“The Indian head in the jar, the Indian head on a spike were like flags flown, to be seen, cast broadly. Just like the Indian Head test pattern was broadcast to sleeping Americans as we set sail from our living rooms, over the ocean blue-green glowing airwaves, to the shores, the screens of the New World.”

This opening passage introduces core tensions of the novel. The “Indian Head test pattern,” which was broadcast on televisions across the United States, is reflective of both the colonial violence perpetrated on Indigenous Americans as well as the ways that Indigenous Americans are stereotyped and exploited in the modern “New World.” Orange directly ties this modern representation with more explicit forms of anti-Indigenous brutality from the frontier era.

“Being Indian has never been about returning to the land. The land is everywhere or nowhere.”

Place is a critical component of the novel. While most of the characters live in or near Oakland, the book interrogates the idea that “returning to the land” allows Indigenous Americans to be in touch with their identity. Indeed, much of the novel argues that Indigenous Americans can claim their identity regardless of place and in relation to it.

“Maybe I am a ghost. Maybe Maxine doesn’t even know who I am. Maybe I’m the opposite of a medicine person. Maybe I’m’a do something one day, and everybody’s gonna know about me. Maybe that’s when I’ll come to life. Maybe that’s when they’ll finally be able to look at me, because they’ll have to.”

Tony, whose narrative frames the novel, lives on the outskirts of society because of his physical appearance. This suggestion that he may be “a ghost” critically foreshadows his decision to sacrifice his life to stop the powwow shooting. Through this act, he forces others to “finally be able to look” at him.