Texan Progress

Greater than its sub-myths like Columbus and the Revolution, the Myth of Progress is the foundational American state of mind. Predicated on a clear division between Civilization and Savagery, the Myth of Progress tells the story of Civilization’s unstoppable progression into and conquest of the untamed wilderness. In the American version, Civilization is synonymous with “Democracy,” “Christianity,” and “America” itself. Native peoples fare poorly in this American myth, cast as the savages that must be overcome for America to fulfill her divine mission as the world’s shining light upon the hill.

Few American communities have as much invested in this myth as rural white Texas. Proud preservers of cowboy culture, the culture that “tamed the West,” Texas has historically celebrated Indian killers like those played by John Wayne. So it’s refreshing to see sensitive treatment of Native themes in the recent incarnation of the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation’s perennial melodrama Texas.

A celebration of the Panhandle’s colonization by white America, Texas could easily go down the same road as my least favorite movie, The Searchers. But instead of the Comanches being treated as murderers of white men and rapists of white women who need to be annihilated for civilization to progress across the continent, this new version of the 45 year old melodrama has added in celebrations of the Panhandle’s Comanche people. From introducing the first and only pan-Comanche Chief Quanah Parker as a peripheral character, to the inclusion of a Comanche hymn during a faux healing ceremony (enough to give whites an impression of what’s going on but not enough to be totally weird for Indians), David Yirak’s current adaptation of Paul Green’s script is commendable.

Of course, there’s still work to be done, especially with the character of Quanah Parker. First, it would be better if he was played by an Indian. Goodness knows there’s enough Indian actors out there hungry for work, and casting a non-Native is dangerously close to Henry Brandon’s Comanche travesty in The Searchers. Second, at one point Quanah Parker says, point blank, that the time of the Indian is over.

Still, it’s not as bad as it could have been, and, for Texas, it looks like representations of Indian people are heading in a positive direction. It plays through August in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, and tickets are available at http://www.texas-show.com/. It's worth going just to see how they utilize the space, which merits a review all of its own.