Canadian Literature: Parkinson Perspective

(Response to Question 1)

Each story connects to the foundational creation story, which involves the First Woman, Ahdamn, Coyote and ‘God’. King uses a circular way of storytelling, where the last statement from one storyline (section) connects to the following section. For example,

“‘What else would you like to know?’ said the Lone Ranger” (King 49).

“‘What else would you like to know?’ said Babo” (King 50).

Multiple perspectives are used for the dialogue of the creation story, where Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Hawkeye, and Robinson Crusoe are wondering about the entirety of the story being told. The dialogue with ‘God’ addresses the audience directly, but is not knowledgeable of the other parts of the story from King, while the individual characters such as Lionel, Alberta, and Eli are all figuring out their individual lives, while the author parallels their experiences to the circumstances starting with ‘creation’ that made it so ‘Indians’ were more likely to experience systemic disadvantages created from Imperialist British-Canadian society.

King’s motif of water throughout the novel is present in each storyline. However, water first began to emerge when Changing Woman leaned too far forward into the water and then landed on Noah’s Ark. This imagery of water is present in the interview with Babo (how the novel begins, her car is being washed away by yellow water). It is also present with Eli Stands Alone, it is green-gray water that is seeping through the cracks in the damn, that if operational, would wash through his mother’s log house that she built.

Perhaps most notable is the use and definition of colour. ‘God’ says the water is blue, and coyote questions why, but the only response is ‘because’ (King ). However, Eli describes the water coming out of the dam as gray-green, and Babo says the water around the car is yellow. The significance of the colours mentioned within the text cannot be assumed, and perhaps changes for each subplot within the novel and the culture being represented in each section. King borrows traditions and customs from several First Nations communities in the text, as is the case where each of the old ‘Indian’ women are from different cultures (Chester 52). Although Siksika (Blackfoot) culture is commonly represented due to the setting of many of the characters in the novel, it cannot be assumed that the use of the colours for describing the water would always be related to one culture or another. I think this may be intentional on King’s part.

As there are four women, each representing traditions from different Indigenous mythology, this is why it is often necessary to trace back to the creation story, to see what colour and water represents within various sections of the novel. For example, with our first introduction to Eli, he  describes the water coming through the dam as gray-green (King 110). Colour is also used to describe the dam itself – white – where Sifton says it is like a shell, and Eli says it reminds him of a toilet (King 136). Sefton also says his favorite part is the evening, when the sun gets behind the dam (King 136). This section may be alluding to the treaty signed by Siksika Chief Crowfoot on September 22, 1877; “as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the water flows” (Siksika Nation). In this passage, the water is slow, but should be building up as the dam is cracking. The sun has limited ways of shining through the dam, something the white worker (Sifton) admires about it. Eli also senses change on the horizon though, which is alluding to an impending event regarding the dam (King 112). The government did not keep its promise to the Siksika (and many other Indigenous groups for that matter), and the foundations it structures were built upon (quite literally in the case of the dam) are starting to crumble.

Of course, in the end the whole story connects, it began with the Indians at Fort Marion and ends at Fort Marion. We are never certain who was responsible for the dam collapsing outside of Blossom (King 415). But we do know that the water is running strongly again.

This is unrelated to the novel, but I find the opposition to the Site C dam in BC to be a relevant example of water rights and Indigenous land. There are parallels to the Grand Balleen dam. 

Chester Blanca. “Green Grass Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel.”Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. April 04/2013.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

“About | Siksika Nation | Siksika Nation Tribal Administration Website”. Siksikanation.com. N.p., 2014. Web.