Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

Maggie is the youngest daughter of Lillian and the widowed mother of Virgil. Tall and willowy with long brown hair and a turned-up nose, Maggie possesses her mother’s remarkable beauty.

When her husband, the chief of the Otter Lake Anishnawbe Band, died in an accident three years ago, Maggie impulsively stood for election as his successor and won. Her experience of being chief is unrelenting frustration: dealing with multiple layers of bureaucracy, painfully slow change, and the need to placate an endless parade of band members, politicians, and bureaucrats.

Since her husband’s death, Maggie has refused to make time for new romantic relationships; her extremely demanding role as chief prevents her from having much time to pay attention to her son. By nature, she is dutiful, cautious, and not adventurous. As the story progresses, her underlying strength and determination emerge, as well as her ability to take command of any situation.

Maggie immediately finds Nanabush attractive; his clear sexual desire for her stirs a childlike joy and a carefree passion within Maggie. As a result of the relationship, Maggie learns how to take more relaxed attitude toward her job; however, when she discovers that Nanabush’s true nature is impulsive whimsy and sometimes destructive childishness, Maggie runs the demigod out of town and out of her life. Despite all evidence pointing to his true identity, however, Maggie never accepts that the man she knows as John is Nanabush.

Virgil is Maggie’s 13-year-old son and only child. Virgil often feels abandoned—his father died three years ago, and his mother is always too immersed in tribal business to make time for him. Virgil responds by skipping school as a form of teenage rebellion, despite his obvious intellectual curiosity.

As a member of the youngest generation of Anishnawbe in the novel, Virgil often echoes tendencies from his ancestors. The novel hints that without intervention, the damage these older family members sustained could become generational trauma that ruins Virgil’s life. In one example of this, Virgil, who had a strong bond with his grandmother, Lillian, cannot bring himself to see her when she is on her deathbed—avoidant behavior that mirrors that of Virgil’s Uncle Wayne, a reclusive martial arts master who refuses to come to Lillian’s funeral. Reintegrating Wayne into the family is one of Virgil’s most meaningful achievements during the novel.

Virgil, the embodiment of the newly emerging “First Nation’s” generation, often witnesses and believes the magic surrounding Nanabush: the passionate kiss Nanabush gives to the dying Lillian, Nanabush arguing with raccoons, and finally Nanabush shapeshifting into the form of an Indigenous man. Virgil has two lengthy, philosophical conversations with Nanabush, concluding with sage advice from the demigod.

The youngest child of Lillian, Wayne was also her favorite. Wayne is an ambivalent figure: On the one hand, he is a seemingly failed recluse who avoids his family, Wayne lives alone on a small island on Otter Lake; on the other hand, Wayne keeps alive the richness of the spoken Anishnawbe language and has developed a martial art called “the Marten” after the small, ferret-like predator. Family members consider Wayne dangerous and perhaps emotionally troubled. He possesses several unique, eccentric habits, such as snapping branches off of trees and referring to every modern convenience he enjoys as “one of the three greatest inventions of white men.”

Virgil seeks Wayne’s help to deal with Nanabush. Thus, the demigod summons the two most withdrawn members of Lillian’s family and confronts them with the ancient source of Indigenous power and understanding. Wayne’s lengthy battle with Nanabush in the treetops mirrors previous myths of the demigod’s conflicts, implying Wayne’s significance in the renewal of the Anishnawbe nation.

Two months older than her cousin Virgil, Dakota embodies emerging womanhood. Unlike her grandmother, who at about the same point in her life was fearless and worldly, Dakota is tentative and dreamily romantic. Nanabush is interested in Dakota, just as he was in Lillian, but he pursues her in an entirely different manner—not as a teenage peer, but as a white adult man. Although he does not engage with Dakota physically, it is clear that his sexuality is too much for the adolescent—even watching him have sex with Maggie makes Dakota feel nauseated. As the narrative progresses, Dakota learns of Nanabush’s power and ambiguous potential; rather than continuing to see him as a possible romantic partner, she begins to find more interesting his connection to Anishnawbe history and traditions.

Though her funeral occurs in Chapter 5, Lillian is a pivotal character. Known for her beauty, strength of will, and matriarchal leadership, Lillian manages to retain her Anishnawbe heritage even while adopting the beliefs of the white man’s world, including Catholicism. Her youthful rejection of and late-in-life appeal to Nanabush brings the demigod to Otter Lake; as her children and grandchildren strive to understand and deal with Nanabush, they must face previously unrecognized truths about Lillian. Likewise, in fulfilling Lillian’s deathbed wishes, Nanabush must emerge from his armor to engage with Lillian’s family honestly—even to his own detriment.