Canadian 1890 Aboriginal Wit
We continue our Native American Heritage Month coverage, with cartoons & comics by whites, revealing the attitude of white society towards the Americas’ original inhabitants.
Above, from the July 12th, 1890 issue of the Canadian comic weekly, Grip, comes Ab-Original Wit — A Brantford Fact. The strip plays on the stereotype of Indians as drunkards, though, at the same time, it shows the native out-smarting the Canadian cop. Brantford is a city in Canada, which apparently was known for supplying alcohol to native tribes.
The strip is also one of many, from numerous sources, pre-dating the Yellow Kid, which tells its story entirely via in-panel dialogue exchange, years before that supposedly being “invented” in R.F.O.’s famous strip.
Click on the above comic strip, to enlarge it, and read the characters’ dialogue.
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— Doug
