While there are really no precedents in Native American literature for the character of Amana, there are other Native Americans who shared her dream of saving the traditions and keeping the Native American culture alive. Prime among them were the followers of the Ghost Dance movement in the late 1800s. This movement was crushed at the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. A survivor of this movement was a medicine man named Black Elk who had a vision when a child. In this vision, he saw the Great Hoop of Life broken and the end of Native American life. However, he also saw a rebirth of the traditions at a time in the future. In 1932, John G. Heihardt published the thoughts of Black Elk in the book Black Elk Speaks.

Highwater is not alone in writing about the problems faced by Native Americans as the white...