The inspiration to write Neither Wolf Nor Dog comes to Nerburn on a cross-country motorcycle trip as he stops at a small roadside attraction: a stone in the shape of a buffalo. The stone is enclosed within a wire fence and a small plaque explains that the Lakota people once held these rocks sacred. Having spent time with indigenous people across the American Midwest, Nerburn sees the stone as a metaphor for how the indigenous spirit has been dehumanized and restrained in modern America. He notices crushed cigarettes on top of the plaque, and recognizes them as a traditional tobacco offering, a reminder that indigenous people are still present and still honor the earth. He vows to try to close the gap between his experience and the experience of indigenous people.

Nerburn acknowledges that indigenous readers might be skeptical of his efforts in the book, and that well-meaning white writers have misrepresented indigenous people in the past. Some of the stories in the collection are told from his perspective, and others are taken directly from the voices of indigenous elders. He imagines the book as an offering to a future where these voices are united.