In the national bestseller Green Grass, Running Water, Canadian author Thomas King .
deals with several social and cultural issues, the most prevalent being the perpetual demand on .
the Natives to assimilate themselves with the predominant Christian Caucasians. King sheds .
much light on the history of the Native Culture, the incarceration of the seventy-two Indians at .
Fort Marion in the late eighteen hundreds, and the continuous fight for Native rights. .
The oppression of the Native religion serves as a predominant theme as King satirizes .
Christianities book of Genesis, with the anecdote of the creation of the earth and Adam and Eve. .
Throughout the text the four Indians attempt to narrate their North American Native Mythology .
as they undermine Christianities canonical beginnings where the Judeo-Christian God is merely .
portrayed as a troublesome figment of the Native trickster Coyote's imagination. .
Initially one of the four Indians, who takes on the persona of the Lone Ranger, attempts to .
tell the story, but cannot find the proper beginning line. After several tries he lands on Genesis .
1:1-2, but again is told that it is the wrong story. When he starts over once again, he gets it right .
with phases drawn from the opening of a Native divining ceremony: ""Higayv:lige:i . . .
Tsane:hlanv:hi . . .Hade:loho:sgi . . ."". (15) These Cherokee syllabics, invite people to "listen .
up". Lone Ranger continues on to explain that First woman falls out of the sky and lands on a .
Turtle. The trickster Coyote then makes a reference to the Garden of Eden when he says that it.
all has to start with a garden. After some more biblical references, which prove to be quite .
confusing to a Christian reader, the Lone Ranger's story ends with First Woman and Ahdamn, .
being taken to Florida by some soldiers. In Florida they sit around and draw pictures. This is a .
direct allusion to the incarceration of the seventy-two Indians at Fort Marion, as they were forced .
