A Purpose in Life

An AQC

A Note on John Tanner
Indian Captive from Boone County, Kentucky

Pioneers were reputed to have hard lives. Much has been made of this, and it is mostly true, but there were people who lived even harder lives. The so-called red-men, or Indians, are sometimes thought to live free and easy lives out in the woods, but there are enough people with a sense of reality that this idea has not been totally accepted.

When a book like John Tanner's Narrative (recently reprinted as The Falcon) comes along the realistic aspect of Indian life comes to the fore. Almost every review of the book concentrates on how hard the life was, and how much he endured. This is all true, but is not the whole story.

When he was first adopted John was treated most cruelly. This cannot be denied. His adoptive father tomahawked him and left him for dead for falling asleep when he was supposed to be working. He was almost constantly hungry. He says he slept near the door of the lodge and everyone who went by at night either kicked him or poured cold water on him. He also endured other kinds of highly disgusting treatment. No one should be treated this way, of course, but it may have made his later survival possible.

He mentions being stranded in snowstorms several times. He knew if he stopped or rested he would not be able to continue. Once his mother, Netnokwa, had moved the camp several miles away, not expecting him back. He was so frostbitten he could not leave home to hunt for a month afterwards. Anyone accustomed to soft surroundings and good treatment would probably have sat down and given up in such adverse circumstances. We have a number of examples of John's extreme stubbornness.

Was his life sad? Yes, in certain ways; but everyone has a sad life to some extent. No one gets out alive. We all experience sickness, death, horror of various kinds, some more than others. Life is not fair, but even hardship gives a sense of purpose that most lives would not have any other way. Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman, wrote of this with great insight in his book The True Believer (1951):

The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility. The goals are concrete and immediate. Every meal is a fulfillment; to go to sleep on a full stomach is a triumph; and every windfall a miracle.

At one point John Tanner went to work for a white trader. The life promised to be much more easy than that to which he was accustomed, and also to lead to greater prosperity. Nevertheless, after a short time John became dissatisfied and went back to his hunting life. He knew that hunger would continue to be a significant aspect of his life; so be it: hunger has played a significant role in the history of civilization. An eminent philosopher once wrote: "Hunger made the gods."

Though John Tanner's life was hard, it was full of adventure, there was little time to be dissatisfied, except failure to excel in the hunt. This life gave him an immediate sense of purpose that was lacking from a more sedentary life.

This is an Archival Quality Communication

Download John Tanner's book, A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner (1830).

James Duvall, M. A.
Big Bone, Kentucky