The Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company was a motorcycle manufacturer in Springfield, Massachusetts. Indian was America's oldest motorcycle brand and was once the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. The most popular models were the Scout, made prior to WWII, and the Chief, which had its heyday from 1922-53.

The Indian motorcycles were a piece of art with their girder front endso I Painted it on a cow bone after the black back ground was put on

Panhead Jon’s metal arts and crafts

hand painted 1953 Indian chief motorcycle on drift wood

NanabushWhen Virgil and Wayne catch John talking to the

raccoons, Wayne comes to the conclusion that John must be Nanabush. He says:

Tricksters have the ability to change their shape Virgil. Or didn’t you listen to your

grandmother’s stories? It’s all right there. He can talk to animals. You saw him. He’s riding a motorcycle, one that’s named after us. Tricksters love irony!” (201)

Crow/Raven

• Highly enthusiastic, a charmer. • Everyone recognizes the Crow's easy energy, and

everyone turns to the Crow for his/her ideas and opinions. • The Crow is both idealistic and diplomatic and is quite

ingenious. • In nurturing environments the Crow can be easy-going,

romantic, and soft-spoken. • Left to his/her own devices, the Crow can be demanding,

inconsistent, vindictive, and abrasive.• * Page 170 – John’s helmet is described as having a

raven on it!

The Beaver

• Take charge, adapt, overcome – this is the Beaver. • Beaver gets the job at hand done with efficiency. • Strategic, and cunning the Beaver is a force to be

reckoned with in matters of business and combat. • In a nurturing environment the Beaver can be

compassionate, generous, helpful, and loyal. • Left to his/her own devices the Beaver can be nervous,

cowardly, possessive, arrogant, and over-demanding.

* “Hard working. Industrious. Beautiful. Loving to its children. Nice tail. When I thought of you, I instantly thought of a beaver” (171).

Virgil and Wayne

“To borrow another culture’s metaphor, Nanabush’s possible existance did open a veritable Pandora’s Box of possibilities. His mind became flooded with a host of other exotic Anishnawbe tales told to him by his mother and grandparents, all peopled by a bizarre assortment of less than charitable characters, such as the Wendigo and the Elbow Sisters to name just two” (238).

Wendigo

• The Wendigo is a mythical creature appearing in the mythology of the Algonquin people.

• It is a malevolent cannibalistic spirit into which humans could transform, or which could possess humans.

• Those who indulged in cannibalism were at particular risk, and the legend appears to have reinforced this practice as a taboo.

• Wendigos were embodiments of gluttony, greed, and excess: never satisfied after killing and consuming one person, they were constantly searching for new victims.

http://wp.suvudu.com/wendigo.jpg

Who is Caliban?

• Caliban is an antagonist from Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

• Caliban is forced into servitude on an island ruled by Prospero.

• In some traditions he is depicted as a wild man, or a deformed man, or a beast man, or sometimes a mix of fish and man, stemming from the confusion of two of the characters about what he is.

• Caliban is the son of Sycorax (a devil according to Prospero).

• The name is an anagram of the Spanish word canibal the source of cannibal in English

In Native American folklore, Elbow Witches are old women with awls in their elbows. They appear in the Ojibwa story of Aayaase (also known as "Aayaash" or "Iyash"), "Filcher-of-Meat". Blinded by cooking smoke, the sisters killed each other in their attempts to kill him for their meal.

MONSTER IN MY POCKET TRADING CARD

Totem poles

• Totem poles are sculptures carved from large trees, by cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America.

• The meanings of the designs on totem poles are as varied as the cultures that make them.

• Totem poles may recount familiar legends, clan lineages, or notable events.

• Some poles celebrate cultural beliefs, but others are mostly artistic presentations.

• Maggie discovers John’s talents in art as described in the following quote:

The closer Maggie got, the more obvious it became. Somebody had carved a totem pole out of the telephone pole. It appeared to be an authentic West Coast totem pole, possibly of the Haida variety, facing the Aandeg house. (160)

Inukshuk

• “It was indeed an inukshuk of sorts, but made from cases of beer. Piled one atop the other, it towered over Maggie, standing at least four metres high. Cases of Labatt 50 stacked in the rudimentary shape of a human body, very reminiscent of the well-known Inuit stone figure” (162).

Prosecco braised grapefruit segments with basmati rice custard and raspberry marshmallow ice cream. I believe the grapefruit segments were substituted with rhubarb pieces, which I think would work better both in flavour and texture. The presentation screams inukshuk to me.

name of design : inukshukdesign by : scot laughton from china

designer's own words:What is it? These stacking shelves evoke a Chinese character, a balancing figure, a samurai, an Inukshuk? It is probably one of the simplest, most elementary ways of assembly, to set one part atop another. I’ve always been fascinated by Inukshuks. As one travels across the Canadian Artic, one will see piles of rocks and slabs of stones built up to resemble the shape of a person with arms stretching out. These primitive looking structures are put up by the Inuit people and serve as markers or signposts to help guide the Inuit through the treeless tundra of the region. In the Inuit language, Inukshuk means “in the image of man”. The stones are secured throughbalance. Each one supports the one above it and is supported by the one below it. Together, the stones achieve strength through unity. We learn to stack things as soon as we learn to sit up. There is a formality to the stacking – the combinations are as vast as the rocks one finds to create the Inukshuk... but it always in the end becomes a familiar presence.

John and Wayne

• If John is Nanabush, why has he come back? What does he hope to accomplish?

• What connections can you draw between John and Wayne?

Wayne

• Wayne on his training:

I do it to honour our culture. Some people think everything we are is rooted in the past. It is, partially. But like evolution tells us, if things don’t develop, change, evolve, adapt, they die. I believe that. So I and what I do are part of that evolution. My heart and spirit are with our grandfathers and grandmothers, but my hands and feet are in the now. (243)

Sweetgrass and Holy Water

• When Maggie is drunk with John down by Beer Bay she says the following about her mother:

My mother would love that. Sweetgrass and holy water. That was my mother. You know, she was as devout as any old Italian lady. She told me I shouldn’t be chief. She thinks there should be more magic in the world. She…” (181)

How is this a novel about compromise? About finding balance? What happens when the world is out of balance?