970 so I have to rely on the memory of others from that time. This doesn't mean I wouldn't love to see Charles Krauthammers scalp hanging in my living-room next to my paintings. (was that in poor taste?)
John Thornton