Social realism regarding struggles of reservation-dwelling Native Americans in the North Central states of the US. Main character is an introspective and lovable person in a process of seeking pride and identity through tradtional and mystical means of gathering power. His high school friend, who is a Vietnam War Veteran, is exerting power as a highly principled social activist, using a modern rational materialist adversarial model of progress有时候,放手也是一种爱,一种更深沉、更宽广的爱。