The Last of the Ofos (Sun Tracks)
In this novella, English professor Hobson, a Cherokee-Quapaw-Chickasaw Indian, pays tribute to those tribes so obscure they have become extinct, or nearly so. Hobson's character, Thomas Darko, represents the last of the Mosopelea tribe, called the Ofo by whites. In this first-person account, Darko looks back on his life from birth in Louisiana in 1905 to young manhood to old age as he settles into the lonely realization that he is the last of his tribe. Through Darko, Hobson traces the Native American experience, touching on the Depression, World War II, current fascination with Native American culture, and the politics surrounding tribal identification. Darko works his way across the U.S., at one point acting in the movies in mostly nonspeaking parts portraying members of other Indian tribes. Years after his family has died, Darko is engaged by the Smithsonian to compile a dictionary of the Ofo language. Emblematic of the relationship between whites and Indians, Darko bridles at being treated like a living artifact rather than a man.Vanessa Bush--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.