What is the setting in the novel, Laughing Boy?

In his preface, La Farge explains that he chose to set the novel in an earlier time, before the first automobiles came to the Navajo reservation in 1915. In this way, he seeks to recapture an era when Native Americans had more of a choice between following the white man's way of life and their traditional way, passed from generation to generation.

The locale is the Navajo reservation that extends over portions of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.