Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do you know about trickster figures in Native American literature? Can you name any trickster figures or explain how this tradition has influenced the larger culture?

Teaching Suggestion: Depending on students’ prior education and experiences, they may know a great deal—or very little—about trickster figures, either within or outside of Native American literature. If you suspect that your students have little prior knowledge on this subject, you might prime them to answer the question by first asking what the word “trickster” implies and then asking if they have heard one of the most prominent North American trickster stories, that of Brer Rabbit, from the African American tradition. Even students with a great deal of background knowledge may be challenged to explain how the trickster tradition figures into North American culture in general. You might ask why movies, books, podcasts, and television shows about con artists—such as Anna Delvey in Inventing Anna—are so popular, or direct them to the second of the linked resources below.

• This list of entries on tricksters, their stories, and suggested readings is provided by the Native Languages of the Americas website.
• This article from Psychology Today connects the American preoccupation with the trickster to contemporary political events.

2. Nanabush (Nanabozho) is a trickster figure among the Anishinaabe people. Even if you have never heard of Nanabush, what are some characteristics that you expect he might have? What characteristics do you expect a story about a figure like this to have?

Teaching Suggestion: The intent of this question is to highlight how generalized prior knowledge about trickster figures can contribute to understanding the specific topic of Nanabush and also to give students practice in incorporating new information into an existing schema. To that end, students are probably best served by answering this prompt first and then viewing the linked resources that follow. They can then discuss the ways in which Nanabush is a very typical trickster figure and the ways in which he is uniquely Anishinaabe and uniquely himself. (If your classroom includes students who are already familiar with Nanabush, you might ask them to skip ahead to comparing and contrasting what they know about Nanabush with what they have just learned about tricksters in general.)

• This entry on Nanabush is from the Native Languages of the Americas website.
• This 11-minute video features elder Edna Manitowabi telling the story of Nanabush and creation.
• This 3-minute cartoon from Nish Tales tells the story “Nanabosh Loses the Meat.” (Note: the first half of the video is the English version of the story; at 3:12, the same story is repeated in Anishinaabemowin.)

Short Activity

The Anishinaabek are Indigenous peoples whom you might know by some other names—Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi, for instance. Using reputable, scholarly resources, investigate the geography, culture, traditions, and other aspects of the Anishinaabe people.

Teaching Suggestion: Motorcycles and Sweetgrass is set among Anishinaabe people on a Canadian reserve. It is accessible to non-Native audiences, but students unfamiliar with this setting will have better comprehension of and engagement with the text if they are armed with some basic background information. If student responses to this prompt reveal little accurate background knowledge, you might direct students to the resources linked below. If your students are already familiar with this setting, the prompt can be modified to ask “What are some elements of life on a modern Canadian Anishinaabe reserve that you might expect to see in a book set there? How might the people there think and feel about Nanabush?”

• This 3-minute video from Anishinabek Nation offers a basic definition of who the Anishinaabek are.
• In this 2-minute video, a young Anishinaabe man discusses his Canadian and Anishinaabe identity.
• This website, maintained by a group of Anishinaabe elders, offers articles, videos, podcasts, and photographs exploring different aspects of Anishinaabe culture.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

What contemporary trickster figures have you encountered in your reading, viewing, or gaming? Which made the biggest impression on you—either positive or negative? Is this figure threatening, amusing, or both? What impact does this figure have on others? Does this figure’s story seem to teach any important lessons or demonstrate anything significant about modern life? What makes this character memorable to you personally?

Teaching Suggestion: If students seem to be struggling to come up with examples of contemporary trickster figures, you might give them the example of the cat from Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat. (Here is a 10-minute video of a read-aloud of the story, if your students need a refresher.) Many students will also be familiar with Loki, who is a popular figure in games, graphic novels, movies, and television shows, but if they bring up Loki as an example, remind them that he belongs to a very old tradition; encourage them to try to think of trickster figures created in modern times.