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Injun Joe

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“ Looks like I got it all — the treasure and you. „
~ Injun Joe to Tom Sawyer

Injun Joe is the main antagonist of the 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by the late Mark Twain, and the 1995 Disney film adaptation Tom and Huck. He is Tom Sawyer's archenemy.

He was portrayed by Eric Schweig.

Novel History

Injun Joe is a half Native American, half white man. He was whipped by Mr. Douglas, a police officer. Injun Joe had probably been striking fear into the children of the village. His first appearance in the novel was where Tom witnessed Injun Joe murder Doc Robinson while framing Muff Potter for the murder. Following this, Huck overhears Injun Joe plotting the mutilation of Widow Douglas. Towards the end of the book, Tom sees Injun Joe inside the cave, but Injun Joe is not able to see Tom’s face. At the end of the book, Injun Joe is found dead behind the newly sealed cave door.

Tom & Huck

In the film, Injun Joe is portrayed as a much darker villain than in the book. Also, like in the book, he did murder Dr. Jonas Robinson; however, both Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn witness the murder. When Injun Joe saw the silhouettes of two people who witnessed the murder, he then realized that he’d been spotted, but initially didn’t know who they were.

Injun Joe first appears in the opening of the film as he makes his way across the town of Hannibal on a stereotypical dark and stormy night. He arrives at the town hospital, where he accepts a job from Doctor Jonas Robinson, who at first says it pays two dollars. However, he changes his mind when Injun Joe threateningly unsheathes his knife and puts it at his throat, asking for three dollars — unless the doctor thinks he deserves more (meaning a blade in his throat). After that, Injun Joe then turns and steps out into the night.

Later on the next night, Injun Joe is with Doc Robinson and the town drunk, Muff Potter, on a grave robbery. After they uncover the coffin and corpse of One-Eyed Murrell, a chest rolls out. Doc Robinson grabs the small box, and orders Muff and Joe to put the coffin back and cover up the tracks as he walks off. Injun Joe, however, tries to pry the box away from Robinson, and punches him in the face, until he falls to the ground while Joe grabs the box. He opens it, and discovers the map to Murrell’s lost treasure. After Muff helps Robinson up, he looks at the map, and shouts in amazement, “By glory, we’re rich!”

Just then, the greedy Robinson grabs a broken tombstone and tries to pummel it into Injun Joe as he screams in avarice, “It’s mine!” But he misses, and hits Muff Potter instead, knocking him unconscious. Incensed by the assault, Injun Joe punches Robinson three times, until he falls back to the ground against the fence. Injun Joe unsheathes his knife, and threatens to stab the sniveling doctor. But he puts his knife away, turns to Muff, and takes his knife. There he returns to Doc Robinson, and stabs him three times, until he is dead.

Unbeknownst to the three men, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, who were trying to remove warts by taking a dead cat to the graveyard at night, saw everything. But as they leave, Injun Joe hears them, and pursues them, but they disappear into the mist. Joe then finds a green marble in the grass, and believes it belongs to the kids. Luckily for Tom and Huck, they were not seen entirely — which keeps them safe… at least for now.

As part of Joe’s plan, Muff is framed for Robinson’s murder. He tries to ask Injun Joe to vouch for him, only for Injun Joe to lie about what really happened, saying that while he was passing last night through the graveyard, he saw Muff and Robinson digging up Murrell’s grave, and that he saw Muff stab the doctor. Muff, remembering last night’s events, tries to tell the truth, but Joe dismisses it as “drunk-talk”, and there is no Murrell’s Lost Treasure or the map to it.

Tom and Huck, despite an oath they signed to never tell what they witnessed the other night, go on a search for Injun Joe’s map - the only evidence for Muff’s innocence. The only problem in retrieving the map that it is in Joe’s pocket. The duo find him at the tavern with his partner Emmett when they look through a window. As the villains talk, Joe shows Tom’s marble to Emmett, saying that a boy dropped it, and that he will kill him for witnessing the murder.

At the same time, as Tom discovers Joe has taken his marble and might come after him, he and Huck accidentally cause the box they are standing on to topple. After they tumble, a plank of wood falls straight through the window, almost blowing the duo’s cover. Injun Joe and Emmett, who were nearly hit by the board, quickly rush out to find the person they think did it. But there is no one. Emmett says that it was probably a drunk that smashed the window. Joe jokingly replies that it wasn’t Muff Potter. Emmett laughs at the joke, and says that “the only stumbling he’s gonna be doin’ is at the end of a rope.”

Injun Joe walks off to the harbor, and takes a canoe to the other side of the river. Tom and Huck follow him in Muff’s canoe.

The next morning, Tom and Huck make another attempt to steal the map, by covering themselves in mud, so they will not be seen. They find Injun Joe drunk asleep, and this gives the boys their chance to steal the map without being noticed. But once again, Tom blows his cover by sneezing just as he is a few centimeters close to the map. Injun Joe wakes up, and looks around to find the person who woke him up, while Tom and Huck make themselves scarce. Joe unsheathes his knife, and searches around until he curses about wild boars waking him. As he walks away, he suddenly turns around and throws his knife at a tree in anger before heading off into the forest.

Tom and Huck go to an old house, and quickly hide in there when they hear Injun Joe and Emmett arrive, searching for the first of Murrell’s treasure. Emmett at first thinks the house is haunted, but Joe doesn’t believe in superstitions, saying, “Yeah, by rats, maybe.” When he reads the map, it says that the treasure is next to the fireplace.

The two crooks dig for the treasure, while Tom and Huck, who are in the house attic, use a fishing line to grab the map. But when Emmett asks if the fireplace is the spot where the treasure is buried, Injun Joe walks over to the map, and reminds Emmett that they are in the right spot. In the process, as Tom and Huck try to reel up the fishing line, its hook catches his hat. Emmett hits something, and turns to Joe to tell him, but suddenly stares in fear when he sees Joe’s hat floating above his hat. Thinking that the house is haunted, Emmett begins screaming. Joe looks up to see his hat floating, but Tom and Huck reel the hat back down, and unhook it. Joe looks up to see what’s up in the second story, then looks back to the screaming Emmett, and slaps him back to senses, saying there were no ghosts, but cobwebs.

The two villains pull up a treasure chest, and open it to see gold coins. Emmett is overly excited, but Injun Joe tells him to keep the treasure at Number Two under the cross at McDougal’s Cave, while Joe makes sure that Muff takes the blame for Robinson’s murder at the trial. Acquiring all the treasure, Injun Joe burns the map, leaving no evidence to claim Muff’s innocence.

Injun Joe goes on his mission to find the witness of the murder. He asks one of Tom’s friends who owned the marble. The boy tries to remember the former owners of the marble until Joe, losing his patience, grabs him by the collar and demands him to tell him who had the marble last. The boy says Tom Sawyer had it last, but doesn’t matter since he is dead — the town thinks Tom died in a storm. Injun Joe, in sadistic relief, says that he is sad to hear it, when he is just glad that his one threat is eradicated. But when Tom is revealed to be alive, Injun Joe decides to find him.

Later, after Tom turns to leave Huck’s hideout, he accidentally bumps into Injun Joe. Injun Joe then picks him up and throws him into the ground. As Tom backs away, Injun Joe corners him at the tree with a picture on it, and gives him back his marble. Tom, knowing of what he will do to him, tries to say that marble isn’t his, but Injun Joe tells him not to lie. Then Tom says it is his, but he lost it three months ago. Injun Joe hurls a knife at Tom, but it impales the tree next to him. Joe tells him to fetch him back the knife. After initially hesitating, Tom pulls the knife out and walks over to Injun Joe, who says “Give it to me.” But Injun Joe then gets another idea and decides to goad Tom into stabbing him; he opens his shirt so Tom might have his chance. Tom initially hesitates, but when he finally begins, Injun Joe moves out of the way and grabs Tom, threatening him that if he tells anyone that it was Injun Joe who killed Dr. Robinson, he will kill him. He then vanishes away.

At the trial of Muff Potter, Injun Joe says in his testimony that he was at the cemetery, and that he liked to sit and look up at the stars. Then, he saw Muff, drunk in a rage, lifting his knife, and stabbed Dr. Robinson four times, until he was dead. All seem to agree on Joe’s behalf. But then Tom is called to the stand for Muff’s defense. Tom is asked who really killed Robinson, but he hesitates when Injun Joe contemptuously stares at him, reminding him that he will kill him if he reveals Muff’s innocence while unsheathing his knife. It is only when Mr. Dobbins says that Tom Sawyer wouldn’t know the truth if it kicked him in the teeth, and that he is an outright liar that Tom has finally has had enough. In anger, he loudly reveals Joe’s crime, deciding that his friendship with Muff is more important than his oath with Huck. With Muff found innocent of all charges and the town turning on Injun Joe, the villain hurls his knife at Tom, but the boy defends himself by using the Holy Bible as a shield.

The town sheriff then attempts to arrest Injun Joe for the murder, but Joe flees through the window, now branded as a wanted criminal. In anger, Injun Joe returns to the tavern, where he finds Emmett packing shovels and picks. He accuses Emmett for attempting to go to Number Two and claim the treasure for himself. Emmett fearfully stammers to Joe that he wouldn’t cheat him while trying to reach for a weapon. Injun Joe agrees and replies that the only reason is that Emmett’s smart enough to know that if he ever did, Joe would kill him. And as Emmett reaches for his gun, Joe does so by tossing his knife into Emmett’s back, killing him.

During a festival the next day, a group of children, including Tom and his love interest Becky Thatcher, enter McDougal’s Cave, only for Tom and Becky to become lost in the process.

They soon stumble upon Injun Joe, who decides to hold up his end of the promise by killing Tom, and who had been looking for Tom within the cave. He spots them and initially watches as they run away. Then, just as they are safe (or at least they think they are), he appears out of the darkness and grabs Tom, while Becky screams upon seeing him. While Tom manages to break free, he leaves his dark blue tie in Injun Joe’s grip.

Then, when Tom and Becky crawl through a tunnel in the cave, Injun Joe comes up behind Tom, but is too late to grab him a second time. So he watches them while they crawl away from him and follows them a little before trying to swipe at both Tom and Becky, but they manage to escape.

After he helps Becky escape, Tom finds the treasure at Number Two under the cross. Just then, a sand-faced Injun Joe finds Tom, and again tries to kill him. He says he has it all — the treasure and Tom. Before he attempts to kill the boy, Tom hits Injun Joe in the leg with a sword. But Joe, recovering from the slash, punches Tom off, sending his cutlass toppling into a deep chasm. Without a weapon or any defense, Tom is almost stabbed to death, but Huck returns to help Tom. He kicks Injun Joe, and he nearly slides off into the chasm, with his hat descending down instead. Injun Joe looks at Huck carefully, and recognizes him as “Pap Finn’s boy”, saying he was the best knife fighter on the Mississippi, then asks if he taught him. Huck says that he did.

Laughing sadistically, Joe challenges Huck to a duel, which Huck badly loses. Injun Joe prepares to kill Huck, when Tom threatens to toss the treasure chest into the chasm. Not wanting to lose his treasure, Joe tries to pry it out of Tom’s hands. He suddenly leans backwards over the chasm, with the chest in his arm and grabbing on to Tom’s left sleeve, while Huck grabs onto the other. Suddenly, the sleeve rips, and the evil man finally falls into the enormous chasm, screaming to his death.

Personality

Injun Joe is cold-hearted, cruel, ruthless and very dangerous. Like the stereotypical Indian half-breeds, he is deeply antagonistic towards the town citizens. But he is also greedy, willing to kill people for money and/or treasure. He showed his greed in killing Doctor Robinson, who was trying to take the map to Murrell’s lost treasure. But like all villains, this greed leads to his downfall. When he saw Tom threaten to toss the treasure chest into the cave’s chasm, Injun Joe tried to get it back, only to fall to his doom in the end.

Gallery

Trivia

  • Injun Joe was the final boss in the obscure JRPG Square's Tom Sawyer, a JRPG retelling of Tom Sawyer.
  • In the 1989 NES video game The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom dreams that Becky has fallen into the clutches of Injun Joe, and he has to save her.
  • At one point in the musical adaptation The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: The Musical, Injun Joe takes Becky hostage when she is in McDougal's Cave waiting for Tom to return safely.
  • Injun Joe is the main and recurring antagonist of the late 1960's hybrid live action/animated series, The New Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, produced by Hanna-Barbera. In it, Tom, Huck and Becky are chased by a vengeful Injun Joe for identifying him as a murderer. Ending up in a strange series of caves, the trio find themselves transported across time and space to different lands in history, fiction or legend. Injun Joe is always one step ahead of them, having somehow inserted himself into positions of authority in these time periods. Tom, Huck and Becky and their original time period are live action, while the eras and characters they visit are animated. In the first episode (only 20 were made), Injun Joe was played by perennial big guy actor Ted Cassidy, first in live action, then in animated form each time the trio encountered him in the past.

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