“Not so lucky was White Man’s Dog. He had little to show for his eighteen winters. His father, Rides-at-the-door, had many horses and three wives. He himself had three horses and no wives. His animals were puny, not a blackhorn runner around them. He owned a musket and no powder and his animal helper was weak. Many times he had prayed to the Above Ones for stronger medicine but he knew that wasn’t the way. It was up to him, perhaps with the help of a many-faces man, to find his own power.”

At the beginning of the novel, White Man’s Dog is seen as unlucky because he has not yet succeeded in gaining the wealth, status, and respect signified by having wives, horses, and powerful weapons. He feels like a failure because he has not yet established himself as a man in the community but knows that it is “up to him” to realize his potential. This quote reveals that the novel will focus on White Man’s Dog’s growth into maturity as he comes “to find his own power.

“He did not like to have an unlucky man on this trip. Bad luck, like the white-scabs disease, can infect others.”

Yellow Kidney is concerned about White Man’s Dog’s reputation as an unlucky warrior who has so far failed to distinguish himself as warrior. He compares the young man’s “bad luck” to smallpox, the contagious disease brought by the Napikwans, implying that White Man’s Dog’s unluckiness could spread rapidly among the other men and cause their raid to go badly. 

“He had been hearing around the camps of the Pikunis that Owl Child and his gang had been causing trouble with the Napikwans, driving away horses and cattle, and had recently killed a party of woodcutters near Many Horses fort. It would only be a matter of time before the Napikwans sent their seizers to make war on the Pikunis.”

Yellow Kidney believes that “Owl Child and his gang” are only making matters between the Pikunis and the Napikwans worse by killing white settlers and fears that the Napikwans will blame all Pikunis for Owl Child’s violence. Unfortunately, his fears are gradually realized as American policy becomes increasingly hostile toward the Pikunis and eventually leads to the massacre of