The Tuscarora Reservation

Most of the memoir takes place on the Tuscarora reservation in Niagara County, located in northwestern New York State. This is where the author, a part-Onondaga, part Tuscarora American Indian, was born and raised, as his parents and grandparents were. Based on Gansworth's descriptions, it is clear that many people on the reservation were living in poverty when he was growing up, including his family. His family home was small with inadequate heat and no indoor plumbing. (The home burned down in 1994.) Gansworth recalls his sister's trailer home seeming luxurious to him because it had running water.

Gansworth explains that the reservation is "a landmass five miles by seven miles" (21), and a fairly insular community, though residents commonly worked and shopped and took part in other activities outside the reservation. The main street running through the reservation, on which the author's home was located, was...