The Hekawi Tribe and Tribal Members
The Hekawi live an indeterminate distance from Fort Courage, though the directions to the camp are shared in one episode: "Make right turn at (the) big rock that looks like (a) bear, them make left turn at big bear that look like rock". The Hekawi tribe supposedly derived their name from an incident in which the tribe became lost mid-migration, and after wandering the plains for weeks and falling off a cliff, one of the braves asks "Where the heck are we?", which then became "We're the Hekawi" The original name for the tribe, 'Fugawi', was to be changed after the censors discovered the sentence "Where the Fugawi?" They are partners in O'Rourke Enterprises and produce most of the company's products. They are a peace-loving tribe, (mainly due to cowardice). The chicken-hearted braves of the Hekawis, "the tribe that invented the peace pipe", are "lovers, not fighters", according to their leader. Agarn has to teach them how to do a war dance. They have a 50/50 deal with O'Rourke and have a still which produces the whiskey for the saloon. As a sly jest based on the myth that Native Americans are the 13th tribe of Israel, many of the Hekawi Indians were played by veteran Yiddish comedians using classic Yiddish shtick. The regular "Indian" characters (none of whom were played by Native American actors) include:
- Chief Wild Eagle (Frank Dekova) – the shrewd, cranky but essentially good-natured leader of the Hekawi tribe, and business partner in the illegal O'Rourke Enterprises scheme. Like all the Indian characters portrayed in F Troop, he speaks in a Burlesque-Indian, broken English dialect. Often O'Rourke, Agarn, Parmenter, and Jane come to him for advice when they have a problem. Wild Eagle has an old Indian saying for every occasion, which even he sometimes admits he does not know the meaning of. He is portrayed as being the brother-in-law of Sitting Bull and the cousin of Geronimo. Wild Eagle once said that the peaceful Hekawis originally lived in Massachusetts, until the Pilgrims arrived and "ruined the neighborhood". DeKova's contribution to the series was deemed so important that, beginning in the second season, he is listed in the opening credits.
- Crazy Cat (Don Diamond) – Chief Wild Eagle's assistant and heir apparent. He often speculates on when he will become chief, and is subsequently rebuked by Chief Wild Eagle. He is not a featured character until the second season. "Craze" (as O'Rourke and Agarn sometimes call him) does become "acting chief" in an episode titled, "Our Brave in F Troop" (when O'Rourke and Agarn have to somehow sneak Wild Eagle into Fort Courage to see the army dentist so he can get his tooth pulled). Crazy Cat humorously comments on the situation, "When Wild Eagle away, Crazy Cat play."
Read more about this topic: F Troop, Regular Characters
Famous quotes containing the words tribe, tribal and/or members:
“It appeared that he had once represented his tribe at Augusta, and also once at Washington, where he had met some Western chiefs. He had been consulted at Augusta, and gave advice, which he said was followed, respecting the eastern boundary of Maine, as determined by highlands and streams, at the time of the difficulties on that side. He was employed with the surveyors on the line. Also he called on Daniel Webster in Boston, at the time of his Bunker Hill oration.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I should consent to breed under pressure, if I were convinced in any way of the reasonableness of reproducing the species. But my nerves and the nerves of any woman I could live with three months, would produce only a victim ... lacking in impulse, a mere bundle of discriminations. If I were wealthy I might subsidize a stud of young peasants, or a tribal group in Tahiti.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“The members of a body-politic call it “the state” when it is passive, “the sovereign” when it is active, and a “power” when they compare it with others of its kind. Collectively they use the title “people,” and they refer to one another individually as “citizens” when speaking of their participation in the authority of the sovereign, and as “subjects” when speaking of their subordination to the laws of the state.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)