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Lying with truth: A Postmodernist Representation of History in Gerald Vizenor’s The Heirs of Columbus Vol. IV, No. II (Spring 2019) 197 history of the creation of earth. Naanabozho’s narration breaks the frame of fiction and poses question to the state of historical facts as a construct too. The metanarrative of the creation of earth is subverted by the American Indians as Naanabozho claims to be the first human on the earth ( Vizenor,1991). The Heirs of Columbus subverts the official documented history through the trickster discourse in a witty language game. The contents in these lines are the mini narratives which bring different version of reality thus deconstruct the metanarrative of the creation of earth. Vizenor challenges the Eurocentric notions and claims Indians are the first habitants of earth as he says “Naanabozho was the first human born in the world, and the second born, his brother, was a stone”. The words first human born highlights the status of the Indian identity and cultural values in contrast to the Eurocentric notions and myths. The subjects present in Nanabozho’s trickster story are the American Indians on one hand and colonizers on the other hand who are absently present. Vizenor represents Naanabozho a real Indian character in a fictional light thus breaks the frame of fiction and fact and leaves readers confused about the status of reality as a construct too. Stories within Stories in The Heirs of Columbus Vizenor foregrounds the suppressed and marginal discourses of American Indian oral tradition in The Heirs of Columbus. He brings together opposing characters and stories from various civilizations, historical ages and social levels and fights for survivance of American Indians with the pen. The main story of The Heirs of Columbus is set in the backdrop of postmodernism as it revolves between history and myth, struggles against the essentialism of historical accounts and celebrates the dreams, stories and imagination. Vizenor challenges the conventional thematic patterns and narrative styles as he brings a new structural frame and comes up with an epilogue which sites a number of historical readings, science, religion and a passage from Jean Paul Sartre. Vizenor shows an ideal human community in The Heirs of Columbus where men and animal celebrate harmony with the environment. One of the main focuses of the novel is on the healing power of stories as a source of liberation as Vizenor states in one of his interviews "I see fiction as having the healing power of stories, or liberation. At least that's the way I want to write and the way I feel about literature" (Breinigand Klaus,1995: 162). The curative art of storytelling highlights the rich culture of American Indians and liberates them from the shackles of colonization. Native American writers value the oral tradition of narration thus the importance is given to the events more than the text and stories become the sign of change and transformation. Vizenor(1999)strengthens the argument and states in his Manifest Manners "In that generation, the tribes had been decimated by diseases; the cruelties of civilization had dispossessed the tribes of their land, but not their stories" (163). Stories thus become the sign of survivance in the native population as these can’t be killed neither stolen.Vizenor narrates stories within stories to preserve the American Indian glorious past and deconstruct the Eurocentric notion of us and them. The heirs in the novel narrate sacred stories, hum ritualistic songs, speak in animal language, mimic the spirits and escape the evil gamblers through hallucinatory plans .The American Indians resist the imposed historical suppressed identity and get rid of the dominant culture’s history through the power of stories. Vizenor’s stories within stories bring multiple versions of reality as Stone Columbus narrates a story and then within that story narrates another story thus self reflexively draws attention to narration’s own structure as a work of fiction. Vizenor (1991) narrates the resurrection story of Stone Columbus and within that story he introduces more stories. Vizenor’s technique of nested narratives connects the past to the present in an ironical way and sheds light on the unjust colonial exercise of power. Vizenor introduces trickster figures in his novel who possess postmodern qualities and prove dangerous to the institutional powers. His characters are capable of creating new worlds which provide them a sense of place in the tension of discovery and pain. The lines “The heirs of Christopher Columbus created one more new world in their stories” elucidate the power of stories in the Native American culture. The stories keep the native culture alive as it is stated “the heirs warm the stones at the tavern with their stories in the blood”. They break the shackles of western culture through narration of these, liberate the society with the power of imagination and deconstruct the logic of rigid determinism. Vizenor narrates stories in cyclic movements as in the following lines Stone Columbus is shown resurrected from the school furnace. The story of first resurrection is connected to another story of resurrection by the ice woman as he says, “he came back a second time in the arms of the notorious ice women”. Vizenor (1991) further talks about another resurrection story of Stone Columbus by the hand lady Samana as he says, “Samana touched his head and the bear pushed him back from death with a blue radiance” (12). Intertextuality in The Heirs of Columbus Vizenor displays multiple polyvocal voices in The Heirs of Columbus about different aspects of subjugation and suppression. He assembles various version of historical reality from the subaltern perspective that is colonial historical subjugation, economic subjugation, environmental subjugation, religious subjugation, feminist Fehmida Manzoor, Mehwish Malghani and Shumaila Mazher 198 Global Social Sciences Review (GSSR) subjugation and physical subjugation. In the wide framework of fiction he brings the adventurer Columbus, religious political games of 15 Century Americas and Spain, different tribal characters like Pocahontas, and the life of native in the reservations. Vizenor disarms the metanarratives through different “intertexts” and writes back to the dominant discourse. He articulates that five hundred years is enough to stay victim of colonizer’s oppression, culture and civilization thus imagines Columbus in his own American Indian way. Heirs of Christopher Columbus end colonialism through the creation of new nation which they dedicate to healing. Vizenor criticizes the devastating strategies of colonialism, the restitution of the Native American human remains and objects, U.S education policies through the technique of postmodern intertextuality .The historical intertext is used to cure the destruction of colonialism and subvert the domination of western culture. Manifestation of Historical Discourse /Colonial Subjugation In The Heirs of Columbus Vizenor criticizes the white Europeanized history and rewrites and another version of history from marginalized perspective. Vizenor records his responses to the colonial victimization through the medium of fiction. He doesn’t bemoan his position as historical victim rather challenges and undermines the historical chronicles of the dominant culture. History’s function according to The Hiers of Columbus is to liberate instead of enslaving, Vizenor liberates the American Indians from the staid shackles of Eurocentric narratives of history and rewrites history to release it from the so called western (colonial) gaze. Vizenor doesn’t capture past in a nostalgic tone in The Heirs of Columbus rather denaturalizes and decenters the main events of past. as he(1991) says: “Samana is our hand talker, the golden woman of the ocean seas and sister to the fish, and she touched his soul and set the wounded adventurer free on October 28,1492, at Bahia de Bariay... “October 29, 1492, at Rio de la Luna” “You changed the date” “Columbus is ever on the move in our stories,” said stone. (10-11) The Heirs of Columbus is based on the story of the tribal community who claim to be the genetic heirs of the adventurer Christopher Columbus. The heirs in the novel live a communal life according to the Native American tradition which defines society as a whole and narrates their reality through the traditional sacred stories and rituals. The communal way of life generates a collective representation in the American Indians as they possess a collective identity based on stories in blood, myths, visions and dreams. Vizenor destabilizes the realm of official history in the following text by introducing different marginal characters. The marginal characters like Samana (Indian decedents of Columbus) are given the central position in contrast to the historical euro American hero Christopher Columbus. “Samana is our hand talker, the golden woman of the ocean seas and sister to the fish, and she touched his soul and set the wounded adventurer free on October 28, 1492, at Bahia de Bariay in orient province, Cuba”(10). Environmental Subjugation The contemporary Native American writers attach central importance to place and integrate the individual with the community. The sense of community is taken in broad sense in Native American tradition as it includes humans, animals, plants and inanimate objects of nature. Native Americans had a harmony with nature and respected and valued nature as a sacred being. The arrival of white man destroyed the harmony and subjugated both nature and the original inhabitants of land. Vizenor discusses the trauma of displacement and destruction of the ecological environment in The Heirs of Columbus as he(1991) says: The colonists brought wilderness with them and planted their fears in the woodland, and once here their tragic virtues were unloaded with shame, the unnatural consequences of the loss of personal