Hi everyone!

For this blog assignment I will be hyperlinking my research on the stories and characters from pages 91-96 and 145-148 (locations 1011-1085 and 1647-1690 on Kindle) of Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water (I am using the Kindle version, so the page numbers may or may not be off by 1 or 2). Note that in-text citations of GGRW will be in the form (King, location/page number) or simply (King, location). The first passage contains the conversation between Babo Jones and Patrolman Jimmy Delano, as well as part of that between Dr. Joseph Hovaugh and Sergeant Cereno. The references that King made throughout Babo’s conversation with Officer Delano were some I missed while reading for the first time, but aided by Jane Flick’s reading notes, my understanding of the references and the novel as a whole were raised to a higher level. As well, I find that Dr. Hovaugh’s search for the four missing Indians interesting, as it somehow parallels colonizers using Christianity and “spreading the word of God” as a justification to conquer Natives’ lands and destroy their cultures. The second passage tells of the interactions between Noah and Changing Woman soon after she falls out of the sky, of which the biblical (and one other literary) references and subtle jabs at Christianity were enjoyable to read and research further.

Babo Jones and Jimmy Delano

The section beginning on page 91 (at location 1011) starts with Babo Jones recalling the story of the four Indians to Patrolman Jimmy Delano. According to Jane Flick, the character of Babo Jones draws from the character of Babo in Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno, who is a leader of the slave revolt aboard the San Dominick slave ship (145). Babo in Benito Cereno is said to be deceptive; he tricks Captain Benito Cereno into letting his guard down and trusting Babo as a loyal servant, only to ultimately lead the revolution of the slaves aboard the ship against Captain Cereno and his people (LitCharts). Babo Jones from GGRW surely mirrors this deceptiveness when she goes off-topic and asks Officer Delano if he swims, which leads to her mentioning that her “great-great-grandfather was a barber on a ship” (King, loc 1026/92), which is an ode to the aforementioned Babo, the barber aboard the San Dominick from Melville’s Benito Cereno (Flick, 145, 149), only to restart the story after she claims she “keep[s] getting it wrong” (King, loc 1026/92). I noticed that the conversations between Dr. Hovaugh and Babo Jones earlier on in GGRW (before loc 1026/page 92) were sort of disconnected, with Babo usually being slippery or going off-course, so I initially thought nothing of her chaotic storytelling to Officer Delano. Flick’s notes and further research on the novel Benito Cereno, however, suggest that Babo has something to hide about the four old Indians’ escape.

Jimmy Delano, Jane Flick notes, could be connected to Captain Delano from Melville’s Benito Cereno but is more likely an allusion to the politician Columbus Delano (146). According to Flick, Columbus Delano had “defended the [Bureau of Indian Affairs] against charges of mistreatment of the Indians… in South Dakota — despite evidence of rotten foodstuffs and tobacco given to the Indians..” (146). Upon reading more on Columbus Delano, I learned that as Secretary of the Interior, Delano was the first overseer of Yellowstone National Park, instituting a ban on wildlife poaching to protect the biodiversity at the world’s first national park (PeoplePill). I did find more bad than good, however, and also learned that it was Delano’s idea to move Native American populations onto reservations. The way he went about this was to order the slaughter of bison, which was the main source of food and other basic needs for Natives at the time (CBC Learning); 1.215 million bison were slaughtered by Indians to satisfy these needs from 1872-1874 (PeoplePill). 4.37 million bison were estimated to be killed under Delano’s orders, resulting in the destruction of the lifestyle of the Plains Indians and forcing their move to reservations (Peoplepill).

Dr. Joseph Hovaugh

The conversation between Babo Jones and Jimmy Delano is followed by one between Dr. Joseph Hovaugh and Sergeant Cereno. Dr. Hovaugh credits his great-grandfather’s “vision” for the hospital’s existence and also mentions that he was an evangelist (King, loc 1071/95). This is where I think his name, a play on the word “Jehovah” (Joe Hovaugh), which is said to be God’s personal name, becomes of importance. Dr. Hovaugh’s character is the most God-like among all the human characters of GGRW. As God does in Genesis (Flick, 144), Dr. Hovaugh spends much time examining his garden, noticing the dry grass, the yellow leaves, and the old oak during his conversation with the Sergeant (King, loc 1085/96). I think the most striking metaphor that Dr. Hovaugh participates in has to do with his search for the missing Indians. I think this aligns well with Christian missionaries sailing the world to “spread the word of God.” Christianity is closely associated with colonialism; the former was often used as a justification of the atrocities tied to the latter, and this history has the Pope apologizing for these “colonial sins.” Dr. Hovaugh’s relentless search for the four Indians can be likened to Christian missionaries themselves searching for Indigenous peoples to convert into their religion, and it certainly is of note that Dr. Hovaugh himself is the descendant of an evangelist. Another easter egg I thought was noteworthy was how Dr. Hovaugh drives a white convertible Karmann-Ghia. Firstly, it is white, “just the thing for a theological figure,” as Flick points out (146). Secondly, it is a “slightly more upscale car” (Flick, 146) compared to Babo’s Pinto or Alberta’s Nissan, suggesting that Dr. Hovaugh is on a level above the two ladies; indeed, a representation of God.

Noah and Changing Woman

Flick points out that Changing Woman is a Navajo deity (Flick, 152), and King alludes to her being gay during her encounter with Moby Jane, the Great Black Whale (loc 2314), which immediately strikes me as an element of the Native narrative that is in stark contrast to the Bible. In fact, Noah, a Biblical character whom Changing Woman interacts with in pages 145-148 (locations 1647-1690) of GGRW, is portrayed as a misogynist —“Thou shalt have big breasts” is Noah’s “first rule” (loc 1690/148)— and surely not gay, chasing Changing Woman around for months on an island so that they can “procreate,” much against Changing Woman’s will. Note that this “rule” is a reference to the Ten Commandments, most of which start with “thou shalt.”

Flick notes that the line “not wanted on the voyage” is a reference to Timothy Findley’s novel of the same title, which portrays Noah as an abusive tyrant (152). King’s Noah in GGRW shows flashes of this with his rules of anti-bestiality and big breasts as well as this line: “if you can’t follow our Christian rules, then you’re not wanted on the voyage” (King, loc 1690/148). King brings our attention to the rigidity of Christian rules and the ever-prevalent misogyny and hypocrisy in the Church (which I touched on in my previous blog post), by having Noah interact with Changing Woman. She is a creator in the story of The Woman Who Fell From The Sky, which is told in different ways by the four old Indians, but is indeed “all the same story” (King, loc 1690/148). By juxtaposing the tyrannical, misogynistic Biblical figure with a non-binary, female Creator from a fluid Native creation story and bringing them together, King is once again able to highlight the differences between Native and Christian narratives and do so entertainingly.

 

Works Cited

BibleGateway. “Exodus 20 New International Version (NIV). BibleGateway, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20&version=NIV. Accessed March 22, 2020.

CBC Learning. “Plains Indians and the Buffalo.” CBC Learning, https://www.cbc.ca/history/EPCONTENTSE1EP1CH1PA6LE.html. Accessed March 21, 2020.

Doyle, Sady. “Misogyny is the Catholic Church’s Original Sin.” 12 Feb 2019, Medium, https://gen.medium.com/misogyny-is-the-catholic-churchs-original-sin-9d616571fd1e. Accessed March 22, 2020.

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water” Canadian Literature, 1999.

Jehovah’s Witnesses. “The Divine Name — Its Use and Its Meaning.” Jehovah’s Witnesses, https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/bible-teach/jehovah-meaning-of-gods-name/. Accessed March 22, 2020.

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Kindle ed., House of Anansi Press, 2003.

LitCharts. “The Character ‘Babo’ in ‘Benito Cereno.” LitCharts, https://www.litcharts.com/lit/benito-cereno/characters/babo. Accessed March 21, 2020.

PeoplePill. “Columbus Delano: American politician (1809-1896) — Biography and life.” PeoplePill, https://peoplepill.com/people/columbus-delano/. Accessed March 21, 2020.

SiteSeen Limited. “Great Plains Indians.” 16 Jan 2018, WarPaths2PeacePipes, https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-indians/great-plains-indians.htm. Accessed March 22, 2020.

Soloway, Benjamin. “Pope Francis Apologizes for Church’s Colonial Sins.” 10 July 2015, ForeignPolicy, https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/10/pope-francis-apologizes-for-churchs-colonial-sins/. Accessed March 22, 2020.