Kiss of the Fur Queen

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-8

Part 2, Chapters 9-11

Part 3, Chapters 12-15

Part 3, Chapters 16-22

Part 4, Chapters 23-27

Part 4, Chapters 28-33

Part 5, Chapters 34-37

Part 5, Chapters 38-40

Part 6, Chapters 41-44

Part 6, Chapters 45-49

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Insidious Violence of Colonialism

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to violence, including sexual violence and child abuse.

“Use your utmost endeavors to dissuade the Indians from excessive indulgence in the practice of dancing,” reads one of the two epigraphs to Kiss of the Fur Queen. The quote is from a 1921 circular issued to “Indian agents” by Duncan Campbell Scott, then a deputy superintendent with Canada’s Department of Indian Affairs.

The epigraph is an apt example of how the project of colonialism has dehumanized and infantilized Indigenous Canadians and other colonized people around the world. Kiss of the Fur Queen details this project in precise detail, highlighting how colonialism makes the colonized doubt their own heritage through constant devaluation. It is not a coincidence that Scott’s letter singles out the practice of dancing as a problem area; the dancing is problematic because it is a strong ritual feature of many Indigenous cultures. By dissuading Indigenous people from dancing and couching the activity in shame, the colonization project aimed to dismantle Indigenous cultures themselves. Similarly, the tonsuring of the boys at Birch Lake deliberately strikes at the Indigenous association of hair with strength and pride.

In divesting the colonized people of their cultural symbols, the colonizer creates a blank slate for the purposes of colonialism. Shorn of their own rituals and gods, the colonized have little recourse but to submit to white and Christian realities. However, they are never fully accepted as part of this reality because of the color of their hair and skin; as Jeremiah realizes in Chapter 33, his mere inclusion in the contest for the Crookshank Trophy is considered a “fluke” and an act of tokenism. When he sits down before the piano, the silence of his white audience is “so thick that a Winnipeg Tribune photographer [takes] a picture of it for the next day’s paper” (212). It is after winning the same contest that Jeremiah realizes that despite all his efforts at assimilation, “he [is] one of them” (215)—“them” referring to Indigenous peoples. This leaves him lost between two worlds, unable to wholly participate in either Cree or mainstream Canadian life.

Historically, Western and Christian settlers also hoped to “civilize” the “savage” when they met people who led a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and followed polytheistic, pantheistic, and animistic religions. Self-appointed with this “white man’s burden,” the colonialists were bent upon “saving” the “primitive” by converting them to mainstream Christianity. In the worldview of the colonialists, religions that differed greatly from the Christian norm were inferior and evil. The introduction of Christianity was a strategic step-by-step process, as the text delineates. First, Christian evangelists chose a vulnerable moment in a people’s history—e.g. the time of famine in Anne-Adele Ghostrider’s story of Chachagathoo. Priests then offered vulnerable people relief from suffering on condition of embracing Christianity. When people like Shaman Chachagathoo resisted, the priests labeled them evil and eradicated them. With their shamans out of the picture, people like Abraham had no choice but to view Christianity as a savior. Successive generations then internalized Christian distaste for traditional religion and started viewing their own heritage as “pagan” and insufficient in much the way Jeremiah does.

In the novel, characters suffer when an inauthentic structure is superimposed on their hereditary religion. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Gabriel’s discomfort with the ritual of the Eucharist. The idea of willfully partaking in the flesh and blood of Christ is at complete odds with the Cree distaste for the Weetigo and cannibalism. Participating in the ritual therefore traumatizes Gabriel deeply. Given the scale of violence against the Americas’ Indigenous peoples, historical accounts sometimes overlook such instances of cultural erasure. However, the text posits that such cultural violence is deeply scarring and in fact forms the basis for more overtly brutal acts. For instance, it is the fact that the Cree were coerced to adopt Christianity and send their children to Christian boarding schools that enables those children’s abuse. By divesting children of their language and confidence in their own parents, the abusers ensure the children will stay silent regarding their trauma.

The Wide-Reaching Effect of Childhood Trauma

The novel offers a detailed examination of the effects of childhood trauma—particularly childhood sexual abuse—on survivors such as Jeremiah and Gabriel. While Jeremiah represses the memory of his trauma to the extent that he recalls its details only years later, Gabriel cannot stop remembering his abuse. The use of motifs such as sweet honey underscores the repetitive nature of Gabriel’s memories: Gabriel dreams of his “favorite food, warm honey” before he is first assaulted by Father Lafleur (79), he is devoured by the priest like a “bear devouring a honeycomb” (80), he remembers the taste of “sweet honey” after the fact, and he “taste[s] warm honey dripping” at the thought of seducing a priest later in life (185). Other repeated motifs are the silver crucifix worn by Father Lafleur and Father Lafleur as the Weetigo. Gabriel—and once Jeremiah—also frequently says, “Father, make me bleed!” (99, 192, 273), referring to the Christian notion of self-flagellation as well as the conflation of sexual pleasure with violence.

Besides causing Gabriel unwanted, lifelong flashbacks, the abuse also hampers his ability to sustain a healthy romantic relationship until the end of his life. Gabriel engages in risky sex because he associates sexual pleasure with guilt and negativity. By engaging in unprotected sex, he also jeopardizes his health, which suggests that trauma has made him devalue his own well-being. Jeremiah, on the other hand, deals with his abuse by developing a distaste for sex. When he witnesses Gabriel kiss a man, he conflates Gabriel’s consensual sexual orientation as an adult with his childhood rape by Father Lafleur. When in bed with Amanda, his groin is “ice” until he thinks of violence against women; like Gabriel, he has learned to associate sex and abuse, but Jeremiah directs those impulses outwards rather than inwards. Further, confronted by actual violence against women and minorities, Jeremiah initially acts with passivity and cowardice. He allows a group of anti-gay men to threaten Gabriel and, though disturbed by the news of raped and murdered Indigenous women, does not do much to help until the second half of the novel.

However, the text also clearly establishes that their childhood abuse does not define Jeremiah and Gabriel. Both develop successful careers and ultimately find loving partners; Jeremiah finds his courage at the end of the novel, and even though Gabriel dies young, his last words to Jeremiah are “be joyful.” Though the trauma is a part of who they are, the brothers find ways to heal it by reclaiming their fraternal bond, their shared memories, and their Cree religious, cultural, and spiritual heritage.

Kinship, Healing, and Redemption

If severing kinship relationships is the chief modus operandi by which the boarding school system traumatizes Jeremiah and Gabriel, healing can only occur when familial and tribal bonds are restored. Before the boarding school, the world of the Okimasis family is a virtual paradise. Highway describes this world of snow, sun, and winter in loving detail, drawing the reader into its security. The Okimasis family undertakes most activities together, the children watching as their father hunts caribou or enclosed within the same tent in which their mother gives birth. The descriptions of parents and siblings demonstrate admiration and cultural pride: Chichilia is “wise-beyond-her-years” (40), Abraham is a dynamic, brave, and “fun-loving” caribou hunter, and the beautiful Mariesis is as “lovely as a willow tree” (17).

The forces of colonialism puncture this paradise, separating the children from Abraham and Mariesis. Colonization also frays the bond between parents and children and brother and brother. It is only when Jeremiah and Gabriel come together—first at Abraham’s deathbed and then at the camping trip to Wasaychigan Hill—that the narrative turns towards catharsis and healing. Significantly, the brotherly roles flip at this point, with Gabriel behaving like the older brother, guiding and protecting Jeremiah. To heal, Jeremiah must recover his ties to family and tribe in a second, symbolic coming-of-age process.

Two scenes that occur late in the novel particularly demonstrate the importance of community in healing trauma. In Chapter 46, Jeremiah writes his second play inside his mother’s cabin, surrounded by elders playing a game of poker. The juxtaposition of the warm, safe setting, wreathed in the smoke from the pipes of the elders, and the play’s radical theme symbolizes the importance of kinship to Jeremiah’s growing courage and creativity. Gabriel’s death also occurs in a crowded setting, with not only his immediate family but also Anne-Adele Ghostrider, Amanda, and Robin Beatty in attendance. With typical Cree comedy and joyousness, the scene has both profound and farcical elements. Anne-Adele Ghostrider’s burning of sweetbraid grass sets off the fire alarm in the hospital, alerting even the city’s fire chief. The hospital staff bangs at the door as the ceremony is underway, and Jeremiah has to physically restrain Mariesis from stopping the proceedings. In the middle of the chaos, Gabriel leaves his body, floating away with the Fur Queen. Thus, the presence of kinfolk is central to Gabriel’s release and to Jeremiah standing up for his beliefs.