Her idea was to run away with a poker player who wasn’t scared to risk it all, and live on a new reservation no better than Wellpinit. She had no control of her life and was becoming another Indian sob story. Arnold saw it coming every step of the way. When she died in the kitchen fire (201), Arnold said he knew she was drunk because Indians are always drunk (205). Mary was only in the situation because she never made anything of herself. She allowed herself to be the stereotype of an Indian. In the book Arnold is aware of the truth to the stereotypes of his people and yet he doesn’t let them define him. That’s what separates him from his sister, and even from the rest of the