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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE ART THAT WILL NOT DIE: THE STORY-TELLING OF GREG SARRIS AND THOMAS KING A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By MARY MARGARET MACKIE Norman, Oklahoma 2001 UMI Number; 9994079 UMI UMI Microform 9994079 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and beaming Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and beaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 THE ART THAT WILL NOT DIE: THE STORY-TELLING OF GREG SARRIS AND THOMAS KING A Dissertation APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH BY —• © Copyright by MARY MARGARET MACKIE 2001 All Rights Reserved. IV Acknowledgements Traditionally, the acknowledgment page has been reserved for the poor bastard who has written an entire book or dissertation to list everyone she or he has ever known who ever peripherally aided (or abetted) the entire process— from gathering information to sorting information to bleeding each and every word onto the page to crying over each agonizing revision to the final end which is never truly the end. Some acknowledgement pages are brief, others blather on for a few pages. And let's face it, most people never read an acknowledgement page unless they are aware beforehand that they are referenced therein. I considered dispensing with this tradition, not wanting to offend by leaving anyone out, but ultimately decided that this was a unique opportunity to say what I wanted after having gone through the process briefly described above. With that in mind, let us commence. Jeff and Alex, this is especially for you, who grew up over the course of five-plus years without me on a regular basis. I can never reclaim those years, and it often makes me wonder if it was all worth it. This is also for Stirling, without whom it would have been an awfully dull process. Te amo. In my thoughts, always, are you, e-du-tsi, who unwaveringly supported my worries, concerns, and always my ideas and writing. And also o-gi-na-li-i. Know that wherever you go, you remain close to my heart. Askwa atlokawagan paiamuk. All my relations. VI With nothing can one approach a work of art so little as with critical words: they always come j iii^ouiivacrX. o uciiioxiiv^o • Rainer Maria Rilke Letters to a Young Poet It is our responsibility, as writers and teachers to make sure that our texts and our classrooms are not 'safe' spaces from which a reader or student may return unchanged or unthreatened. While a fictional territory a safe, unthreatening space inhabited by cuddly, colorful Natives may guarantee million- dollar advances in New York and glowing student evaluations, we have to remember the immortal words of Gerald Vizenor: 'Some upsetting is necessary.' Literary terrorism is preferable to literary tourism. Louis Owens MixedJblood Messages: Literature^ Film, Family, Place vil Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE In the Beginning Was the Word 7 Stories and Story-telling 7 The Labeling Imperative 13 The Proper Perspective 24 "Always the Stories" 33 Purpose and Direction 35 Who Speaks This Time 38 Walter Benjamin Was Wrong 46 CHAPTER TWO The Importance of Storytelling and the Role of the Story-teller 53 What Stories Do 53 Defining Storytelling Within the Orality Of the Written Narrative 71 The Role and Responsibility of the Teller of Stories 85 The Role and Responsibility of the Audience 96 Putting It Into Practice 101 CHAPTER THREE "There Is Mbre to the Story" 103 Greg Sarris and the Porno 114 Watermelon Nights 142 Grand Avenue 188 Conclusion 231 Genealogical Chart 233 CHAPTER FOUR "It's Okay, We're Indigenous" 234 Medicine River 248 Telling the Stories 278 "Promises Made and Promises Not Kept": Green Grass^ Running Water 296 "There Are Good Ways to Live Your Life" 305 "There Are No Truths, Only Stories": Truth and Bright Water 319 Maintaining Balance 332 Searching For Home 358 vin Additional King Bibliography 369 CHAPTER FIVE "And They All Lived Happily Ever After" 370 BIBLIOGRAPHY 381 Introduction From the beginning of time, human beings have been telling each other stories. For some of us, the first stories we remember may have been "creation myths" Bible stories. For others, the stories heard while growing up may be family stories: stories of recent or long ago ancestors and their lives. Still others grow up on "fairy tales," or old children's classics. The telling and retelling of stories of whatever variety is not unusual in any given culture, but the importance and meaning of stories does, indeed, differ to some extent, depending on the culture being studied. In the following four chapters, I will explore a number of themes related to the storytelling process, and I will be looking especially at how through storytelling a few different things are happening. In particular, after defining exactly what is meant by the term "storytelling," and differentiating the differences between storytelling and story-telling, I am interested in exploring how two particular Indian^ authors— Greg Sarris and Thomas King— define themselves through their storytelling; how their stories situate them in their individual tribes; and how they understand their own self-identity through 'îrvW'î'TT'ÎHtial r» f a 1 1 4 m /"V I believe that an author does, indeed, bring (or should bring) a part of his or her persona to everything that he or she writes, even if it comes under the guise of an academic exercise. That being said, it is my intent to perhaps bring a little bit of "different" to the usual staid dissertation process in that I have interjected (sometimes as epigraphs to the chapters that follow, other times in context in the ^ Much has been written regarding to the labels imposed upon the indigenous people of the Americas by the Europeans who invaded these continents. Most recently, Michael Yellow Bird [Sahnish and Hidatsa] has written that he interchangeably uses 'First Nations Peoples' and 'Indigenous Peoples' rather than 'Indian,' 'American Indian,' and 'Native American' because they are 'colonized identities imposed by Europeans and European Americans" (Yellow Bird 6). 'Native Americans" as an academe-imposed term deemed to be politically correct, is slowly being eroded by those of European descent, who, having been born on this continent, insist that they are just as much 'native" Americans as the indigenous population. 'Indians," of course, is Columbus' misnomer. Joy Harjo, in Reinventing the Enemy's Language, says that 'Native American is a term invented in academe and is the term of the moment. It was invented to replace the term American Indian. This is a serious misnomer. In our communities we first name ourselves by tribe, but the general term commonly used is Indian in the United States and native in Canada. Canadian tribes also use the term First Nations with which to address their peoples" (20). However, for the sake of simplicity, and for lack of a more universally agreed-upon term (agreed upon by the tribal peoples. chapters) some of my own stories, to help make the point of that chapter. Indeed, how can one write about storytelling and self-identity discovery, if the author's own distinctive voice is in absential In Chapter One, as an introduction to the idea of + * a T 1 4 ^ / " V X i ^ ^ ^ i ^ ^ S u. &y j. WUiiSwl J.ii J. W J.XUO U X VJIl ^ VJX LC li from writers themselves, concerning what storytelling means to them. I discuss more specifically what I call the "labeling imperative" and the role of academics in criticizing and theorizing about "Native American literature." In accordance with the labeling imperative comes the question of "proper perspective" in terms of both a specific writer's "qualifications" to write about her/his given topic as well as the ultimate reminder that the storytelling being discussed here is fiction and as such should not be viewed as the definitive picture of any culture or peoples. As well, I also address Walter Benjamin in context of his essay "Storyteller" and why I have chosen to use as little Euro-American criticism and theory as possible in the discussion of storytelling in the works of Sarris and King.