I explored pages 110-114 of King’s fiction novel “Green Grass Running Water” (I know it is not 10 pages, but these four pages caused great exploration) because this part of the novel was about a dam being built on Native land and I figured King was including this topic because it must be significant. Now having investigated the issue of dams, I have discovered that there is a controversial dam that BC Hydro wants to build that affects Native people’s land as well as local landowners. In the document, Report of the Joint Review Panel: Site C Clean Energy Project: BC Hydro, BC Hydro admits: “There are 21 First Nations who assert rights under Treaty 8 that may be affected by the project” (8).

Hume of The Globe and Mail writes, “If BC Hydro’s $9-billion Site C dam is built one day, the water level would rise to cover Bear Flats below, long a sacred gathering place for the Dane-zaa people (Online). There is also enormous concern from First Nations and other local landowners about their land being flooded. They are camping out to protect the land and “While the camp has rightfully earned significant media attention, few outside the region are aware that it’s located in an area so high in ecological values that the B.C. government recognizes it as worthy of Provincial Park status, and designates it as an Old Growth Management Area” (DESMOGCANADA Online).

The article goes on to explain, “Peace-Boudreau is a place of shared heritage, archaeological richness, First Nations cultural and economic importance and incredible wildlife habitat values combined together in a unique ecosystem that has been wisely reserved from destruction for almost 50 years. It’s time to protect Peace-Boudreau forever, starting with the rejection of the Site C dam” (DESMOGCANADA online). King uses his novel to illuminate this real problem and I will look at the case in BC specifically.

In GGRW, Eli is an Indigenous man who spent most of his life away from his Reserve, but has returned after his mother’s death and is living in her cabin. Clifford Sifton is a man who builds dams, and he comes to Eli’s cabin to have coffee. Eli says to Sifton,

“Looks like you’re thinking about building a dam.”

That’s right,” said Sifton. “She’s going to be a beauty.”

“This is my mother’s house…She built it herself, log by log.”

…”Construction starts in a month” (114).

Even though the dam would cause dire consequences to Eli’s people on his Reserve, Sifton and the government are still planning its construction.

I ask myself, “How can BC build a dam if it affects people’s land and lifestyle?” I am not familiar with such matters. So I looked at Treaty 8 of the proposed Site C area. This Treaty of 1899 states:

It is further agreed between Her Majesty and Her said Indian subjects that suchportions of the reserves and lands above indicated as may at any time be required for public works, buildings, railways, or roads of whatsoever nature may be appropriated for that purpose by Her Majesty’s Government of the Dominion of Canada, due compensation being made to the Indians for the value of any improvements thereon, and an equivalent in land, money or other consideration for the area of the reserve so appropriated (Treaty No. 8).

In GGRW King suggests that there are other possible sites available. Eli asks Sifton:

“So how come so many of them are built on Indian Land?”

“Only so many places you can build a dam.”

“Provincial report recommended three possible sites.”

“Geography. That’s what decides where dams get built.”

“This site wasn’t one of them (111).

This very case is true in BC: BC Hydro had five other recommended sites in the 1950’s but BC Hydro made the decision to use this land (Panel, 8). Why was this site chosen? I am not sure of all the details, but I am concerned about our past agreements and how they are affecting people—most dramatically the First Nations people. We have some issues to be examined and King is bringing light to this. Eli responds to Sifton about the proposed construction happening saying, “Maybe it will…And maybe it’ll have to wait.”

 

Report of the Joint Review Panel: Site C Clean Energy Project: BC Hydro http://deslibris.ca.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/ID/242527

Map https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bc+map+and+treaty+land&view=detailv2&&id=9A87AF05932C740D86A26E16BFCBFE814746DB4F&selectedIndex=1&ccid=3Cw%2fqFwl&simid=608050250890743291&thid=OIP.Mdc2c3fa85c25673319be4dfb1315a7a9o0&ajaxhist=0

Map https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bc+map+and+treaty+land&view=detailv2&&id=723394F4DA8F224EBAD279FCDBBF4CC31676A09D&selectedIndex=14&ccid=998emk7O&simid=608023690808264371&thid=OIP.Mf7df1e9a4eced7a10000937f75397109o0

Treaty No. 8 http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100028813/1100100028853#toc

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water

DESMOGCANADA http://www.desmog.ca/2016/02/16/area-flooded-site-c-dam-once-recommended-provincial-park

Everyone is on the move in this novel, road trips abound and in order to hit the road what do we need? — a road map. At the same time, Lionel, Charlie and Alberta are each seeking direction in life. As Goldman says, “mapping is a central metaphor” (24) of this novel. Maps chart territory and provide directions, they also create borders and boundaries and they help us to find our way. There is more than one way to map, and just as this novel plays with conflicting story traditions, I think King is also playing with conflicting ways to chart territory. What do you think lies at the centre of King’s mapping metaphor? Marline Goldman, “Mapping and Dreaming; Native Resistance in Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162 (1999). Web. April 04/2013.

 

3:5

In King’s “Green Grass Running Water,” Alberta, Lionel, Charlie, and Eli are Indigenous people who have a lack of direction in their lives. I wonder if King put a little of himself in all these characters, since we often write from our own experience? When I heard Brad Baker (Indigenous, and a public school prinicipal) speak a couple months ago, he explained how he was afraid and ashamed to admit he was First Nation’s when he was a child. It has not been easy for many Indigenous people to live in a society where they felt misunderstood or second rate to Western ideologies. I think Alberta, Lionel, Charlie, and Eli struggle with how to live in society which is so separatist between white and Indigenous (King uses the word Indian throughout his novel.)

For some reason Alberta does not desire, or maybe is too cowardly to fall in love. She wants to have a child, but she has no desire to be married to Lionel or Charlie, even though she dates them both. As soon as one of them lean or hint in the direction of commitment or marriage, Alberta takes off. She is not getting what she wants from life–which seems to be a child. This is ironic to me as children are so consuming, and life-long–yet she does not seem to need a loving, committed relationship with a man which would help her raise her child and ultimately he should be less invasive than a child.

Lionel is a bright man but he is either very unlucky or very naïve—probably both. He had a government job and was blending in the white world, but it went miserably wrong, and Lionel has never figured out how to put his life back together. Turning 40, he looks in the mirror and cannot stand the man he sees. Lionel’s boss Bursum has made a map with the set up and design of his TV shop. Bursum has found his way and he is content, but this is not Lionel’s map and his job and life are not a reflection of his true direction.

One would think Charlie is content, but he’s not. He has a sporty car, he’s a lawyer, but he is unsettled. He wants to settle down with Alberta, yet he knows she is resistant.

Eli spent most of his life away from his family and the reserve. For personal reasons, he cannot bring himself to go back to the Sun Dance with Karen again, although she pleads with him to go. He seems to have a fondness for his family and friends from the reserve, but he resists going back. It is not until his mother dies that he returns to her home and tries to protect it from destruction.

It is as though each of them are afraid that they cannot have both lives-White or Indian–so they resist their life as Indigenous people. If Native way of knowing is through story and that is their “mapping” device (Bonnie Berthold in Goldman’s essay), then these characters will not find peace until they reconcile with their past and their heritage. King may be suggesting the map these characters need is found at the Sun Dance, in spending time with their families, is being in their communities, and is in embracing their Native roots, and especially their stories.

In an interview King explains that creation stories are made to help explain life, and that we assign our own truths through them. Alberta, Lionel, Charlie, and Eli will benefit from spending time with the old Indians and their own families listening to the stories so that they will find their own truth.