Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

Winter in the Blood is a novel about the modern life of an American Indian. This novel takes a look at Indians through the eyes of someone who has lived this life and knows it better than most writers of this novel type. The plot follows the plight of a young man who has lost his sense of identity due to his heritage, family secrets, and the death of his brother. The young man accidentally discovers some truths about his family's past and this information finally frees him to discover the man he really is. It is a novel full of truth and hope.

The narrator makes his way home from a night of drinking, battered and bruised from a bar fight. While walking, the narrator thinks about the people waiting at home for him, his mother, grandmother, and a girlfriend...