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KRISZTINA Kopó to be fried, not baked."? This back-and-forth movement between cultures is the cause of mix-ups and the identity crises that Marianne faces. She has her responsibilities as a wife, but she longs to be the traditional Native dancer and carefree girl that she was a decade ago. She decides to leave David and go with Noble to Michigan, the location of the next powwow. However, she does offer David the alternative of going with her: “There’s an escape route for every place and situation David. Here’s yours. Come with me. Let’s hop in your Camaro and go to Michigan. Just say, what the hell, we’re here to burn rubber and gas. Then Ill know there’s still something still alive in you.”?® David’s inability to decide forces Marianne to act and leaves with Noble. This dramatic conflict, however, is not the main line of the story. The major comic element within the play is the act of bootlegging, which is carried out by Martha, an elderly and devout Native Christian woman, who is forced into an unpleasant situation in which she must illegally sell one hundred and fortythree cases of light beer. Martha, the image of the decent, god-fearing woman, is willing to bootleg beer to raise money for a church organ. The situation is utterly impossible and hilarious, which, nevertheless, dramaturgically functions well on stage. As an elder in her community, and within her family, she behaves contrary to expectations, and succeeds in selling the beer within the community. But there is a double sidedness to her character: she sells beer only to those financially better situated, while admonishing others for drinking instead of providing for their families. This bilateral function within the play reflects the contradictions abounding in the lives of Natives, which ultimately point to the interconnectedness, hence transcultural movements and shifts between Native and non-Native cultures. Furthermore, it also adds to the contradictory conceptions of the past in terms of heritage and cultural roots, and the present with its multicultural framework. The play offers us a glimpse of the Native way of life, which offers two directions, but as Martha explains, it is the individual’s decision to choose: “In my life I’ve seen two kind of Indians, those that are happy doing what they do, and those that feel they should be happy but aren’t. I think it’s every persons journey in life to choose which one they are.”*’ The ability to choose is our inherent right, but are we capable of deciding at all or do we have cultural obligations and standards forced upon us? After all, living on a reserve in Canada today differs from living in one of the big Canadian cities, where different social norms, standards and expectations must be met. Perhaps one of the major obstacles that Indigenous Peoples have had to overcome was the use of the English language, which markedly differs from the native languages and the worldviews they project. The medium for Native 35 Ibid., 72. 36 Ibid., 77. 37 Tbid., 79. + 298 +
