Native comic spurs lifelong interest

A social-studies teacher comes across CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #4: "The Last of the Mohicans," by James Fenimore Cooper:

Comic book lit fuse of my imaginationThe rediscovery of this comic provided a fine example that it need only take a simple thing to create a lifelong interest in a child. We often forget that fact in our fast-paced, high-priced, program-oriented world.

I must have been about 10 when my mother purchased that comic book for me, because fourth-grade social studies curriculum has always centered on New York State history. I remember being mesmerized by the Iroquois Indians, as we incorrectly called them in those days. I even remember having a “tom-tom” with a picture of a scalp-locked, fearsome looking brave ready to strike fear in the hearts of his enemies inked into the drum-skin.

But I never realized, until holding that comic in my hands again after so many years of it standing guard on the left side of bookshelf number two, that it was the spark! It was the primeval muck from which my lifelong interest in the history of indigenous people sprang and evolved.Comment:  In case you're wondering, my first exposure to Indians was a Hopi kachina coloring book, not a comic book.