Green Grass, Running Water

Lionel Red Dog is one of the text’s protagonists and competes with Charlie Looking Bear for Alberta Frank’s affection. He is a 40-year-old Blackfoot man who lives in Blossom, Alberta. Dissatisfied with where life has taken him, he nevertheless does little to change his situation. For years, he has told himself he will quit his job as a TV salesman and go back to school, but he always finds an excuse and waits too long to do it. Lionel believes he has only made three mistakes in his life: pushing for his tonsils to be taken out as a child, which led to his medical records being permanently, erroneously altered; going to Salt Lake City to present a paper for his boss, where another mix-up led to his arrest; and finally, accepting the job at Bill Bursum’s store to sell TVs instead of going back to school. In each case, the mistake’s ramifications still cause him problems in the present.

Lionel struggles with his Indigenous identity, most clearly encapsulated by the revelation that as a child, Lionel idolized John Wayne. Lionel wants to be a hero, but the only heroes available are white men who kill Indigenous people, so he does all that he can to distance himself from his Indigenousness.