You certainly met my straw man with Mr. Straw Caravaggio! :)

I didn't suggest Carter as a equivalent to Grey Owl, I suggested it sarcastically as a subject for someone whose rose colored glasses with the powerful blinders will allow him to be just another well-meaning (probably young, probably white) guy to speak up and defend the downtrodden Indian and tell his story, ala the Chief Seattle hokum that Ted Perry penned for the Southern Baptist Convention's really schmaltzy film that tried to do something along the same lines.

My statement, of course, conflates Dwayne with "Grey Owl's friend."

Gray Owl did have some interesting aspects to his life, I don't deny that. And as you point out, his influences were powerful and he was a man of his times. But telling some stories just stirs up more trouble than it's worth. The subtext here isn't "don't kill the messenger," but is "what spin is going to be put on the message this time," because we weary of unreliable narrators.

SRS