The Ancient Child Study Guide

The author lists the historical characters that appear in the novel. They are Henry McCarty, also known as Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, Bob Olinger, J.W. Bell, Sister Blandina Segale, Set-angya and Maman-ti. All the other characters are fictional. A quotation from Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine writer, follows. The theme is that myth is at the beginning and end of literature. The Prologue consists of a Kiowa story about a boy turning into a bear and chasing his seven sisters into a tree. The tree tells the sisters to climb higher, and they float to the sky to become the stars of Ursa Major, the Big Dipper. This is a Kiowa story of Tsoai, or Devil's Tower, a natural monolith that rises above the Wyoming landscape near the Belle Fourche River. Many Native Americans consider Devil's Tower to be a sacred place. The author is himself of the Kiowa Tribe and active in Native American traditions. (read more)