Oh Canada ENGL 372

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.