‘Coyote pedagogy requires training in illegal border-crossing’ (131). This is the line from Margery Fee and Jane Flick’s piece ‘Coyote Pedagogy: Knowing Where the Borders Are in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water’ that stood out most to me. What this sentence means to me is that Coyote, one of the central characters in GGRW, enlightens readers through the use of tactics that break down the boundaries of what they believe, or think they do. I felt that Coyote’s quirky way of almost challenging the narrator and of halting the flow of the story was a refreshing change. As an English Literature major, I have become accustomed to reading seamlessly narrated and/or organized works- I am comfortable with what is predictable, at least in terms of the way a narrative unfolds. GGRW challenged this by not only featuring two equally important storylines, but also by making Coyote feature prominently in both of them.

I found Coyote charming. I felt that his frequent interruptions of the narrator and his seemingly incessant stream of questions were meant to emulate the manner in which a curious and even precocious reader would be responding to the narrator’s storytelling. What I mean by this is that I felt as though my internal monologue, were I in Coyote’s place, would be similar to Coyote’s external comments and queries.

Additionally, I felt that Coyote (and many of the other personages in GGRW) were instrumental not only in the crossing of narrative boundaries, but also in the breaking down of cultural and ethnic borders. Green Grass, Running Water is a story that is rich in both Indigenous and Euro- Canadian trivia and pieces of knowledge, and this cross- border

What I found to be the central lesson attached to the character of Coyote was this: Active dreams/ imagination, a willingness to learn and a breathless curiosity are essential when reading or listening to a story. Coyote definitely embodies these traits; he is, after all, a breaker and traverser of borders and boundaries.

Works Cited

Fee, Margery, and Jane Flick. “‘Coyote Pedagogy: Knowing Where the Borders Are in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water'” Canadian Literature 161 (1999): n. pag. CanLit. Web. 1 July 2015.