What do you think is the cause of the narrator's alienation? Is his alienation mostly his own psychological problem, or are there wider social causes of it, such as the difficulties of Indians living in a dominant white culture? Does the narrator grow and change during the course of the novel? If so, in what ways? Or, does he stay much the same?

Research Native American religion and spirituality. What are its main characteristics, and how does it differ from the Judeo-Christian tradition?

Research what current conditions are like on Native American reservations. Has life on reservations changed much in the thirty years since the novel was written? What are the main issues facing Native Americans living on reservations today, and how are those issues being addressed?

Research the history of the Blackfeet and Gros Ventre tribes, and other tribes of the...