Write a blog that hyper-links your research on the characters in GGRW according to the pages assigned to you.
Pages 359-376, 1993 Edition
This passage follows the converging paths of Eli and Lionel, Latisha and Alberta, as they travel towards the Sun Dance.
“Who would want to kill John Wayne?” (359)
My section starts off with a bewildered Bill Bursum putting another copy of the movie in the VCR and finding out that the ending has changed too. Exasperated, he decides to go to the lake.
This scene is significant because it provides a neat summary of the two anti-Indian historical figures Bill Bursum represents. Holm O. Bursam was a US Senator who advocated the extraction of New Mexico’s natural resources and who proposed the Bursam Bill of 1921, which ultimately divested Pueblo Indians of their land and gave them to American settlers. In this novel, this character also participates in the exploitation of natural resources by investing in the man-made lake by the dam. The character’s first name is also an allusion to William R Cody, who ran the Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show at the turn of the 19th century. Bursam’s historical affiliation with the West explains the character’s affinity with John Wayne, whom film historian Newman describes as the “Injun-hating screen cowboy” (Flick).
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“Dead Dog’s the other way” (360)
In the next scene, Eli and Lionel go out for lunch to celebrate the nephew’s birthday. The Dead Dog Café represents the stereotypes that tourists have about Blackfoot cuisine and by extension culture. Edward Custer mentions dog-eating in My Life on the Plains. Latisha, who runs the restaurant, of course, sees this as a clever marketing scheme. Lionel’s endorsement of it, by contrast, and his subsequent proposals to “stop at the band office cafeteria,” can been read as evidence of how he has come to accept and naturalize the exoticised version of the Indian as authentic. Thus, Eli’s proposal that they “go Native” and eat Norma’s stew at the Sundance signifies a return back to their cultural roots.
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“Ann Hubert, a white girl who wore a new dress to school each week, asked her if the Sun Dance was like going to church. (369)”
As Latisha and Alberta drive towards the camp, they discuss George’s letters and Alberta’s pregnancy. Latisha has a flashback to a time in high school when her presentation on the Sun Dance was repeatedly interrupted by a girl named Ann Hubert. Ann Hubert is a conflation of Anne Cameron and Cam Hubert—both pen names for one person, a female Canadian novelist, poet, and playwright named Barbara Anne Cameron. “Most widely known her feminist renderings of Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth legends in Daughters of Copper Woman” (BC Book World), Cameron has also beenaccused of cultural appropriation. In particular, Flick writes, “the Nuu-Chah-Nulth, who were supposedly represented in Daughters, have rejected the work.” King sees Cameron as a writer who exploits “Indianness” for some purpose in their work, and the parallels to Ann Hubert are clear. Although the white girl purports to be curious about Native culture, she constantly cuts Latisha off, more keen on forming and imposing her own conclusions than actually listening.
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That’s Martha Oldcrow’s grandkids… and Bertha Morley’s daughter. (375)
As Eli and Lionel walk about camp, King slips in the names of two ladies with remarkable backgrounds.
Earlier in the book, Martha Old Crow (31) is identified as the medicine woman and go-to healer of the tribe. It’s spelled Oldcrow on page 375 of my edition and I wonder whether this is a misprint. Martha Benjamin of Old Crow became the first Yukoner to win a national skiing title—and possibly the first Canadian First Nations female to win an individual national championship in any sport—when she won the inaugural Canadian women’s cross country ski championships. After her victory, Martha went on to train for the Olympic team but family obligations kept her from competing at this level. Benjamin was a lifetime resident of Old Crow—the most northernmost community in the Yukon and home of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation.
Bertha Morley was an American music teacher who lived in Marsovan during the Armenian Genocide. Her diaries how “Armenian property was plundered by Ottoman local and central officials and how Armenian women and children converted and were absorbed into Muslim households” (back cover). Although she account might seem geographically irrelevant to Green Grass Running Water, Morley stands for someone who witnessed the cultural erasure of a people group by political authorities. I’m reminded of Dr. Paterson’s point that the residential school system was also a form of genocide. The fact that Bertha Morley’s daughter returns to the Sun Dance, however, conveys the hope that the Sun Dance can be a place of healing.
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As Eli and Lionel walk around camp, they make allusions to two damn-building controversies.
“The dam is killing the river… no flood, no nutrients, no cotton woods… Sundance tree” (376)
The Oldman dam was constructed in 1992 just North of Pincher Creek Alberta, in spite of protests from the Peigan Nation on whose land the government was intruding. Beginning 1990, the Peigan Lonefighters Society began diverting the river using an excavator to render the multi-million dollar dam useless, leading to an armed standoff. King quotes directly from Little Mustache of the Brave Dog Society, who maintains that the Oldman Valley had always “provided the Peigans with willow to build sweat lodges; animal furs and feathers to make the holy ceremonial bundles; roots and herbs for healing; and cottonwood posts for the sun dance” (Flick). Dam-building staunches river flow and causes severe damage to local riparian biomes which are important to Indian cultural life.
“Maybe we should give the Cree in Quebec a call” (376)
Another allusion to the Great Whale projects, Eli refers to a settlement between the Cree and Quebec government in 1975. The First Nation was promised up to 2 percent of the revenue generated by Hydro-Quebec’s new dam—$3.5 billion over 50 years. Although the deal has drawn criticism from environmentalists, this capital base provides the tribe with much-needed resources for self-government and self-development.
“The Cree people are living in what can only be described as extreme poverty,” said David Boyd, a professor of environmental law at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. “Their leaders made a decision—a very difficult decision, I’m sure—to sacrifice some of the environment to reap the economic benefits of development in their region” (National Geographic).
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Works Cited:
“Anne Cameron.” ABCBookWorld. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
Flick Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161/162 (1999). Web. 25 Mar. 2016
Harder, Ben. “Canada Cree Now Back Power Project on Native Lands.” National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 2 July 2002. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Janusz, Barbara. “Who Speaks for the River? The Oldman River Dam and the Search for Justice.” AJ – Canada’s Environmental Voice. 25 Feb. 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
“Martha Benjamin: Canadian Champion.” Whitehorse Daily Star. 14 Mar. 1990. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Morley, Bertha B., and Hilmar Kaiser. Marsovan 1915: The Diaries of Bertha B. Morley. Ann Arbor, MI: Gomidas Institute, 2000. Print.
“Old Crow.” Yukon Info. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
Hi Bea! I enjoyed reading your post on this section of the book. The conflation of two “injun hating” characters in Bill Bursum is one I found very interesting. It is ironic how King re-purposed these names…making them the medium of a different story with the possibility of a much happier ending for indigenous peoples. The video keeps playing with new endings and I thought this was King’s way of telling a story that asked readers the what-ifs and allowed them to live it even if only in the confines of his novel. King understood stories, and especially oral ones, as having profound effects that pulled the past and present and future together into one circle. Here I thought he took the painful past of Sen. Bursam and W. Cody and retold a story where the ending was not an “injun hating” one. I was wondering what your thoughts on King’s conflation of two such characters into this one man was meant to accomplish?
Hi Maryam,
Wow, you are a such an eloquent writer: “King understood stories, and especially oral ones, as having profound effects that pulled the past and present and future together into one circle.” I definitely agree with you that the repetition and slight variations in GGRW open up multiverse of possibilities and what-ifs that bleed into reality. I wonder if King’s conflation of these two historical characters serves to highlight the multifarious and equally nefarious forms of exploitation that have been acted upon Native communities. The appropriation of culture is just as harmful as the extraction of natural resources.
I’d be interested to know your thoughts on the matter!
Thanks for commenting,
Bea
Hi Bea,
I really enjoyed reading your post. The way you did this post was very well done, as it provided a visual in my head as well while reading it. One of the characters I really liked in my passage was Latisha, so it was very intriguing to see what your thoughts were on her! It was pleasing to see that in both of our passages it related Latisha to sun dance as I believe it is one of aspects of Native culture that they are proud of and famous for. I especially like what you concluded of Ann, as a girl that cuts people off and imposes her own thoughts instead of listening. This reminds me of how people are usually ignorant to Aboriginal culture, as they do not try to learn the culture or understand it. Instead they make their own judgement and opinion about something they do not know. After learning about Indian culture in this class and another class, I have grown a tremendous interest in it. As their culture centers about story and family, it really amazes me how such a big community can be connected.
Thank you for the read, it was really amazing
Althea
Hi Althea
Thanks for your comments! Tough, independent Latisha is one of my favorite characters too! Latisha is in tune with her Native American heritage and financially benefits off of westernized stereotyping about Native culture through the Dead Dog Cafe. I really like your point about the importance of story and family because as resourceful as the single mum of three is, it takes Lionel, Eli, and the whole community standing behind her to fight off George Morning Star once and for all.
Best,
Bea
Hi Bea,
I really enjoyed reading your post as well. The layout of your post was great and it was easy clear and easy to understand your point of view. I like how you included the two names of ladies King slipped in at the end of the story. Bertha Morley was very significant as she did survive and laid witness to a horrible cultural time in history; I agree in the fact that the Residential Schools were also a form of genocide. I like how you added in at the end that the Sun Dance is a place of healing. It demonstrated to me that community is very important and people can come back from such horrible events.In what way specifically, do you think the Sun Dance will heal Bertha’s daughter?
Courtney
HI Courtney,
Thanks for dropping by! Bertha’s daughter doesn’t really show up again in the novel, so I must admit to venturing onto the realm of conjecture. One aspect of the Sun Dance as it is described in the novel that stood out to me was the amount of time that people took to just sit in teepees and spend time with one another. As we’ve learned from our reflections about home earlier in this course, there’s something incredibly healing about sharing stories over a meal–be it Chinese New Year or Sun Dance. I think the communal aspect of the Sun Dance–reinforced by the dancing in a circle, by the rings of teepees, and by the circular shape of the tents themselves–will provide Bertha’s daughter with the space and support she needs. Healing shouldn’t and often can’t be done alone.
Thanks again,
Bea
Wow, Bea – what an informative post. You’ve really dug into the text to unearth all of these connections, and I learned quite a bit while reading this. For instance, I did not know about Ann Cameron or her work, “Tales of the Copper Woman”, nor about Martha Benjamin and her accomplishments and Bertha Morley and how the tactics undertaken during genocidal campaigns are similar across cultures, geography and time.
I appreciate your inclusion of David Boyd’s comments on the financial relationship between resource projects and First Nation communities’ decision making. I spent a few minutes looking into the James Bay hydroelectric project and the history of conflict, negotiation and resolution between the gov’t of Quebec and the Grand Council of Crees. This led me to the wiki article Agreement Respecting a New Relationship Between the Cree Nation and the Government of Quebec”“, which is a “nation-to-nation”agreement that evolved out of the James Bay conflict. I know that the Quebec government is regarded as progressive in comparison to those of the other provinces, and I’m wondering whether Quebec’s history as a nation within a nation (Canada) had any bearing on the creation of such an agreement. Are there any other similar nation-to-nation agreements in the other provinces that allow for joint First Nations and governmental control of land development?
Thanks again for your post!
Hi Merriam
Thanks for the link! I love the connection you make between Quebec’s history as a nation within a nation and their willingness to see other cultural groups as autonomous nations too. I wonder if their continued desire for sovereignty today has any part to play in their recognition of other governments. In response to your question, Land Claims Coalition is an excellent website that details all the modern treaties between First Nations and federal government parties in Canada since the James Bay Agreement of 1975 (which was the first of its kind). http://www.landclaimscoalition.ca/modern-treaties/
Enjoy!
Bea
Hi Bea!
I really found your post immensely intriguing this week! I loved the ways in which you offered in-depth analysis regarding the particular passages you were assigned.
What particularly stood out for me, however, was your analysis of Lionel and Eli going to eat at the Dead Dog Cafe, and how the name of the cafe served as a reinforcement and mocking almost, of Blackfoot stereotypes. As you noted, I found it entirely captivating how Lionel seems to have succumbed to these stereotypes, and the exoticism of Native American culture and cuisine by tourists; perhaps his succumbing and recognition of the ways in which his culture is viewed by others facilitated his adoption of a more Westernized, Canadian way of life. Maybe upon realizing that this is an image of his culture that he will never be able to shed off entirely, Lionel sought a more Canadian identity to distance him from these cultural stereotypes he no longer wished to be associated with.
Anyway thank you for your post! I really enjoyed it 🙂
– Neia
Hi Neia,
I really appreciate your thoughtful character analysis of Lionel–especially your remark that “Lionel sought a more Canadian identity to distance himself from cultural stereotypes” about indigenous people. Aunt Norma constantly compares Lionel to his Uncle Eli, but I think many other Native characters in GGRW struggle to understand their Native identity too. Charlie, for one, touts his “successful Indian lawyer” image while secretly dealing with the fact that he got his job thanks to his aboriginal status and not by merit. In this case, his embrace of a European lifestyle actually reinforces a false understanding of what it means to be Native.
Thanks for your comments!
Bea