Although the narrator, Silas Ermineskin, is a Cree Indian living on the Hobbema Reserve in Canada, these stories deal with the plight of all North American Indians who are still and often unjustly treated by whites ranging from sternly bigoted Royal Canadian Mounted Police constables to pompous bureaucrats who, in "The Queen's Hat," are referred to as a "carload of suits." Intermixed in the stories are the conflicts between the reservation Indians and representatives of the American Indian Movement (AIM) whom the reservation Indians call "Assholes in Moccasins." There are also oblique references to the grim reality of reservation life and alcoholism, unemployment, suicides, and violent deaths. At the same time, as the Indian and white worlds collide, there is a sense of loss, especially in terms of the Indians' heritage and way of life.