"The Outlaw Josey Wales" was inspired by a 1972 novel by supposedly-Cherokee writer Forrest Carter, alias of former KKK Leader and segregationist speech writer of George Wallace, Asa Earl Carter, an identity that would be exposed in part due to the success of the film, and was originally titled "" and later retitled "Gone to Texas". The script was worked on by Sonia Chernus and producer Bob Daley at Malpaso, and Eastwood himself paid some of the money to obtain the screen rights. Michael Cimino and Philip Kaufman later oversaw the writing of the script, aiding Chernus. Kaufman wanted the film to stay as close to the novel as possible in style and retained many of the mannerisms in Wales's character which Eastwood would display on screen, such as his distinctive lingo with words like "reckon", "hoss" (instead of "horse"), and "ye" (instead of "you") and spitting tobacco juice on animals and victims. The characters of Wales, the Cherokee chief, Navajo woman, and the old settler woman and her daughter all appeared in the novel. On the other hand, Kaufman was less happy with the novel's political stance; he felt that it had been "written by a crude fascist" and that "the man's hatred of government was insane". He also felt that that element of the script needed to be severely toned down, but, he later said, "Clint didn't, and it was his film". Kaufman was later fired by Eastwood, who took over the film's direction himself.