"The Man to Send Rain Clouds" is a short story about the death of an old man on a Pueblo Indian reservation and the issues that arise from conflicting spiritual traditions and Christian traditions.

As the story opens, the dead body of an old man has been found under a cottonwood tree on an Indian reservation. The sheep that had been under the old man's care are grazing in scattered locations up and down an arroyo (ravine). Two men, Leon and his brother-in-law Ken, have discovered the body, which has apparently been lying under the tree for at least a day. Leon and Ken herd the sheep back to the camp and return by truck to the body.

Ken has brought a red blanket in which to wrap the body, but, before this is done, Leon ties a small grey feather in the old man's...