I was assigned to research the characters and their connections for pages 54-59 in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.

The first few pages include characters: the Lone ranger, Hawkeye, Robinson Crusoe, and Ishmael. These four characters are Native Elders who have escaped a mental institution and are being chased by Dr. Joe Hovaugh. As Dr. Patterson stated in her lesson 3:3, if you sound out Dr. Joe Hovaugh’s name, it sounds like Jehovah, which is a common name for God. Jehovah is said to have 4 attributes: wisdom, power, justice, and love. Four attributes and four on-the-run Elders… It is difficult to say exactly which Elder is assigned to which attribute, but I have my suspicions:

• The Lone Ranger, a masked man who is a Do Gooder, is power. Mythology has it that one ranger could be sent to clean up a town by himself…
• Hawkeye, an adopted Native name and the most famous of the frontier heroes in American literature, is justice. Hawkeye is a character in many movies, all of which he is portrayed as the hero/protagonist. Some examples include: The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, and The Pathfinder.
• Robinson Crusoe, a shipwrecked mariner who “rescues” his “savage” Man Friday from cannibals and then Christianizes, is wisdom. Crusoe is mocked by King for having a passion for making lists and weighing pros and cons of various situations, always calculating his best move.
• Finally, Ishmael, a biblical name and a character in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, is love. When Moby Dick destoryed the Pequod, Ishmael survives by staying afloat on his Native companion’s, Queequeg, coffin.

The Elders are discussing if the car that just pulled up is their ride. They see a man get out of the car, presumably Dr. Joe Hovaugh.

The next conversation to occur in my assigned pages is at the Dead Dog Cafe. The characters discuss what to call their dishes, something creative to entice their customers. “Tell them it’s dog meat… Tourists like that kind of stuff,” (55). They use names such as Houndburgers, Saint Bernard Swiss Melts, and Doggie Doos. Putting aside the disturbing idea of eating dogs (only because I have a very beloved German Shepard named Thor and could never imagine eating him!!), the names are really quite creative. However, what King is trying to introduce to his readers is the common joke of Blackfoot cooking and the desire of Tourists for the exotic. I would also like to mention that dog was also a derogatory name for Native people introduced by the “white” man. They thought it was a dirty word, that Natives resembled dogs that needed to be broken and made obedient. However, in my culture at least, dogs are wonderfully willed, strong loving, and loyal beings. My great great grandmother was given an Indian name, called wii lax haa (pronounced wee-la-ha). In Gitxsan it means somebody’s dog. To be a dog and belong to someone was of great honour for that dog. It meant a fully belly, a warm fire to sleep by, and a loving family to protect and honour.

The last conversation is with Eli Stand Alone. His name says it all, he is a loner and almost black-sheep of his family. His name is thought to reference Elijah Harper, the man who blocked the Meech Lake Constitutional Accord in 1990 by being the standout vote in the Manitoba legislature. The debate did not allow full consultation with the First Nations and recognized only English and French as the founding nations. Elijah voted against said debate. Like Elijah, Eli Stand Alone stands up against the authorities trying to abuse the Native peoples rights. Eli goes head on with the company trying to build a dam on his family’s reserve and ultimately destroy his mothers house, which she built herself. It is interesting to note that Eli turned away from his Native culture, but returned to save his mothers house. Or, instead of the reference to Elijah Harper, perhaps King is alluding to Elijah in the Bible, who also stood alone in his battle amidst chaos. Elijah stands defending the worship of Yahweh (Jewish God) over Baal. Although no one listens to Elijah, he stands firm in his belief and challenges the worship of Baal. This is similar to King’s Eli standing firm and challenging the people who are seeking out to destroy his people’s land.—————————————————————————————————————————-

http://www.mountaingks.org/doctrines/

http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/elijah.html

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

“There are no truths, only stories” 

Thomas King’s Blue Grass, Running Water is a meta-creation narrative, packed full of theology and critiques of Colonialism. He produces multiple stories and disguises them as one novel, or perhaps one novel disguised as multiple stories. The stories are modeled after Christian and Native traditions synthesized together as one.

In telling the story of an oppressed people, King utilizes certain words as triggers that are much stronger than mere letters combined into generic words; they are symbols burdened with loss and violence. The use of these words, to those applicable, evokes a dark history of the burning of their roots: land, creation, and stories.

His message is clear: creation is not stuck in the carnage of the past, but to understand creation, you must also understand the past. Creation is of great importance not only to the Natives, but to all human beings. It tells us how things came to be, an explanation that can offer us answers to why, how, where, what, and when. It can enlighten us on current situations, feelings, positions, and so on.

Whilst telling the stories of the creators, four escaped Native elders, Lionel, and Eli, King adds humor in his stories. The permeating humor in their dialogues penetrates every level of human and divine experiences. You can clearly tell that the vantage point is Native American, as the characters, mainly the gods, tease each other throughout the entire novel.

The inserted humor is most certainly vital. Why? Well because King is trying to tell you a story that deals with some heavy subjects: the tragic oppression of Natives over centuries, the submission in their “whiting” by some ambitious Natives, and Religion.

Almost the entirety of the novel is about storytelling. At one point the Lone ranger is talking to Ishmael: “everybody makes mistakes,” he says. “Best not to make them with stories,” Ishmael replies (8-9). I found this part in the conversation quite ironic, as stories are constantly being told in different versions, with the use of different words and tones. However, who is to say that making alterations in stories is to make a mistake…

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King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

http://canlit.ca/interviews/18

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab83

There are many legislations and policies today in Canada. Arguably, the most important are the: Royal Proclamation 1763, Indian Act 1876, Immigration Act 1910, and Multiculturalism Act 1989. In this blog I choose to focus on the Royal Proclamation, the one that started it all.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is a document issued by King George III to “officially” claim British territory in North America after Britain won the Seven Years War. This document set out guidelines for European settlement of Aboriginal territories. Regardless of King George’s claim to North America, the Royal Proclamation explicitly states that all land would be considered Aboriginal land until ceded by treaty. Settlers were prohibited from claiming land from Aboriginal occupants. The only way a settler could claim land was through purchasing said land from the Crown, who were the only ones able to buy land from the Natives.

The Royal Proclamation was an important first step towards the recognition of existing Aboriginal rights and title. Once the Proclamation was introduced, it set a foundation for the process of establishing treaties. The good intentions were initially there, however what was to come in the later years was unimaginable.

Despite the British consideration for Aboriginal rights and title, the Royal Proclamation was premeditated and written by British colonists. There was no Aboriginal input, and it clearly establishes control over Aboriginal lands by the British Crown. Regardless of having preexisting inhabitants, both the French and British tried to claim Canada as their own with little or no thought or consideration to the Natives.

Is the Royal Proclamation still valid? At the same time: yes and no. Since technically there is no law that has overruled the Proclamation, it is indeed still valid in Canada.

The Proclamation applied to all of North America, including the United States. Since American independence from Great Britain, the Revolutionary War rendered the Proclamation no longer applicable. However, the United States created its own similar law in the Indian Intercourse Acts.

One author that can correlate to the Royal Proclamation is Daniel Coleman; he offers us a term deemed “fictive ethnicity,” in his White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada, which is defined as the British whiteness in English Canada, both in the past and future (6-7). He goes on to argue that this British whiteness still occupies the position of normalcy and privilege in Canada.

He also suggests that beginning with the colonials and early nation-builders there has been a “literary endeavor” to “formulate and elaborate a specific form of [Canadian] whiteness based on the British model of civility” (5). Coleman argues that British whiteness is a “fictive ethnicity” that still occupies normalcy and privilege in Canada today (7). One example, the British Commonwealth. Canada is still a part of it and we still have Queen Elizabeth II as our queen (even though she has no authority). The Royal Proclamation supports Coleman’s statements.

How did the normative concept of English Canadianness as white and civil come to be constructed in the first place? Over a long period of time, with European-centric ideas and mass genocide. Our nation seems to have forgotten the very uncivil acts of colonialism and nation-building. There is a quote that I find completely applicable to this blindness: “ignorance is bliss.”

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http://www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/map-maker-provides-pre-contact-look-canada

https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1370355181092/1370355203645