3:5 Eli and Lionel – Narrative Decolonization
Identify and discuss two of King’s “acts of narrative decolonization.”Please read the following quote to assist you with your answer.
King’s stories of individual characters and their interactions with others are acts of narrative decolonization. They show, rather than tell, about some of the dilemmas and stories forced by Colonizing culture and faced by Indians. The stories within his book Green Grass, Running Water illustrate how Colonizing expectations, narratives, and cultural beliefs impact Native American’s lives in a host of ways, oftentimes constraining and preventing them from living freely or being able to advance economically. His book shows how ridiculous and unfair many of these expectations and impacts are. Unfortunately, these expectations suppress First Nations people based on 1) misunderstandings of First Nations people, and 2) illusory understandings of the world or the “right way” of doing things. Ultimately, the combination of these two factors create expectations and restrictions upon First Nations people in a way that is unfair and, frankly, nonsensical.
In one of King’s stories, Lionel accidentally and unwillingly joined an AIM protest, entering a car with other AIM protesters that ended up caught by the police. As he was getting out of the car, his arm mistakenly hooked a rifle strap, pulling the rifle outside the car. His bumbling and the appearance of the weapon was so sudden that it put a police officer on alert, and she knocked him out. Lionel woke up in jail and despite his attempts to explain the misunderstanding of violence and involvement with the AIM group, the police didn’t believe him. He had to spend undeserving time in jail despite being innocent. The police didn’t trust his words because he was Native American.
King’s story about Lionel and his incident show how misunderstandings of Native Americans interact with Colonizing culture to harm Native Americans. For some reason, whatever reason, the police didn’t trust Lionel because he was different. Despite him telling the full, honest truth, his best efforts were crushed in the face of distrust and misunderstanding from police and institutions socialized through Colonizing culture. Also, Lionel had to suffer needlessly because of these misunderstandings. Oftentimes, when these incidents are covered up through framing techniques that cover up blatant unfairness through placing fault on the Indigenous victim. These misunderstandings gain power in harming Native Americans because of the institutions and people that promote them, allowing certain acts of oppression and discrimination to become possible: for example, harming the ability of Native Americans to succeed economically, gain the respect of business connections or those in power gain, or protect themselves from police who might put them in jail for unfair reasons. King conveys these aspects very blatantly in the story about First Woman’s interaction with some soldiers. When one of the soldiers said she was under arrest, First Woman asked, “What’s the charge?” The answer was “Being Indian” (Part 799, King). She didn’t get arrested just because she was Indian, but more specifically, because of the assumptions that were made about Indians.
Another of King’s stories tell about Eli, a Blackfoot Indian who wanted to protect his deceased mother’s house when a company wanted to tear it down to build a dam. Even though it was his mother’s house, under the pressure of the company, Eli had no weight of decision-making power in society to save this remnant of his mother. His only option was to live in the house because the company couldn’t go as far as to tear it down while he was there. Nevertheless, the company created case after case of legal and media attacks against him to tilt public image and institutional power on their side. Colonizing culture’s institutional rules and practices create an unequal balance of power between Native Americans and those who are privileged by this culture.
Works Cited:
King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2016.
“The Native American Power Movement.” Digital History, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3348.
Racine, Eliza. “Native Lives Matter: The Overlooked… • Lakota People’s Law Project.” Lakota People’s Law Project, 21 Nov. 2017, www.lakotalaw.org/news/2017-11-21/native-lives-matter-the-overlooked-police-brutality-against-native-americans.
Hi Gaby,
When I saw that you had answered the same question that I did I was curious to see how another person would respond to it. The comparisons you made to real life cases stressed to me why such a decolonization effort in literary works is necessary, in that it shows that their are real life consequences to the warped perception colonialism has given us. They also suggest to a settler reader that we have implicit biases that exist and must be addressed. I am wondering how you think the characters named after white characters in Indigenous stories (like the Lone Ranger) might play a role in this as well?
Oh my god, you’re right! You just made me see that too! I think we need a shit ton of new literature to re-shift that framework, and make those the dominant works rather than the old colonial narratives. Narratives about power, wisdom, love, strength etc., it’s just about teaching people the routes to understanding those things. By showing through stories rather than telling them. Just like how King wrote this book to show us, to make us work for the answers ourselves because we have to want to. Oftentimes people’s thoughts get in the way of their ability to see things that contradict their previous worldview; that’s the nature of stereotypes, self-righteousness, and dominant belief systems. That’s why there’s no better way to teach someone a necessary lesson than by showing them or having them experience it.
One of the ways the Lone Ranger–and other characters named after white icons–play a role in reversing implicit biases about Indigenous people is by showing them the experiences of Indigenous people in relation to White people, the obvious unfairness, pointlessness, of it. When I read King’s story, this is the message I get: Just let us be ourselves. We’re peaceful, we haven’t done anything wrong, so why blame us, take responsibility for your actions and unconscious biases because they harm us and the way we live. You’re limiting our ability to live freely, acknowledge your harmful actions and ways of thinking. We have a right over how we live, and we deserve to live freely. We should both know that and take responsibility.
Hi Gaby!
Thanks so much for your blog post, this question was one that I was also particularly interested in as well.
What is your stance on the showing versus telling, and how do you feel after completing this assignment?
Thanks so much! Maya Sumel
Hi Maya,
I think taking a strategy of showing rather than telling about Indigenous-Settler issues, was the best move King could have made to teach people about these issues. It’s the best move because because it’s hard for those socialized in Settler culture–and enjoy many privileges that could be threatened by a change–to entertain the idea that harms what they believe in and what they have. King shows us a crucial dynamic between Indigenous-Settler relations in many of his stories: Indigenous people often try to make peace with settler’s by communication, but these attempts often fail. Jacob Kosh described a message of Eli’s memory of the sun dance scene very clearly. “Eli’s family tried to make peace with the tourist by having him understand why his actions were wrong in an attempt to build mutual respect, something that often feels like a losing battle even to this day on a national level.” (Kosh, 2020) Stereotypes, biases, self-righteousness, ego, and teachings from Settler culture in White norms, beliefs, and etc. often act as a barrier to understanding. Furthermore, oftentimes, people’s worldviews get in the way of their ability to listen to/think about ideas they don’t want to hear. This can desensitize, prevent them from processing something, or make it easy to deny. However, King shows rather than tell very realistic experiences in Indigenous-Settler relations, showing how ridiculous and unfair certain aspects of this relation is, how Indigenous people are limited from being free, often blamed despite doing nothing wrong, and conveys the message of: You need to take responsibility for your biases, because they’re harming us. Take responsibility and let us live. That is our right.