Chapters 4 through 6 Summary and Analysis

In chapter four, Michael meets an anthropologist named Beatrice Medicine. She becomes one of Michael's closest friends though he also becomes close to Nina Sazer, the woman who founds the daycare Adam attends. Beatrice invites Adam and Michael to Standing Rock for a naming ceremony. In preparation, Michael allows Adam's hair to grow out. On the way, Adam chews a lot of gum and Michael thinks he has thrown it away but when they arrive at a motel, he discovers wads of gum in Adam's hair. A relative advises that he use peanut butter to remove it and he does but says that it is difficult to wash all the peanut butter out of his hair.

Michael notes that there are signs of poverty on the Indian reservation and he hears many complaints about the government programs that have...