Honest injun (antedating 1867)

[Garson O'Toole]

OED and HDAS include "Honest injun". In both references the first cite
that accords with the spelling "Honest injun" is Mark Twain's Tom
Sawyer in 1876. Further below are some cites for "Honest injun"
starting in 1867.

OED (1989) Injun  b. In various allusive uses and phrases: honest
Injun, honour bright: perh. orig. an assurance of good faith extracted
from Indians; to play Injun: to act like an Indian; to avoid being
seen or captured; of children playing, to pretend to be Indians.

OED has a cite in 1676 for "honest Indians" as a non-allusive term.
The first cite for "honest Injun" is Tom Sawyer as noted above.

The HDAS entry for "honest Injun" includes an initial cite dated 1851
for "honest Indian" followed by the Tom Sawyer cite. Google Books has
an instance of the 1851 cite. The publication date is 1854 and the
phrase "honest Indian" appears in a letter dated 1851 September 30.
This citation provides one data point concerning whether the term was
disparaging in 1851.

Cite: 1854 July, "The Pioneer: or, California Monthly Magazine",
"California in 1851 by Shirley: Letter Sixth: A Trip into the Mines:
Rich Bar, East Branch of the North Fork of Feather River, September 30
1851" Page 25, Volume II, Number 1, W.H. Brooks & Company, San
Francisco, California.

For instance, if you tell a Rich Barian anything which he doubts
instead of simply asking you if it is true, he will invariably cock
his head interrogatively, and almost pathetically address you with the
solemn adjuration, "Honest Indian?" Whether this phrase is a slur or a
compliment to the aboriginees of this country. I do not know.

http://books.google.com/books?id=D0jOAAAAMAAJ&q=Barian#v=snippet&


Below are 1867 and 1868 citations for "honest Injun". In addition, an
1875 cite provides another single data point about whether the term
was viewed as disparaging in 1875.

Cite: 1867, Venetian Life by W.D. Howells, Page 288, Hurd and
Houghton, New York. (Google Books full view)

Don't be mean about it. I won't give you away Honest Injun!

http://books.google.com/books?id=6fEpAAAAYAAJ&q=Injun#v=snippet&


Cite: 1868 March, The Atlantic Monthly, "John Chinaman, M.D." by J.W.
Palmer, Page 259, Volume XXI, Number CXXV, Ticknor and Fields, Boston.
(Google Books full view)

The red and gold diploma of the Peking College of Medicine hangs in
Tchung-tseen's office by way of an advertisement; but if it did not,
the Dean and Faculty would still have no more power to restrain him
from dispensing the supernatural treasure of red pills, than the
executive committee of the Honest Injun Society for the Suppression of
Hocus-Pocus can hinder him from prescribing the Three Manies and the
Nine Likes as a prophylactic in severe cases of superannuation.

http://books.google.com/books?id=31pBAAAAYAAJ&q=Injun#v=snippet&


Cite: 1875 July, Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, A Girl's Victory by
H. Vickery Dumont, Page 71, Volume XCI, Number 541, Published by Louis
A. Godey, Philadelphia. (HathiTrust)

  "You promise to accept it?" Mark questioned,
eagerly, his boyish face dimpling into
smiles. "You promise, honest Injun?"
  "What does 'honest Injun' mean, first?"
  "Oh, the same as honor bright, you know,"
Mark explained, his eyes still wandering amusedly
to Leslie's uplifted eyebrows. "Indians
are so uncertain, that when we mean certainty,
we say 'honest Injun.'"
  "Well, I am uncertain, too; so I'll say dishonest
Injun."
  "No," corrected her teacher. "In that case
you simply say Injun. It is quite sufficient as
a synonyme for unreliability."
  Opal was leaning against the door by this
time, but she uplifted her face at that, and
looked with dancing eyes at her evidently
unadmiring host.
  "I am not acquainted with any Indians,"
she said, "so I'll close the bargain by saying
'lawyer.' That will be quite as unreliable,
won't it?"

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015004111087

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