Stiles and Stokes

The town of Stiles and Stokes, New Hampshire is the primary setting of the novel. It is an extremely small and rural New England town in which most of the residents appear to know one another and in which grief and tragedy are shared among its inhabitants. Erdrich takes care to display the ways in which the lives of the town's residents are intertwined by the events that affect it. It is also described in naturalistic terms, with great attention being brought to the wildlife and flora in the area.

The Ojibwe Reservation

The rest of the novel takes place on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota, north of a town called Hoopdance. The reservation is stark, bleak, and cold, features typical of its brutal and sometimes unforgiving midwestern setting. It is also not portrayed as an especially affluent area, with many of its residents struggling...