{"id":52,"date":"2020-03-19T11:25:14","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T18:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/?p=52"},"modified":"2020-03-19T11:29:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T18:29:49","slug":"52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/2020\/03\/19\/52\/","title":{"rendered":"Assignment 3:7- Thomas King’s Multi-layered History Lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Write a blog that hyper-links your research on the characters in GGRW using at least 10 pages of the text of your choice.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Pages 57-64, 68-72 of <\/span>Green Grass, Running Water<\/span><\/i> by Thomas King\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I find King\u2019s use of naming and references in <\/span>Green Grass, Running Water<\/span><\/i> to be both enriching and a challenge for my reading experience. It\u2019s almost like starting a movie from halfway through and constantly needing to pause ask the people around you what it all means. The effect of this is that we are not simply granted access to these other worlds King creates but invited to learn about them. We could choose to read the words on the page or we could choose to undergo a deep, complex, and confusing history lesson that challenges what we think we know. These histories, as King shows us, are not just events of the past but are ongoing and have an impact on the daily lives of Indigenous peoples. His interweaving of creation stories and more present-day stories that are loaded with references reveal the significant role that religion and colonization to this day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wooden Knee\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lionel goes to Salt Lake City to help out his supervisor, Duncan Scott, give a paper at a conference on Indian Education. When Lionel is in Salt Lake City, \u201cThe occupation of Wooden Knee was in its second month […]\u201d (King 55). I assumed Wooden Knee was a reference to either a place or event, however, I did not know the details of it. I looked up \u201cWooden Knee\u201d on google and learned that it is referring to the Wooden Knee Massacre<\/a> of 1890 where 150-300 Native Americans were murdered by U.S. army troops in South Dakota. This massacre attempted to shut down organized resistance against assimilation and reservation life, however, in 1973, American Indian activists reoccupied the site.<\/span>\u00a0After reading about the Wooden Knee Massacre, I now understand King means American Indian activists have been reoccupying this site for two months. With this reference, King is asking us to recognize both the history of the massacre and the present-day resistance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

George Morningstar\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The name George Morningstar comes up in a conversation between Lionel and Norma about Lionel finding work: \u201cLook at your sister. She makes her own luck. What about George Morning Star? […] What about George Morningstar, he used to beat the hell out of her\u201d (King 57). According to Jane Flick\u2019s reading guide, this name refers to \u201cCuster,\u201d the \u201cSon of Morning Star\u201d or \u201cChild of the Stars\u201d that was \u201cthe name given to George Armstrong Custer by the Arikaras in Dakota territory\u201d (146). Flick explains that King wants us to recognize the importance of this name, as “Latisha even liked his name. It sounded slightly Indian, though George was American. Best of all, he did not look like a cowboy or an Indian” (King 131-32). Still a bit unsure of the meaning of the name George Morningstar, I looked it up on google. I didn\u2019t find anything besides various people\u2019s obituaries. Once I looked up Son of Morning Star<\/a><\/span>\u00a0instead, I learned that this is the name of a television show based on Evan S Connell\u2019s bestseller about events leading up to the battle of Little Bighorn. King\u2019s references are thus not always straightforward but multilayered. He wants us to do the work of looking up multiple names and events and grasp a fuller understanding of history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dead Dog Cafe<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although I have never heard the stereotype that Indigenous peoples eat dogs, I was able to pick up on King\u2019s reference to tourists\u2019 desire to consume the exotic other. King plays with this stereotype by showing how Indigenous peoples can take advantage of it for financial gain. At the Dead Dog Cafe, Latisha \u201csells hamburger and tells everyone it\u2019s dog meat\u201d (King 57). Flick says that it \u201cAlso refers to starving Indians having to eat their dogs\u201d and is \u201cPossibly a play on Nietzsche’s assertion that “God is Dead” (149). When searching \u201cDead Dog Cafe\u201d on google, I learned that this became a radio show<\/a> that was <\/span>\u201cirreverent, political and sometimes breathtakingly politically incorrect. And funny. Very funny\u201d<\/span>. The show apparently had several segments<\/a>, for instance, \u201cGracie’s Authentic Traditional Aboriginal Recipes, including puppy stew, fried bologna, and Kraft Dinners,\u201d or \u201cThe Authentic Indian Name generator, featuring three wheels that could automatically create names like Stewart Coffee Armadillo or Rosemarie Clever<\/span> Tuna\u201d<\/span>. It is interesting to see how King\u2019s stories and names play out beyond the novel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Apples and Fry Bread\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

King\u2019s references to food are rich with stories and history. Apples, as we know, point to Genesis, while fry bread, according to Smithsonian magazine<\/a><\/span>, \u201clinks generation with generation and also connects the present to the painful narrative of Native American history\u201d (Miller). Frybread is made out of cheap ingredients given to Native Americans by the United States government when forced to walk 300 miles from Arizona to New Mexico. Today it is seen by some as a powerful symbol of \u201cNative pride and unity\u201d (Miller). In<\/span> Green Grass, Running Water<\/span><\/i>, First Woman says \u201cthere\u2019s plenty of good stuff here. We can share it\u201d (King 69). King is pointing to the significance of frybread in some Indigenous cultures and how it is a food that can represent sharing and unity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope you all find this information helpful for your experience of reading <\/span>Green Grass, Running Water<\/span><\/i>, and I\u2019m excited to learn from your posts!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dead Dog Caf\u00e9 Comedy Hour.\u201d <\/span>Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias<\/span><\/i>, 2010, enacademic.com\/dic.nsf\/enwiki\/950771.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHome | Rewind with Michael Enright | CBC Radio.\u201d <\/span>CBCnews<\/span><\/i>, CBC\/Radio Canada, www.cbc.ca\/radio\/rewind\/dead-dog-cafe-comedy-hour-1.2801276).<\/span><\/p>\n

Flick, Jane. \u201cReading Notes for Thomas King\u2019s\u00a0Green Grass Running Water.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0Canadian Literature<\/i>\u00a0161-162. (1999). Web. April 04\/2013.<\/p>\n

Hudson, Myles. \u201cWounded Knee Massacre.\u201d <\/span>Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica<\/span><\/i>, Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica, Inc., 17 Jan. 2020, www.britannica.com\/event\/Wounded-Knee-Massacre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Julius. \u201cDead Dog Cafe \u2013 Socialist Action \u2013 Canada.\u201d <\/span>Socialist Action – Canada<\/span><\/i>, 30 Jan. 2014, socialistaction.ca\/tag\/dead-dog-cafe\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

King, Thomas. <\/span>Green Grass Running Water<\/span><\/i>. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miller, Jen. \u201cFrybread.\u201d <\/span>Smithsonian.com<\/span><\/i>, Smithsonian Institution, 1 July 2008, www.smithsonianmag.com\/arts-culture\/frybread-79191\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSon of the Morning Star.\u201d <\/span>IMDb<\/span><\/i>, IMDb.com, 3 Feb. 1991, www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0102962\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Write a blog that hyper-links your research on the characters in GGRW using at least 10 pages of the text of your choice. Pages 57-64, 68-72 of Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King\u00a0 I find King\u2019s use of naming and references in Green Grass, Running Water to be both enriching and a challenge for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44831,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/55"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jadegreer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}