Indian chiefs

English translation: Anyone and everyone // all and sundry

13:01 Dec 7, 2022

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters

English term or phrase: Indian chiefs

"But I’m thinking coke instead of horse. Better class of customer.”
“What? Crack whores?”
“No, rich white guys,” Chris says. “Doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs. Those motherfuckers on the golf course, they’re always looking for blow.”

The context is large-scale drug dealing, Arizona, around 1990. I'm puzzled by the "Indian chiefs" here. Does it refer to Indians as in Native American tribe chiefs? Were they so rich as to be counted as potential large clients for cocaine?
Thanks for your insights.

allp KudoZ activity Questions: 909 (1 open) (19 closed without grading) Answers: 1695 Poland
Local time: 10:02

Selected answer:Anyone and everyone // all and sundry

Explanation:
This is a reference to a children’s song/counting rhyme (see Wikipedia link). It is a very common song/rhyme, as indicated by references in songs (“Goodbye, my Coney Island Baby”) and book/film titles (John le Carre’s “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”).

Selected response from:

Peter Dahm Robertson
Germany
Local time: 10:02

Grading comment

4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

5 +4

Anyone and everyone // all and sundry

Peter Dahm Robertson

Doctors, lawyers, and anyone else loaded (with money)

Daryo

3 -2

a group of successful minorities

Yasutomo Kanazawa

Summary of reference entries provided

A reference (a sort of)

tabor

whoever...

Yvonne Gallagher

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

15 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): -2

indian chiefs a group of successful minorities

Explanation:
A phrase used to describe a group of successful minorities.
The asian people become Doctors, Lawyers, or Indian Chiefs.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Indian Chief

Yasutomo Kanazawa
Japan
Local time: 17:02
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Japanese
PRO pts in category: 19

30 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

Anyone and everyone // all and sundry

Peter Dahm Robertson
Germany
Local time: 10:02
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 4

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thank you! I only knew the version without the "Indian chief".

9 hrs confidence:

Doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs Doctors, lawyers, and anyone else loaded (with money)

Explanation:
Yes, it is "anyone else", but it's still not really just any "anyone else".

They were plainly interested ONLY in customers with deeper pockets.

Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:02
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Serbian,

French
PRO pts in category: 8

Reference comments

8 mins peer agreement (net): +1

Reference: A reference (a sort of)

Reference information:
https://thegrammarexchange.infopop.cc/topic/a-doctor-lawyer-...

tabor
Poland
Works in field
Native speaker of: Polish

Note to reference poster

Asker: Thanks a lot :)

1 hr

Reference: whoever...

Reference information:
used in a skipping rope rhyme or games to find the person to be "It"

http://loving2learn.com/Books/BookstoMakeandIllustrate/JumpR...

It's also been used in songs by various artists. The most common probably is
"Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief / Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief/They're all in the money now."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor,_Lawyer,_Indian_Chief

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?

term=Doctors%2C%20Lawyers%2C%20or%20Indian%20Chiefs

Of course "chief" rhymes with "thief" in previous line though that need not be significant at all. These kind of rhymes often have strange rhyming pairs.

There ARE however some rich Indians who managed to use money from casinos to open some golf courses

https://www.golfwrx.com/520820/native-american-golf-excellen...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 23 hrs (2022-12-09 12:53:27 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

yes, some of the First Nations are luckier than others and are quite rich. But nothing really to do with the idiomatic expression!

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 659

Note to reference poster

Asker: Thank you for the references, Yvonne. The one about the golf courses is very enlightening and great reading, too.

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Indian chiefs

English translation: Anyone and everyone // all and sundry

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