He Wears a Feather
Oneida Sound Recording
Description: An Oneida mistaken for white told by Jefferson Baird to Dennison Hill and read by Amos Christjohn
Written text: Internlinear Translation (PDF)
Tip: Save the interlinear translation pdf to your computer and open it in Adobe Acrobat where you can click the lines and phrases to play embedded sound recordings.
English Translation
He Wears a Feather
There was this Johnny Mutt (Denny), now deceased, who had a son by the name of Aaron. Around the time that this Aaron was a child, he used to play together with the white children. These white children were often amazed that this Aaron always wore one feather in his hat. Finally they asked this boy why he always wore the feather. He said, “It’s because I am an Indian.” The whites were shocked because he was as white as the white people.
More Texts
This traditional Oneida story is one of several. For more, see our listing of Oneida Sample Texts.
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