Truth and Bright Water

Content Warning: This section refers to domestic abuse, child abuse, emotional manipulation and abuse, anti-gay language, suicide, and colonial trauma.

The novel is intimately concerned with the question of how Indigenous communities perceive, enact, and reclaim their identities after the violence and dislocations of settler-colonialism—violence and dislocation that frequently extend to the very heart of what it means to be Indigenous. Tecumseh’s perception of Indigenous identity—and, as a result, his self-perception—is shaped by portrayals of Indigenous characters he sees in white-produced media. For example, when trying to determine why the jumping woman’s skull has a hole in it, Tecumseh turns to a movie “about some white guy who wants to be an Indian” (111). Lum notes that the experience of seeing oneself portrayed by white-created media can result in self-loathing.

This double consciousness—Indigenous people always seeing themselves through the lens of white culture’s perception of them—impacts the way many of the characters enact their identity. Elvin often plays into white perceptions of Indigenous stereotypes to get what he wants, like when he uses his “dumb Indian routine” (86) to successfully cross the border. He takes this a step further when he tries to commodify his identity for consumption by white audiences. Elvin believes that he can make money by producing figurines and pretending these figurines have “authentic” cultural value; white consumers will never know the difference. This cynicism about the value of authenticity in identity colors Elvin’s perception of Indigenous identity, resulting in disregard for himself and his community.

Monroe’s church-paining project represents one potential avenue through which Bright Water can begin to understand its identity again. The church-painting represents a seeming erasure of Bright Water’s colonial past that restores the land to what it looked like before settler-colonialism. This project, coupled with Monroe’s work in reclaiming the bones of Indigenous children from museums, suggests that art is a potential medium through which Indigenous communities can rebuild their identities. Tecumseh’s mother’s participation in the Snow White retelling also develops this thematic. Carol Millerfeather’s reimagining of Snow White not only creates media in which Indigenous people can see themselves, but it also reworks a popular narrative through an Indigenous lens. The success of the play, and the sense of fulfillment that Tecumseh’s mother derives from her participation, suggest that this type of artistry is one means by which Indigenous communities can seek to reclaim and reinvent their identities.

Notably, both Monroe and Carol’s work incorporates artifacts of Western culture, implying it is not feasible to fully return to a precolonial state. This, however, is beside the point. As Monroe stresses in his conversation with Tecumseh about the buffalo sculptures, “Realism will only take you so far” (198). Rather, King suggests that imagination can bridge the gap between the past, present, and future, forging new identities that are “true” regardless of historical accuracy.