The ways in which these four tricksterish Old Indians try to fix the world does not begin with this event, but rather in their appropriation of the names of white literary and popular culture characters. It becomes clear through the telling of stories in the text that the Lone Ranger, Robinson Crusoe, Hawkeye, and Ishmael have recreated themselves in this manner so as to survive in a literary and celluloid world dominated by white, canonical characters, a world where being an Indian only allows for the prescribed roles of savage as discussed earlier. For example, after choosing to leave the Garden of Eden because God was being stingy with his apples, Ahdamn and First Woman are captured and incarcerated in Fort Marion. First Woman realises that the only way to escape is to adopt the guise of a figure from popular culture as such characters are rarely, if ever, interrogated:
Okay, says First Woman, and she puts on her black mask and walks to the front gate.
It’s the Lone Ranger, the guards shout. It’s the Lone Ranger, they shout again, and they open the gate. So the Lone Ranger walks out of the prison, and the Lone Ranger and Ishmael and Robinson Crusoe and Hawkeye head west.
Have a nice day, the soldiers say. Say hello to Tonto for us. And all the soldiers wave. (106)
The Lone Ranger carries such weight as an iconic symbol of popular culture that the three other Indians can walk out of Fort Marion with him/her and not be subjected to questioning. By highlighting the advantage of such characters, King emphasises the inequality inherent in Canadian society.
Later in the text, the Lone Ranger is quick to point out to Lionel Red Dog that the "messed up" world is "too big a job to fix … all at once" (134). Green Grass, Running Water is an excellent start to fixing up the world. Wilson Harris has commented, "The thing that activates my mind is how to conceive the reality of genuine change … this press for genuine change remains deep-seated and fundamental in my imagination" (Slemon 47). King, likewise, has used his imagination to envisage the possibility of transformation, and succeeds in achieving it within the sphere of his textual creation. Through claiming the authority to rewrite history from his perspective and to subvert the stereotypical assumptions of the dominant culture, King creates a realistic textual representation of Native cultures. In a time in which Penny Van Toorn can assert that "the question of what counts for history has been reopened" (45), King seizes the opportunity to use tricksterish strategies to ensure that Native people in Canada are no longer simply "products of … the dominant culture’s imagination" (Cornell 177). Rather, they are presented as dynamic, three-dimensional characters reflecting the realities lived by Native peoples. Thus, Green Grass, Running Water illustrates that cultural experience in life is not unitary and that, as the narrator reminds Coyote and all of us, "there are no truths … Only stories" (432).
© Linda Rodenburg and Robyn Anderson 2003. All Rights Reserved.
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