HIS69-260 Halfbreed

FOREWORD

For many young men the late teens are a period of discovery. They are a trying time, full of painful discoveries. As boys grow into men and begin to explore the world they soon discover things are not what they seemed in the safety of their families. Often times they discover that they themselves are not who they thought they were. Patterns of behavior to which they’ve adhered since childhood become fragile as they discover the differences between their own desires and the desires imposed on them by their family and culture. The values and virtues they’ve been taught to respect become untenable because they do not work. Little has been done to prepare them for “the real world.”

Rick Swenson was one such young man. All his life he had been wrapped in the safe cocoon of his family’s posh Beverly Hills house. His was in every sense a normal, middle class life. Good looking and athletic, the only son of an preeminent Los Angeles lawyer, Rick was high on the list of a number of eligible young ladies. Had it not been for one single incident, Rick might have gone on indefinitely living in the security of upper middle class suburbia. His stern father caught him with the Mexican house boy while the young servant was engaging in oral sex with him. His shocked father sent him packing to work on his Grandfather’s ranch in Wyoming. The experience would expose him to “real” men.

It exposed Rick to more than that. The labels to which Rick was accustomed had no value among the rough hands on the ranch. He was a subhuman object to be subjected to their every whim. He had no idea what the foreman meant when he told the hands to break the young man in right, but he soon learned.

When he attempted to defend himself, he received a beating that nearly killed him and sent him fleeing through the night for his life. Discovered by the Indians the next morning, Rick is taken to the Indian Agency Hospital. As he recovers he is invited by Johnny Larson, a white man living on the reservation, to remain there for the summer, to learn something about the Indian heritage that has been denied him by his white father.

The physical damage is small compared to the emotional degradation which Rick experienced. Through the kindness and care of Johnny Larson and his halfbreed lover, Rick is able to face and accept the reality that lay hidden behind his middle class up bringing. He is able to accept himself, both as Indian and as white, and as a homosexual. The careful guidance he receives from Johnny and Dave Littlebear, are the turning point in Rick’s life. Through them he meets the young Indian, Danny Nashkoma, who offers to teach him the ways of the Arapaho and who becomes his lover. Because of them he is able to respond with kindness and affection when he discovers the horrible punishment his Grandfather has inflicted on Red Haggarty. Through them he gains the insight and the strength to return to his father and face through the hypocrisy which has shrouded his life since the death of his mother.