The Only Good Indians

The three main adult characters in the novel—Lewis, Gabe, and Cass—each struggle with their ancestral heritage and their role in Blackfoot culture, which they typically treat with ironic distance or outright mockery of the rules and customs of their culture as a way of coping with the cultural burden. As such, they freely use the term “Indian” to describe themselves or their practices, knowing full well its racist origins and deploying it with a sense of irony: They understand the tension between the authenticity of their tribal customs and their own half-considered version of it that often resembles play-acting. Still, the desire to be “Good Indians” colors their behavior and self-concept: Lewis fears that abandoning the reservation and marrying a white woman has disgraced his ancestors and furthered the diminishment of the tribe’s bloodline; Gabe’s struggles with alcohol, violent outbursts, and being a bad father linger in him; Cass is finally settling down, but fears what others think since he is dating a Crow woman, a tribe that was rivals and sometimes outright enemies with the Blackfeet. Holding the sweat is a way for Gabe and Cass to try to be a more respectable part of their community, though they know that they are primarily serving as an example of who not to be for Nathan Yellow Tail.