Prompt: For this blog assignment I would like you to make some comparisons between Harry Robson’s writing style in “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England” and King’s style in Green Grass, Running Water. What similarities can you find between the two story-telling voices? Coyote and God are present in both texts, how do they compare in character and voice across the stories?

Veneta Georgieva Petkova in the article “How Thomas King Uses Coyote in his Novel Green Grass, Running Water” argues that both Thomas King and Harry Robinson want
“to preserve the unique culture of the indigenous population in North America” through storytelling. “Canada needs to give Indigenous stories the platform they deserve” by Jesse Wente similarily argues the importance of Indigenous storytelling and how storytelling resists colonialism and reclaims power. Wente explains that up until the 20th century, many Indigenous stories were and are still lost. He asserts that “one of the great acts of decolonization is to create. Make art. Tell stories” (Wente). King and Robinson write complex stories that change the way we think about history and the future. 

The most prominent similarities I came across between Thomas King’s writing and Harry Robinson’s oral stories is that both authors have embedded loads of historical references, are rethinking traditional Western stories, rewriting history, and employ a similar mix of narration and dialogue. King’s recreation of Genesis on page 68 references the beginning of time whereas Robinson’s story, “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England” reflects histories of colonization. Both stories, however, incorporate processes of colonization using traditional characters and tropes, sometimes explicitly and other times more abstractly. King, for example, in the recreation of “Genesis” writes “just then, some soldiers come along, and before First Woman can put on her ranger mask, those soldiers grab First Woman and Ahdamn. You are under arrest, says those soldiers. What’s the charge, says First Woman. Being Indian, says those soldiers” (72). While these character voices are presented as singular, they reflect the greater colonial history of Canada where Indigenous peoples were criminalized simply for existing in space settlers desired to cultivate. The conflict between First Woman, Ahdamn, and the soldiers thus recreates the first encounter stories we were previously discussing. Robinson, in the story “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England” also uses fictional characters to reenact history. For example, Robinson writes “Once you say we not going to fight, we can make out a paper and sign” (73). Robinson is referencing a complex history around treaties and war. The effect of King and Robinson’s incorporation of histories of colonialism is to teach their readers about it in a non-authoritative manner. Contrary to Western history that tends to lean towards facts, these stories show rather than tell us what happened. 

Another significant similarity between King and Robinson is the way their stories reflect oral traditions. As I discuss in my previous blog, “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England” uses language that is similar to day to day dialogue as opposed to formal writing. This brings us into the story and allows us to feel as though we are apart of the character’s conversations. 

Two characters both King and Robinson are Coyote and God. Veneta Georgieva Petkova explains that “the image of Coyote takes a central place in [Native American] culture, because of his never-ending desire to start the next story for the creation of the world and to have everything right in it” (5). In Robinson’s story, Coyote is “called on by God” and acts as an agent. He is passive in tone, for instance, he says “whatever he says I will” (Robinson 67). In Green Grass Running Water, Coyote is a trickster “with kind intentions to help fixing up the world” (Petkova). King’s version of Coyote confidently asserts that they are “very smart” (2). The effect of these different portrayals of Coyote show that while Coyote is a well-known figure, Coyote is also malleable and unrestricted to particular characteristics. This page of the online Canadian Encyclopedia explains that “a number of Indigenous artists formed the Committee to Re-establish the Trickster in the 1980s as a means of emphasizing the trickster’s role in Indigenous literature, while also offsetting stereotypical representations of Indigenous peoples in mainstream Canadian literature”. 

I’m curious about what you all think about the different portrayals of Coyote.

Works Cited

“Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England.” Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory, by Harry Robinson and Wendy C. Wickwire, Talonbooks, 2005, pp. 64–85.

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Harper Perennial Canada , 1993.

Petkova, Veneta Georgieva. “How Thomas King Uses Coyote in His Novel Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature, 2011, pp. 1–35.

“Trickster.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/trickster.

Wente, Jesse. “Canada Needs to Give Indigenous Stories the Platform They Deserve.” The Globe and Mail, 14 Apr. 2017, www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/canada-needs-to-give-indigenous-stories-the-platform-they-deserve/article34046186/.