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Originally Posted by Bookpossum
I have just finished it and thought it was very good. I wasn't put off by the visionary section towards the end - after all, most religious beliefs can look a bit odd to those who don't share them.
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The visionary section at the end was perhaps a little too accurate for my tastes, but my major issue with it was that Fools Crow was passive, just a seer of visions. His earlier quests involved him taking action, forging a path. With this one, he was just a witness. I thought it was rushed and perhaps just a means to wrap up the story and not as organic as his other quests.
For the secular reader, I think the dreams and visions related in this style are justifiable. Some can be seen as a goad. It doesn't matter whether Fools Crow truly freed the wolverine; he thinks he did and acts accordingly. There's also a significant element where the dreams can be evoked in light of events. Did Raven tell the Napikwan about Red Paint and set up the justifiable murder? Or was this just how Fools Crow reconciled his killing of him?
If Fast Horse had had a successful raid and not caused the capture of Yellow Kidney, would his dream have been tweaked so that he did as Cold Maker said? Almost certainly. The title of the book tells us so. White Man's Dog didn't actively fool Bull Shield; there was a huge element of luck involved, but the story evolves so that it was all a cunning plan, Fools Crow gets his name, and even he comes to believe in the story, more or less. It takes Raven, his inner voice, to recall him to the facts.
Stylistically, I wish Welch had stayed out of the Napikwans' heads altogether. The former Confederate's (I can't remember his name) backstory was irrelevant to this tale of the Blackfeet and their fate. We can take it as a given that some people are good, some evil, and some just hard luck cases who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. As with the last vision quest, this felt forced to me.
For all that, this was a great, stirring, evocative and sobering tale.