Month: March 2020

For this assignment I will be decoding pages 262 – 274 of Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.

Pages 262 – 264: The Sun Dance is integral to the culture of the Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Sun Dance was suppressed and outlawed by the Canadian Government in the 1867 Indian Act which governed Indigenous affairs In Canada. The restrictions on ceremony and dance were not removed until the 1951 amendment . In these pages, Eli is remembering when he took his girlfriend Karen to the Sun Dance. Karen, her parents and their friends are all intrigued by the Sun Dance, asking questions and wanting to attend. King uses this passage to show Non Indigenous people’s treatment of Indigenous ceremony as similar to a carnival attraction. The Sun Dance, once banned by Canada, is now a mythological ceremonies which they want to participate in not a respected cultural tradition. This passage shows the injustice of the differeing attitudes towards Indigenous culture and rights. On one hand, the Sun Dance is incredibly alluring and mysterious while on the other hand Eli has little to no allies for his historical claim to his land.

Pages 265 – 268: Bill Barsum, Lionel’s boss, is a caricature used to show the bias that Indigenous people face. He is named after the Barsum Bill of 1921 which granted land in New Mexico to settlers. The Barsum Bill effectively removed the claim of the Native Pueblo people. Barsum’s character displays his ignorance and bias towards indigenous people in these pages with his misplaced anger towards Eli. Barsum purchased a piece of land on Parliament Lake where he intended to build a cabin. Barsum cannot build his cabin because Eli is fighting for the rights to his land. Naming the lake Parliament Lake is symbolic because Eli’s resistance against the dam stops the spread of Parliament Lake waters, i.e. government control, over the home hand built by his Indigenous mother. In effect Eli is limiting the control of Parliament. Parliament Lake is also symbolic of Parliament Hill where the Algonquin people have a historical story of an Algonquin girl being raped and murdered by British troops. The story is interpreted by an Algonquin artist in the photo below. The British troops were housed in barracks built during the construction of the Rideau Canal which is comparable to a dam. Barsum’s anger at Eli for asserting his rightful claim to his land, simply because Barsum wanted to build a cabin, is reflective of some modern attitudes towards Indigenous people and their land claims. Barsum’s comparison of treaties to his store’s electronic contracts and his insistence that Eli should move the cabin are used to demonstrate common biases, misunderstandings and injustices towards Indigenous people and the belittling of their claims.

Pages 269 – 272: In this passage, King tells the story of Thought Woman who has fallen from the sky, floated through the Ocean and has now come ashore. When Thought Woman makes land she is met by A.A. Gabriel who is representative of the archangel Gabriel. In the bible Gabriel is responsible for delivering and interpreting messages from God. Gabriel hands Though Woman a card which reads “Canadian Security and Intelligence Service” (King 269). Gabriel’s card indicates that he may be concerned with Thought Woman’s threat to the security of the land.  The Indigenous claim to land is viewed by some as a  threat to Canada’s traditionally christian settler’s claims. The card that Gabriel gives thought woman sings “Hosanna Da” presumably to the tune of Oh Canada indicating that Thought Woman is in Canada. Hosanna is a word used in the old testament as a cry for help to stop a land from being destroyed. The card singing hosanna is a further indication of Gabriels view of Thought Woman as a threat to Canada. When trying to remember the lyrics to Oh Canada Coyote sings “Hosanna Da, in the highest” (King 270) which is a reference to a christian hymn. Coyote also sings “Hosanna Da forever” (King 270) in reference to the song the Maple Leaf Forever which was written to commemorate Canada’s confederation. The Maple Leaf Forever contains lyrics that commemorate and glorify Britain’s colonization of Canada. Coyote signing these songs highlights colonization in the name of the christian God and A.A. Gabriel’s protection of the colonizers claim to the land. After questioning Thought Woman, Gabriel mistakenly asks her to sign a White Paper which he says is for later. The White Paper is the White Paper policy of 1969 which proposed to remove the status of Indian and have all Indigenous people legally became Canadians. This is problematic because it removed Indigenous agency as a separate governmental body by absorbing them into and under the Canadian government. Finally, Gabriel insists that Thought Woman procreate with him. He only insists on this  after he has named her Mary and has verified that she is a virgin just like Mary from the bible. These pages on Thought Woman serve to emphasis Canada’s christian ties specifically in the context of their impact on Indigenous people today.

Pages 273 – 274: In this passage Hawkeye, The Lone Ranger and Robinson Crusoe watch Ishmael dance in a way that they compare to the Kiowa and Cree dances. These dances are  evidently not the type of dance she is trying to perform. Coyote offers to perform the dance because he is familiar with it. Coyote’s dance summons rain clouds which, he claims, is not what he intended to do. Coyote was most likely performing a rain dance which is practiced by many cultures including Native Americans to call rain during drought and to promote the growth of crops.

Work Cited

“1876 – The Maple Leaf Forever” Marmora Historical Foundation, https://www.marmorahistory.ca/1867/2017/2/16/1867-the-maple-leaf-forever. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.

“About the Pueblos.” Indian Pueblo Cultural Centre, https://www.indianpueblo.org/19-pueblos/. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.

Crawford, Blair. “Death on the Hill: An Algonquin Artist’s 30 Year Struggle to Preserve the Memory of a Parliament Hill Tragedy.” Ottawa Citizen, 6 June. 2019, https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/death-on-the-hill-an-algonquin-artists-30-year-struggle-to-preserve-the-memory-of-a-parliament-hill-tragedy. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.

“History of a Warrior’s Dance: Gourd Dancing” Indian Country Today, 25 Feb. 2011, https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/history-of-a-warrior-s-dance-gourd-dancing-2t20-VV1tUOuRDCfgmY7JA. Accessed 17 Mar. 2020.

Hoefnagels, Anna. “Cree Round Dances,” Native Dance, http://native-dance.ca/en/renewal/cree-round-dances/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2020.

Joseph, Bob. “21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act,” CBC News, 13 Apr. 2016, https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/21-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-indian-act-1.3533613. Accessed 17 Mar. 2020.

King, Thomas. “Green Grass Running Water” HarperColins Publishers, 1993.

Ligertwood, Brooke. “Hosanna in the Highest,” Divine Hymns, http://www.divinehymns.com/lyrics/hosanna-in-the-highest-song-lyrics/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2020.

Martinez, Mathew. “All Indian Pueblo Council and the Bursum Bill.” New Mexico History, 17 Jan. 2014, http://newmexicohistory.org/2014/01/17/all-indian-pueblo-council-and-the-bursum-bill/. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.

Montpetit, Isabelle. “Background: The Indian Act” CBC News, 30 May 2011, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/background-the-indian-act-1.1056988. Accessed 17 Mar. 2020.

Noisecat, Julian Brave. “Canada Wants First Nation People to Sell Land for Cheap and Give up Their Rights.” The Guardian, 3 Aug. 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/03/canada-first-nation-land-rights. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.

ReShel, Azriel. “The Ancient Indigenous Art of Rainmaking” Uplift, 8 Jan. 2020, https://upliftconnect.com/ancient-indigenous-rainmaking/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2020.

Roat, Alyssa. “What Does the Bible Say About the Angel Gabriel?” Christianity, https://www.christianity.com/wiki/angels-and-demons/what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-angel-gabriel.html. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.

“The White Paper 1969” Indigenous Foundations. https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_white_paper_1969/. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.

Wilson, Dawn. “What Does the Word ‘Hosanna’ Mean? Should We Still Use it Today?” Crosswalk, 27 Aug. 2018, https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/what-does-the-word-hosanna-mean.html. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.

Wishart, David. “Sun Dance,” Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.rel.046. Accessed 17 Mar. 2020.

Thomas King’s novel Green Grass Running Water starts with “nothing, just the water”(1).

Green Grass Running Water has a multitude of narratives that are told simultaniously but occurre at different points in time. Stories like those of First Woman and Coyote occur at the beginning of the world long before the stories of characters such as Alberta and Charlie. Why is it that King felt the need to start at the commencement of the world in order to convey the stories of modern day characters?

One contributing reason may be “to make [the] audience wait, to keep everyone in suspense” (7). Thomas King believed that suspense was one of the tools needed to tell a great story. The addition of the creation stories adds suspense to the stories of the modern-day characters by prolonging and complicating their plots.

However, there are two far more significant reasons for King’s choice to include creation stories at the commencement and throughout his novel. The importance of creations stories in Indigenous culture and the context that they provide to the modern struggles of his characters.

Creation stories tell the story of the commencement of the world and how Indigenous people first settled/ created North America. Creation stories explain why the world is the way we find it in King’s novel i.e. we are living on the land that First Woman built on Grandmother Turtles back. This is significant both because it explains the creation of the world but also because First Woman was Indigenous. First Woman’s story shows the Indigenous people’s long standing connection with and claim to the land. Creation stories connect our present with the past and show the influence of the past on current events. Story tellers can change their stories to provide the right context for the narrative. In King’s case the creation story provides context to the events in his modern day characters life. By continuing to intertwine the creation story and its characters with the modern day plot, King emphasizes that the lessons and meaning in the creation story continue to be important and salient in modern times.

The importance of King providing context to Indigenous stories is particularly evident for two of his characters, Latisha and Eli.

One of Latish’s customers treats her the same way that Noah treats the Changing Woman. In King’s novel, Latisha’s customer “reached out to try to pat Latisha’s butt” (131) and Noah “chases Changing Woman around the canoe” (146) trying to procreate. Both Woman are treated poorly and disrespectfully. Changing Woman’s story is a reminder that Indigenous culture and the Christian religon viewed Woman very differently. Indigenous woman enjoyed more rights and respect before colonization and the imposition of European ideals. King’s inclusion of Changing Woman’s story provides context for Latisha’s situation and reminds the reader that she is subject to this treatment, in part, due to colonization. It is also a reminder of how long Indigenous woman have been mistreated.

When First Woman helps put together the earth and builds her garden it is unfairly taken from her by God. Eli is in a very similar situation when the government wants to take his mother’s cottage in order to utilize their dam. The cottage was hand build by his mother just as the world was hand built by First Woman and the animals. King’s inclusion of the story of the First Woman highlights the injustice of Eli’s situation by reenforcing his claim to the land.

Thomas King starts his book Green Grass Running Water at the beginning of creation because that is where the story of his Indigenous character truly starts. Both the Indigenous people’s connection with their history and claims to their lands and the context of their continual oppression, marginalization and unfair treatment start at the beginning of the world. In order to properly understand the plight of King’s characters we must understand not only their story but the history that lead up to and influences their story. King helps us understand the long history of disrespect that Latisha and other Indigenous woman have had to contend with. He also emphasizes the right that Eli has to live free from constant attempts to seize his land. Further, King shows the long history of Indigenous people being displaced when their land was stolen from them just like Eli is being displaced. Starting at the beginning provides a depth of understanding of his characters that is invaluable. As Jesse Went mentions in his article, knowing more stories and context of Indigenous culture will make it “harder to hate, easier to love. Maybe we would be equals”

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Work Cited

King, Thomas. “Green Grass Running Water” HarperColins Publishers, 1993.

King, Thomas. “The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative”. House of Anansi, 2003.

“Oral Traditions” Indigenous Foundations, https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/oral_traditions/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2020.

Wente, Jesse. “Canada Needs to Give Indigenous Stories the Platform They Deserve.” The Globe and Mail, 16 Feb. 2016, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/canada-needs-to-give-indigenous-stories-the-platform-they-deserve/article34046186/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2020.