Green Grass, Running Water

Pages 11, 16-21, 28-38, 41-45, 55-68, 79-92, 98

Lionel Red Dog and his auntie Norma drive to the reserve for the Sun Dance. On the way, he reflects on the three major mistakes of his life. The first mistake was getting his tonsils out as a child so that he could miss two weeks of school. While in the hospital awaiting the surgery, Lionel impersonated another patient who won a free plane ride to Toronto. On arrival at the Sick Children’s Hospital, Lionel realized they intended to perform heart surgery on him. The mistake was cleared up, but the error made its way onto a file that continues to cause problems for him in the present, such as being denied insurance and being turned down for a job because of his “heart problems.”

His next mistake occurred during his second year at university. He worked for the Department of Indian Affairs and went to Salt Lake City to present a paper for his supervisor. This happened during the occupation of Wounded Knee, and Lionel inadvertently found himself with a group of activists and was arrested for disturbing the peace. The arrest cost him his government job, and like his “heart problem,” his criminal record occasionally causes trouble for him despite the fact that his presence was unintentional.

Lionel’s third mistake was taking a job at Bill Bursum’s Home Entertainment Barn. He had planned to go back to school, but when he couldn’t afford it because the band’s money had run out for that year, he accepted the job and told himself it was just to get some savings. Each year he continues to tell himself he will apply for school but always waits until it is too late.

Throughout the drive, Norma peppers Lionel with insults and laments his failures. She claims he reminds her of his uncle Eli because they both went to university and want to be white men. She complains he doesn’t visit the reserve enough, whereas even Eli eventually came home. Norma takes over driving because Lionel is falling asleep at the wheel, and she stops to pick up some Indigenous hitchhikers. When Lionel steps out of the car, he is ankle deep in water and notices that one of the hitchhikers is wearing a black mask.

Professor Alberta Frank gives a history lecture on an 1874 campaign to force the Southern Plains tribes onto reserves. The US Army targeted Indigenous individuals they saw as dangerous or troublesome and put them on a train to Fort Marion in Florida. While imprisoned, many of these individuals drew pictures of their experiences. All but one of the students are disinterested in the lecture.

After class, Alberta receives a phone call from Charlie Looking Bear, who wants her to come see him in Edmonton that weekend. She declines because it is Lionel’s birthday, and she has plans with him. She reflects on being in a relationship with both Charlie and Lionel: Being in a single relationship stresses her out because she feels pressured toward marriage, while being with both men allows her to keep them at a distance without being alone. She wants a child but not a husband, but doesn’t believe either Charlie or Lionel could father her child without wanting to get married. One night, she attempts to go out on the town to find a willing but uninformed stranger to be the father. She cannot go through with it, however, and returns home to cry in bed.

As she drives to the reserve, Alberta remembers her failed marriage with Bob. After a year of passion, things deteriorated when Bob wanted her to drop out of school and get a job so that he could go to school himself. She then remembers the night her father drunkenly crashed his truck into the outhouse and collapsed outside in the snow. Alberta’s mother wanted to leave him out in the cold, but eventually decided to drag him onto the porch and put a blanket over him. In the morning, he was gone and never came back.

Pages 12-16, 21-28, 46-55, 73-79, 92-98

Four elderly Indigenous people, going by the names Lone Ranger, Hawkeye, Robinson Crusoe, and Ishmael, debate whose turn it is to tell the story. Lone Ranger claims it’s his turn but struggles to begin. They determine they are in Canada and are happy to be back and outside again. While they wait for a ride, the Lone Ranger reveals that he believes he is omniscient.

Sergeant Cereno and his partner Jimmy interview Babo Jones, a janitor at the hospital, about four missing, elderly Indigenous patients. Babo used to talk to them about fixing the world, and they would occasionally tell her stories. Babo does not cooperate with the sergeant’s questions. She says the Indigenous people were gone when she arrived in the morning and reveals that they are 400 or 500 years old, according to Dr. Elliot and Dr. Hovaugh. She claims the patients were women, not men. Throughout the interview, Babo watches her car (a Pinto) in the parking lot—it becomes increasingly submerged in water after a dog pees on it. Sergeant Cereno grows impatient and leaves while Babo tells one of the stories he heard from the Indigenous foursome to his partner.

Meanwhile, Dr. Joseph Hovaugh talks to Dr. Eliot about the Indigenous escapees. He insists that each time they escape (which has happened 37 times before), a natural disaster occurs somewhere. Dr. Hovaugh believes the four elders are dead this time because they are very old and should have died long ago, but Eliot refuses to sign a death certificate without seeing their bodies. Later, he sits behind his large colonial desk, starting out the window at the hospital grounds—it is spring, and the garden is beginning to blossom. His secretary interrupts and tells him the police want to see him about the escapees. During the interview with Sergeant Cereno, he is reluctant to call the elders dangerous but doesn’t rule it out. He refutes the idea that they are women and reveals that they were being treated for depression. He doesn’t know how they escaped because their door is always locked.

Pages 38-41, 68-73, 98-100

GOD, who is used to the story starting with a dark void and formless world, wonders where all the water came from. The first-person narrator says that there are two worlds: the Sky World and the Water World. GOD argues that there is only one world, but the narrator begins to tell the story of how First Woman fell off the edge of the Sky World onto the back of Grandmother Turtle in Water World. Together, they created land and eventually a garden where First Woman lives with Ahdamn.

GOD and Coyote constantly interrupt as the narrator continues the story. GOD gets upset when First Woman and Ahdamn start eating food from a particular tree. He jumps into the garden to tell First Woman that it is his world and all the stuff there belongs to him because he created it. First Woman continues to eat and eventually decides to leave with Ahdamn because GOD is a stingy, grouchy neighbor. They head west, looking for a new home, and come across a canyon with a lot of dead rangers at the bottom. More rangers arrive and assume that because they’re Indigenous, First Woman and Ahdamn are responsible for the dead rangers.

First Woman takes some black cloth out of her purse, cuts eye holes in it and ties it around her head, claiming she is the Lone Ranger. The rangers believe her and leave. However, just as she removes the mask, some soldiers arrive. They arrest her and Ahdamn for being Indigenous and send them to Florida on a train with a lot of other chained Indigenous people. On the train, they draw pictures, and Ahdamn becomes famous for his art. First Woman realizes the world is broken and needs to be fixed, so she puts on her black mask and leaves through the front gate with Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe, and Hawkeye. Coyote is confused about who these new people are, but the narrator assures him they’ll meet them later.