Summary

Part Four, titled “Powwow,” opens with a quotation from Jean Genet: “A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness” (227).

Orvil and his brothers eat in the coliseum stands. Lony and Loother mock Orvil’s efforts to “talk Indian” (230). They dream of spending Orvil’s prize money, but Orvil reminds them that it should go to Opal. He warns them to stay in the stands, then goes to change. The men in the locker room joke and laugh as they dress. A big man lectures everyone on the prayerful meaning of the dance: it is the only way Indian men can express their deepest selves, so they should carry their lives onto the field with them. Orvil feels encircled by men who, like him, need clothing and ritual to express their...