The Noble Savage at the Lincoln Memorial

The Covington Catholic High School saga continues. Glenn Beck and Ben Shapiro have both released YouTube videos showing them shaking with outrage about the way the high school kids have been treated in the media. I have never seen either of them this worked up. I wonder if a watershed has been reached.

Nobody seems to have noticed, but the Noble Savage myth has played a major part in this fiasco. The original and fraudulent story was taken entirely from the testimony of Nathan Phillips, the “native elder,” and the video he supplied.

Surely, under normal circumstances, news outlets would have checked it. I was taught two basic rules of journalism: first, in any controversy, always get statements from both sides. Second, for any assertion of fact, get three sources. Obviously, in this case, neither rule was followed. By the biggest names in journalism. Why?

Because, I suggest, the informant was an Indian. The Noble Savage myth clicked in. Because Indians are considered perfectly natural beings, it follows, everyone supposes, that they cannot tell a lie. That would imply a post-Eden, fallen consciousness; Indians are still in the Edenic state, incapable of sin. They cannot lie any more than a woodchuck can.

This is why, back in the 19th century, Indians were regularly used to peddle patent medicines, and the medicines themselves were usually claimed to be Indian herbal remedies. In fact, there is no Indian tradition of herbal medicine. But if an Indian says it works, it must be true.

A con artist who is also an Indian can make hay forever on this popular prejudice. A con artist who is not an Indian is liable to say they are, to reap the same benefit: Carlos Casteneda’s Don Juan, the real author of “Black Elk Speaks,” the author of the famous speech attributed to Chief Seattle; Grey Owl, real name Archie Belaney. Not to mention any current Democratic presidential contenders.

So everyone took Phillips’ claims about what happened, and about being a Vietnam War veteran, as necessarily true. Not just the media, but almost everyone who saw the original story, including just about everyone on the right. The bubble probably burst only because one of the students made their own statement on their own initiative on social media, finally inspiring someone to go back and check.

I doubt any of it could have happened were an Indian not involved.

And while this gives great benefits to dishonest Indians—who can, for example, claim anything they want in treaty negotiations, and the courts will uphold their version—it does great harm to most Indians. Because the corollary of being an innocent forest creature is that they supposedly cannot think for themselves, have no free will, and so for their own safety cannot be given the responsibilities of an adult human.