Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

Befitting his irreverent, taboo-breaking trickster domain, Nanabush rides a seemingly inappropriately named symbol throughout the narrative: a 1953 Indian Chief motorcycle. Taylor is aware of course that the term “Indian,” once prevalent, is now considered disrespectful to Indigenous people—trade names that held onto this word, like that of the Cleveland baseball team, were controversial when the novel was published in 2010 (Cleveland’s team has since been renamed). This is precisely why Taylor gives Nanabush this form of transportation—the demigod is forcing his people to confront an offensive image. Nanabush’s motorcycle becomes a symbol of the Anishnawbe people: A white man rides an Indian Chief, which bends to the rider’s will. The metaphor is stark and offensive, intended to disgust the people of Otter Lake, confronting them with the reality of their continual subordination to white rule.

Nanabush only allows three people to ride on his motorcycle—a vehicle that pointedly has no back seat, so any passenger sits in front. The rides anoint Maggie, Dakota, and Virgil the leaders of the new generation of Anishnawbe, who will guide the Otter Lake Band going forward. In the final encounter with Virgil, Nanabush transforms from a white man to a virile Indigenous man, symbolically proclaiming that the nation will be led by those to whom it belongs.