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Coyote the Trickster by coyoteflutesong on DeviantArt<\/p><\/div>\n
If we look at the written document that Robinson describes the younger twin to have stolen and read as being a forbidden knowledge, much like the apple that Eve and Adam ate of, perhaps it can be thought of as somehow disconnecting people from the land. Descendants of the younger twin in Robinson\u2019s story continue to \u201c[conceal] the contents of the \u2018paper\u2019\u201d (14) when eventually they land back on North American soil. Therefore, it seems that by reading the document, those that descended from Coyote (the elder twin) would lose the relationship of \u201cstewardship . . . for the land (and sea) and all of the creatures that inhabit the land with them\u201d (\u201cFirst Nation Relationship to the Land\u201d).<\/p>\n
I would be interested to know when Robison\u2019s story was first told. We are told in the Introduction to \u201cLiving by Stories\u201d that when the \u201cwhites had landed on the moon, [Robinson] immediately incorporated this detail into his story\u201d (57) of another one about Coyote. I cannot help but wonder about other incorporations as Lutz speaks about how Indigenous peoples of the past weren\u2019t \u201cinterested in replacing their own spiritual beliefs and powers with Christian ones. [Rather t]hey sought to add the spirit powers of the whites to their own\u201d (\u201cFrist Contact\u201d 44). This suggests to me that Robinson\u2019s story is influenced by the Bible (whether from his own creation, or from past storytellers that he learned from).<\/p>\n
I wonder about how incorporating Christianity into Indigenous culture may have gone if left to the people to decide rather than have it forced upon them by European colonists. I found an interesting, yet short read, about the rise in Christian Indigenous peoples in Canada<\/a> according to the 2011 National Household Survey. Looking at the graphic representing the Indigenous populations religious beliefs, I cannot help but feel disheartened. While I recognize a lot of these conversions more than likely didn\u2019t happen on the friendliest of terms, to hear that they are rising brings up concerns that I feel were expressed by Robinson about the disappearance of proper story tellers (i.e. those learned in the ways of Indigenous culture).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Work Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n coyoteflutesong. Coyote the Trickster<\/em>. DeviantArt<\/em>, Jan 6, 2011. https:\/\/www.deviantart.com\/coyoteflutesong\/art\/Coyote-the-Trickster-192406629<\/a>. Accessed Feb 22, 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst Nation Relationship to the Land.\u201d Indigenous Corporate Training Inc., <\/em>May 7, 2015. https:\/\/www.ictinc.ca\/blog\/first-nation-relationship-to-the-land<\/a>. Accessed Feb 22, 2021.<\/p>\n Lutz, John. \u201cFirst Contact as a Spiritual Performance: Encounters on the North American West Coast.\u201d Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigenous-European Contact<\/em>. Ed. Lutz. Vancouver: U of British Columbia P, 2007. 30 \u2013 45. Print.<\/p>\n Robinson, Harry. \u201cIntroduction.\u201d Living by Stories<\/em> edited by Wendy Wickwire. Talonbooks, 2005. 8 \u2013 62. eBook.<\/p>\n