Part 2 (Bill Davis, Calvin Johnson, Jacquie Red Feather, Orvil Red Feather) Summary

Bill Davis is a Native man, a Vietnam veteran, an ex-convict and a maintenance worker at the Oakland Coliseum. He thinks Edwin Black, his girlfriend Karen’s adult son, is a “thirty-odd-year-old baby,” symptomatic of the culture.

Calvin Johnson is a young Oakland Native man on the powwow planning committee. He is trying to get away from drug dealing. Robbed of marijuana he planned to sell, he owes money to his brother Charles, who in turn owes money to Octavio Gomez, who is now himself in debt. Octavio informs them they will help him steal the powwow’s prize money. Calvin sees this as a “doomed-ass plan.”

At an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Albuquerque, newly sober substance abuse counselor Jacquie Red Feather is reunited by chance with Harvey. Forty-two years earlier, she gave up their child for adoption after Harvey raped her on Alcatraz. Wanting to make amends, Harvey convinces Jacquie to accompany him to Oakland, where he will emcee an upcoming powwow.

Orvil, Lony and Loother Red Feather are Native teens living in Oakland with their “grandma” Opal. (They are actually Jacquie’s grandsons, but they’ve never met.) For Dene Oxenden’s film project, Orvil tells a story about finding his mother passed out on drugs. Orvil has learned to powwow dance behind Opal’s back. He and his brothers sneak out to attend the Big Oakland Powwow, where Orvil will perform.

Part 2 (Bill Davis, Calvin Johnson, Jacquie Red Feather, Orvil Red Feather) Analysis

This section focuses on how trauma from the past continues to resonate in the present. The psychological damage Harvey inflicted on Jacquie when he raped her on Alcatraz has tormented her for 42 years. The trauma of being raped was amplified by the long-term emotional pain of being forced to give the child up for adoption. The perspective of Orvil, whose mother committed suicide, also underscores the painful familial and generational reverberations over time.

This nonchronological, multivoiced, layered treatment provides a structural counterpart to the disjunction wrought within the Indian family—as well as within Jacquie and Orvil as individuals. In this way, Orange uses literary form to emphasize thematic elements in the novel, particularly the indeterminate nature of modern Indian identity.