Indian Camp

In “Indian Camp,” wounds appear on three prominent characters: the pregnant woman, the husband, and Uncle George. Each of these wounds comes from interactions between white and Indigenous characters, with the pregnant woman cut open by Dr. Adams, Uncle George bitten by the woman, and the husband slitting his own throat in response to the white men’s presence. Because of this connection, the wounds represent the suffering caused by colonization.

This is most pronounced in the cesarean section performed by Dr. Adams on the pregnant woman. While caesareans are life-saving surgeries, Dr. Adams performs this one brutally, turning a standard medical procedure into a violent act. He chooses to bring surgical implements but not anesthesia, indicating that while he knew surgery was a likelihood, he did not consider his patients’ pain worth soothing. Likewise, while he sterilizes medical equipment at the start of the story, he mentions that he performed the surgery with a jack knife, or a pocketknife. This multipurpose blade is wholly inappropriate for the job; surgical scalpels are thinner, likely sharper, and usually sterilized. In the absence of anesthesia that would have subdued her, four men must hold her down while she is cut open. These factors indicate that the violence of colonization is intentional rather than incidental, a product of dehumanizing choices, and this violence is maintained through mass participation.

This carries through to the story’s other wounds. While the wound that ends the husband’s life may be self-inflicted, it is the result of the Adamses’ presence in his home; he dies by suicide after Dr. Adams says that the woman’s screams don’t matter, making his wound a direct response to colonial dehumanization. While Uncle George is bitten by the woman during the cesarean, his injury is the least severe—it’s a side effect from colonial violence, something he can treat with his brother’s medicine. Notably, George calls the woman a racial slur for biting him while she is being cut open and enduring greater pain and violence, demonstrating how he elevates his own humanity and well-being over hers, and how colonizers elevate themselves over those they colonize.