Analysis Of You Re Not The Indian I Had In Mind By Thomas King

Thomas King uses an oral story-telling style of writing mingled with western narrative in his article “You’re Not the Indian I Had in Mind” to explain that Indians are not on the brink of extinction. Through this article in the Racism, Colonialism, and Indigeneity in Canada textbook, King also brings some focus to the topic of what it means to be “Indian” through the eyes of an actual Aboriginal versus how Aboriginals are viewed by other races of people. With his unique style of writing, King is able to bring the reader into the situations he describes because he writes about it like a story he is telling. King first writes about Edward Sheriff Curtis and his search for “the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the imaginative construct” (37). King then juxtaposes this with his own goals to photograph Native peoples from all different areas of the world. Curtis would change aspects how Natives were dressed, even going so far as to dress them in clothing from other tribes in order to photograph exactly what he wanted the Natives to be seen as. King then jumps to a story of how he first realized

King explains that when he told them his race they were interested, yet weary. After spending a year in New Zealand, King wished to apply for an immigration visa. When speaking on the phone to a British man, King had answered a few questions but once he revealed he was Indian the British man assumed he meant East Indian and told him he could not apply for the visa. King then continues his story of his experience in Australia, there was a very little Aboriginal community there so a coworker of his enjoyed telling racist jokes straight to King himself. The people King has met throughout his lifetime, the ones who say or do racist things, even if they do it unknowingly, they are the ones who have never met or even seen Native people