it was quiet, even though there was a powwow close enough to see it going on (Erdrich 451).
Lyman and his bother Henry represent the contemporary Native American generation, rootless, aimless, and always on the edge of destruction. The story is structured carefully to create one impression in the beginning, an impression dispelled during the course of the story by the reality of the details of what happened between Lyman and Henry. The opening paragraph says that Lyman was the first on the reservation to drive convertible, a red Olds, and that he owned the car along with his brother Henry:
We owned it together until his boots filled with water on a windy night and he bought out my share (Erdrich 450).
This statement seems to mean one thing in the beginning and quite another at the end, for it sounds here as if Henry bought out Lyman's share with money, whereas in fact he bought it with his life:
...