Summary
The second volume is labelled as "South/White" in the Cherokee syllabary. It is now Ishmael's turn to begin a story. This second creation story once again features Sky World and Water World and a female figure, this time named Changing Woman. Changing Woman falls out of Sky World into Water World, and lands on a canoe filled with animals. A man named Noah is also in the canoe, and he believes Changing Woman has been sent to him for him to have sex with. They land on an island where Noah chases her around trying to have sex with her, until he eventually gets frustrated and sails off, leaving her alone on the island.
Meanwhile, more of Charlie's backstory is being revealed. Charlie is the son of Portland and Lillian. Portland was an actor who went by the name of Iron Eyes Screeching Eagle, and played many roles in B-list Western movies. However, Portland's ability to move on to more prestigious parts was limited because his nose was not considered to be the right shape, and several directors suggested he wear a rubber nose. The nose, however, created problems for Portland, and roles dried up.
This section introduces several new characters into the contemporary narrative, giving the perspective of individuals who had only been mentioned before. Latisha (Lionel's sister and Norma's niece) works at the Dead Dog Café, where she does good business by telling tourists that they are eating dog meat and that dog is a traditional staple of Blackfoot cuisine. Neither of these things is true. Latisha married a white American man named George Morningstar, who she was initially deeply in love with. However, George often made unfavorable comparisons between Canadians and Americans, which annoyed her. George also gradually becomes neglectful, lazy, and eventually physically abusive towards her.
Eli Stands Alone (Norma's brother, and Lionel's uncle) now lives in a cabin on the reservation after years living in Toronto and teaching at a university. He interacts regularly with Clifford Sifton, even though the two have a somewhat tense relationship. The cabin Eli lives in was built by his mother, and he was born there. However, he moved to Toronto to attend university, and also fell in love with and married a wealthy white woman named Karen.
He only returned after his mother's death, when he learned that the cabin was going to be torn down because it stood in the spillway for a large dam. He met Sifton because Sifton works for the company involved in building the dam. Eli had launched a series of injunctions to put a stop to the construction. As part of the legal battle, Charlie was hired to work for the firm representing the dam company, and the case has now been dragging on for more than ten years. Charlie's decision to work for the law firm engaged in the case makes Alberta critical of him.
Readers also learn more about Bill Bursum. Bill is an aggressive salesman who is very interested in strategizing about how to get people to buy. He is particularly proud of his giant display of television screens laid out in the shape of a map of North America.
In the present day, as Charlie thinks more about the possibility of a relationship between Lionel and Alberta, he becomes increasingly jealous and decides spontaneously to go to Blossom to join them. He flies from Edmonton to Blossom and then rents a car at the airport before driving to the Blossom Lodge hotel to spend the night. Meanwhile, Norma and Lionel pick up the elders and offer to drive them to Blossom. Norma asks if the elders are on vacation, and they explain that they are working to fix up the world. They decide on their project of helping people and agree that they would like to start by helping Lionel.
Analysis
The second creation story continues the theme of undermining and critiquing Biblical narratives. Noah, usually consider a heroic figure, is presented here as aggressive, crude, and lustful. He poses a threat of sexual violence but is also shown as too incompetent to actually be able to execute it. His frustration when he cannot control the situation and get Changing Women to submit to his will reflects a childish need for control and dominance. The character of Noah simultaneously embodies a critique of Judeo-Christian traditions and the patriarchal culture they tend to give rise to, in which women are valued only for their sexuality, beauty, and ability to bear children.
Within the contemporary storylines, this section focuses on how Aboriginal characters both manipulate stereotypes to their advantage, but also fall prey to them. Latisha has been able to set up a profitable business by tricking tourists into believing they are eating dog meat and that this a staple of the Blackfoot diet. Because they don't actually know anything about Blackfoot culture, and like the idea of exotic stereotypes, the tourists can be manipulated. On one hand, this empowers Latisha, but on the other, it reinforces the idea of difference between the two groups and fosters false ideas rather than any true dialogue.
Similarly, Charlie's father Portland was able to be successful by playing into Hollywood stereotypes, including creating a ridiculous stage name for himself. However, these stereotypes limited how far he could advance by creating a very narrow definition. Paradoxically, Portland doesn't look Indian enough to live up to constructed fantasies of white audiences and so he has to disguise himself in order to pretend to be something he already is. His inability to successfully mask himself as a Hollywood image of an Indian suggests the impossibility of living up to invented stereotypes. At the same time, it means he is trapped between being neither a white man, nor being able to fit himself into the acceptable model of an Indian.
While characters struggle with their own cultural identities, the novel also considers the tensions revealed by cross-cultural relationships. Both Latisha and Eli end up falling in love with white partners, and both find these new relationships tricky to navigate. For Eli, his relationship to Karen affirms his new economic and cultural status and the privilege that comes with it. For Latisha, marriage to George reveals that he cannot see her as an individual separate from her cultural heritage, and that she will never be sure he is not fetishizing her seemingly exotic background in a way that resembles how the tourists find it exciting to believe they are eating dog meat.
Finally, this section draws attention to how capitalism and profit can also drive cultural exploitation. Bursum has little respect for or interest in Aboriginal traditions, but he is willing to deploy strategic marketing and sales tactics to fuel his greed. Similarly, the dam project doesn't operate with any particular aim of wiping out Aboriginal culture, but if that culture and tradition comes into conflict with the possibility of making money, it can easily be sacrificed. The relationship between Eli and Clifford Sifton is interesting in that while the two men are clearly in conflict with one another, they have also cultivated a kind of ambivalent friendship over the years. This illustrates how value systems can clash while individuals can still continue to interact on a personal level, and it is not always easy to tell friends and enemies apart.
