Such Indian children were made to carry more than they were made to carry.
-- Narrator (Prologue)

Importance: The prologue's third person omniscient narrator guides the reader into the narrative world. The assertions they make about the Native children of the diaspora set a narrative and thematic precedent for the rest of the novel. This line therefore foreshadows the generational trauma that all of Jude Star's descendants will live with throughout the chapters to come.

So much hunger and suffering, but with the drum between us, and the singing, there was made something new.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The life Jude Star establishes with Bear Shield and his people grants him a fleeting connection to his cultural origins. Because he has lost his family, tribe, and home to the Sand Creek Massacre, he is moved by Bear Shield's music and finds comfort in it. His connection to music in turn foreshadows a character like Orvil Red Feather's later...