Victor Joseph
The main protagonist in the collection. He appears in many of the stories and grows from an innocent child to a disillusioned young adult. He endures poverty and racism as a child, and makes a difficult transition when he attends high school off the reservation. As an adult, he has several unhealthy relationships with white women, suffers grief after his father's death, and struggles with alcoholism, but with great effort he eventually stops drinking.
Thomas Builds-the-Fire
Another one of the collection's central characters, Thomas is the same age as Victor. Other characters see him as eccentric – he frequently tells surreal stories about Spokane and Indigenous history, believes he can fly, and has prophetic visions. Victor rejects him when they are young because of his behavior, but they reconcile after taking a trip together in "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona."
Junior Polatkin
One of Victor's friends. Junior is one of only a few people from the Spokane reservation to attend college, and because of this, he has a tense relationship with his peers. He attends Gonzaga University and fathers a son named Sean with a woman he meets there, although they break up shortly after Sean's birth. Junior drops out of college and returns to the reservation, where he faces alcoholism and poverty.
Adolph
One of Victor's uncles. He brawls with his brother Arnold in "Every Little Hurricane".
Arnold ("Every Little Hurricane")
One of Victor's uncles. He brawls with his brother Adolph in the collection's first story, "Every Little Hurricane."
Big Mom
The spiritual leader of the Spokane. She appears in "A Drug Called Tradition".
Victor's father
Victor's father had a good relationship with his son when he was young. However, he suffers from alcoholism and disappears from his son's life after divorcing Victor's mother. He moves to Phoenix, Arizona, and Victor does not hear from him again until he must recover his ashes in "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona."
One-Braid
A woman Victor has a casual sexual encounter with in "Crazy Horse Dreams".
Adrian
One of Victor's friends. He appears in "The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore" and "Imagining the Reservation."
Julius Windmaker
A high-school basketball prodigy whose drinking disrupts his sports career.
Lucy
A third-grade basketball prodigy. She plays for the sixth-grade boys' team despite her gender and her young age.
Dirty Joe
A Spokane man who is the victim of Victor and Sadie's cruel prank in "Amusements".
Sadie
A friend of Victor's who attends a carnival with him in "Amusements".
Norma Many Horses
A woman who commands great respect on the reservation because of her kindness and her interest in Spokane heritage. She is married to Jimmy Many Horses.
Cathy
A white former Olympic gymnast who sits next to Victor and Thomas on the plane in "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona".
Nezzy
Victor's aunt, a talented dancer and dressmaker. She was tricked into accepting a hysterectomy after having her first son.
Victor's white girlfriend
In "All I Wanted to Do Was Dance", Victor struggles to get over his relationship with an unnamed white girlfriend. It is possible that she is the same woman as the girlfriend in "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven". Although the narrator of that story is unnamed, he has much in common with Victor and the events in the two stories complement each other.
The Cherokee stranger
A visitor to the reservation in "All I Wanted to Do Was Dance." Victor gives him a bottle of wine.
Eve Ford
The tribal postmaster taken hostage by Thomas in "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire".
David WalksAlong
The tribal police chief in "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire".
Esther WalksAlong
David WalksAlong's wife in "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire". She leaves her husband after hearing Thomas speak.
Qualchan
A Yakima man who was hung for fighting to defend his land in the nineteenth century.
Wild Coyote
A sixteen-year-old Indigenous warrior who battled white settlers in the nineteenth century. In an absurd twist at the end of "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire", Thomas is convicted of Wild Coyote's crimes 200 years after the fact.
Tremble Dancer
The narrator's beautiful Urban love interest in "Distances".
Noah Chirapkin
In "Distances", the only Skin to venture off the reservation.
Narrator ("Distances")
A young man who is saddened by the apocalypse and clings to remnants of pre-plague society.
Judas WildShoe
A character in "Distances" who turns a wristwatch in to the Tribal Council.
Rosemary MorningDove
James's mother in "Jesus Christ's Half-Brother Is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation". She dies in a fire shortly after her son's birth.
Frank Many Horses
A man who claims to be James's father in "Jesus Christ's Half-Brother...". His claims are not taken seriously by most people. His relationship to Jimmy Many Horses, if any, is unclear.
Lester FallsApart
A friend of Frank Many Horses. Junior Polatkin notes in "Somebody Kept Saying Powwow" that Lester has more problems than anyone on the reservation.
James
A young boy who seems to have supernatural abilities. He does not talk until age seven, and when he does, he mostly speaks in deep philosophical koans. After his mother dies in a fire, James is raised by the narrator of "Jesus Christ's Half-Brother...".
Moses MorningDove
Rosemary MorningDove's father. Although he is James's closest relative, he relinquishes custody to the narrator of "Jesus Christ's Half-Brother..." because tradition dictates that someone who saves a child's life must raise the child.
Narrator ("Jesus Christ's Half-Brother Is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation")
Twenty years old at the beginning of the story, the unnamed narrator must juggle the responsibilities of raising James while solving his own personal issues, which include alcoholism and emotional disturbance.
Suzy Song
The narrator's girlfriend in "Jesus Christ's Half-Brother...". She helps him raise James and stay sober.
Seymour
A friend of the narrator of "Jesus Christ's Half-Brother..." who fought in the Vietnam War.
Ray
A friend of the narrator in "Jesus Christ's Half-Brother...".
Samuel Builds-the-Fire
Thomas Builds-the-Fire's grandfather. As he gets older, most of his friends on the reservation die, so he seeks a job in Spokane. He becomes a motel maid and lives a lonely life until he is laid off.
Narrator ("A Good Story")
The narrator of "A Good Story" is referred to as Junior, but this does little to clarify his identity because Junior is a generic term of endearment for any young man on the reservation. Junior tells bleak stories about reservation life, but complies when his mother asks him to tell a good one for once.
The narrator's mother ("A Good Story")
The narrator's mother enjoys quilting and talking to her son. Her request for an optimistic story inspires this story's title.
Uncle Moses
A possibly fictional character made up by the narrator of "A Good Story." Uncle Moses lives in a house he built himself fifty years ago, and he has a special friendship with a schoolboy named Arnold.
Arnold ("A Good Story")
A pale-skinned boy who is often teased by his classmates in spite of his impressive basketball skills.
Simon
A man on the reservation who plays small roles in "The First Annual All-Indian Horseshoe Pitch and Barbecue" and "The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor".
Nadine
The narrator's girlfriend in "The First Annual All-Indian Horseshoe Pitch and Barbecue."
Narrator ("The First Annual All-Indian Horseshoe Pitch and Barbecue")
A young man who attends the reservation carnival. It is possible that the narrator is Junior Polatkin, since this is one of the few stories that is definitely not narrated by Victor (who appears in the story), and Junior also has a girlfriend named Nadine.
Narrator ("Imagining the Reservation")
A contemplative young man. This story may share a narrator with "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven", because both narrators reference being robbed while working as a 7-11 cashier.
Jimmy Many Horses
Norma Many Horses' husband. He suffers from terminal cancer, and often uses humor to cope with difficult situations and emotions.
Raymond
Jimmy Many Horses' second-favorite cousin.
Dr. Adams
Jimmy Many Horses' doctor.
Frenchy SiJohn
A school bully in "Indian Education."
Betty Towle
A cruel missionary teacher.
Mr. Schluter
Victor’s kind fourth-grade teacher who encourages him to become a doctor in "Indian Education".
Steven Ford
Victor's cousin.
Randy
Victor's best friend in "Indian Education".
Narrator ("The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven")
A young Spokane man - possibly Victor – who lives in Seattle and dates a white woman.
The BIA chief's son
A young white man who moves to the reservation with his father in "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven". He is exceptionally good at basketball and can beat most of the Spokane players when playing one-on-one.
The 7-11 cashier
A cashier who racially profiles the narrator when he visits the store late at night in "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven."
Narrator ("Family Portrait")
A young boy who must survive abandonment, neglect, poverty, and his parents' alcoholism.
The narrator's mother ("Family Portrait")
In "Family Portrait", the narrator's mother is deeply insecure and claims not to remember many of the darker incidents in his childhood.
Nadine Moses
Junior's love interest in "Somebody Kept Saying Powwow".
The college basketball player
An athlete who attended college with Junior Polatkin. He spent time in prison for unspecified reasons, and was mocked cruelly by Junior and his other teammates when he got out.
Jerry Vincent
A friend of the narrator's father who was murdered ten years ago in "Witnesses, Secret and Not."
Narrator ("Witnesses, Secret and Not")
A thirteen-year-old boy who travels to Spokane when his father is called in for questioning about a murder.
The narrator's father
In "Witnesses, Secret and Not", the narrator's father is called to Spokane to be questioned about the murder of his friend, Jerry Vincent. He brings his son along and they discuss many aspects of life.
Jimmy Shit Pants
A Spokane man who lives in the city of Spokane and experiences alcoholism.
Detective Clayton
The detective who questions the narrator's father in "Witnesses, Secret and Not".
John-John
A young boy who longs to leave the reservation in "Flight".
Joseph
John-John's older brother, a military jet pilot. He was captured in action and has not been heard from since.
Lynn Casey
A white student with whom Junior Polatkin fathers a son in "Junior Polatkin's Wild West Show". Lynn is of Irish ancestry but tries to teach her son about his Spokane heritage. She and Junior maintain a distant but cordial relationship.
Sean Casey
Junior Polatkin's son, the result of a fling with his college classmate Lynn. Junior rarely sees him.
