Borders

The media resolves the central conflict in the Sale Lake City trip storyline. Its presence in the text has a dual meaning—it symbolizes ignorance of Indigenous issues but also the galvanizing power of public attention to make a change. The presence of the media ties to the themes of injustice, identity, and visibility in the text. The media represents the perspectives and interests of mainstream Canadian and US society. Mainstream opinion is ignorant about Indigenous issues regarding status and identity. For example, one of the reporters asks the narrator what it is like “to be an Indian without a country” (142). The narrator and his mother are not without a country or a community—they are Blackfoot. The issue is that they are unable to cross either border based on the mother’s expression of her identity.

The media also represents the importance of public attention and public pressure to make a change. We are not told how the media comes to find out about the family’s struggle to cross the border, but their involvement resolves the conflict. Public attitudes have become more concerned with Indigenous rights and culture, and the media sees a way to gain an audience by covering the story. Due to public pressure and media scrutiny, the border patrol officers accept the mother’s original answer about her nationality (“Blackfoot”), and the family is granted access to the United States.