Summary

The novel prologue begins with a creation scene featuring a trickster named Coyote and a mysterious narrator named “I” both living in a world filled with water. It is ambiguous whether “I” is speaking from first person or if this section is in third person and there is a character named “I.” Coyote has a dream and manifests an egotistical, boisterous dog that insists on being called G O D. Coyote begins to tell G O D the story of where all the water came from.

Part 1 of the novel is written in Cherokee and translates to “East – Red.” Each part of the novel represents a quadrant of the Cherokee Medicine Wheel and four directions, with each quadrant representing a color.

Part 1 opens with Norma and her nephew Lionel, both members of a Canadian Blackfoot reservation, as Norma tries to decide...