Kiss of the Fur Queen

Part 4 is called “Molto agitato,” referring to an instruction to the orchestra to play agitatedly. The direction indicates much turbulence is in the offing; beliefs and resentments that the protagonists hold will come to the fore, clash, and churn. This section also focuses on Gabriel’s sexuality and its multiple implications. Further, it establishes Gabriel as a rebellious hero who questions mainstream notions of religion and sexuality, much to the discomfiture of Jeremiah.

Chapter 23’s centerpiece is the appearance of an androgynous person. The text does not specify if they are transgender or in drag, and the language Highway uses to describe them reflects the mores of the 1990s. Yet the text does not deride the person; rather, it illustrates Gabriel’s initial shock and then growing admiration. Initially willing the person to disappear, soon Gabriel finds his “eyes remain […] hostage” to the slow dance (168). When the person twirls the ends of their boa it seems to Gabriel “as though [they are] baptizing Gabriel with sprays of holy water, a sorceress, a priestess, clandestinely reviving a sacrament from some dangerous religion” (168). It is important to note that Gabriel describes the person as a “priestess” and a “sorceress,” associating them with a proud, pagan religion that poses a danger to Christianity. Gabriel’s celebration of the dancer’s—and his own—sexuality is inextricably linked with a rejection of Christianity and an acceptance of his Cree religious and spiritual heritage. The dancing figure—and it is important that they are dancing, given Gabriel’s vocation—twirls a boa, which the book will later associate with the Trickster figure. Therefore, the dancer has shades of the Fur Queen, the Trickster, and the fairy godmother for Gabriel, repeating some of the text’s prominent motifs.

If Chapter 23 is about Gabriel’s sexual orientation, Chapters 25 and 26 highlight how his religious and political identities are enmeshed with this orientation. Disenchanted with Christianity, Gabriel goes to church very reluctantly and once there decides to humiliate the institution of the Church by showing how easy it is to seduce a priest (one who has taken supposedly everlasting vows of celibacy and constancy). The novel portrays his sexual encounter with Father Connolly as a conquest—one that has Gabriel triumphantly shouting “Weeks’chiloowew,” his father’s rousing cry to drive his huskies forward. Through seducing the priest, Gabriel is symbolically reversing his abuse at the hands of the Church and Father Lafleur, wresting control of the situation. The use of the Cree victory cry shows a desire to colonize those who colonized him. Whether this is a healthy way to deal with his trauma is a question the text leaves open-ended.

Continuing the text’s use of women and feminine figures as catalysts, Jeremiah is unwittingly drawn to the powwow to which Amanda has previously invited him. Jeremiah’s perception of the powwow is a rich and vivid reflection of his complex attitude towards his Indigenous heritage. Walking into the church where the powwow is being held, he wonders, “Had he just walked into a Buffalo Bill Wild West extravaganza? A John Wayne movie? Where were the horses, the tired pioneers, the circle of dusty chuckwagons?” (170). These lines show that Jeremiah perceives even his authentic culture as a Hollywood caricature and believes that Indigenous rituals and garb can exist only in history or fantasy, not in the 20th century. To him, his heritage is a relic, and people who practice it are playacting—being fake or superficial. When Amanda’s spirited grandmother Anne-Adele Ghostrider expresses anger at the nerve of settlers to call Indigenous traditions “devil worship,” Jeremiah silently mocks her; to him the entire powwow is indeed close to devil worship, the phrase “right on the money” (176).