ABSTRACT
For much of our history, that stern, unyielding profile of the Indian that used to grace our nickels has dominated the popular imagination. Indians, it was believed, never laughed, despite early testimony to the contrary by Washington Irving. Writing about his 1832 trip to the prairies, Irving declared Indians to be by “no means the stoics that they are represented…. When the Indians are among themselves…there cannot be greater gossips…. They are great mimics and buffoons, also, and entertain themselves excessively at the expense of the whites… reserving all comments until they are alone. Then it is that they give full scope to criticism, satire, mimicry, and mirth” (in Basso 1979: x). Freud pointed out that humor as a social process requires a social ground, so when we factor in the highly structured tribal communities, it would be surprising if Indians were not comically gifted. Yet even today, as Vine Deloria notes, whites have yet to understand how humor permeates virtually every area of Indian life; indeed, he asserts that nothing in Indian national affairs is possible without it, and that people are frequently educated and made militant by biting, activist humor (1969: 147).
