However, in Hogan’s novel Power this idea comes most to life. After Ama, a strong traditional woman, has killed a panther, she tells the younger Omishto that she must tell the truth about her crime, except for a description of the cat’s appearance. Not until later in the novel does the reader discover the reason for this omission. Omishto realizes that to describe the run down and sickly appearance of the panther to the elders, “would cut their world in half. It would break their hearts and lives. It would take away everything that they have left in this world.” Therefore, even though Ama is asking for a veiling of the truth, she does so out of respect for the elders and their beliefs. This respect runs deep enough that Ama is willing to accept her banishment rather than tear apart the world the elders have tried desperately to maintain. Within this story also rests ideas about the importance of tribal sovereignty. Ama is given a trial by the state since she has broken a written law, killing a panther. Nonetheless, after her acquittal in the Western legal system she must go through a tribal court. Hogan …show more content…
Mean Spirit, although a work of fiction, is based around the real life stories and incidents surrounding the discovery of oil in Oklahoma on indigenous land. The many killings and land swindles recreated in the novel show how indigenous lives became sacrificed in the interest of natural resources and money. Using stark imagery, Hogan speaks to the devaluing and elimination of indigenous lives, stating in Solar Storms, “I learned how I came from a circle of courageous women and strong men who had walls pulled down straight in front of them until the circle closed, the way rabbits are hunted in a narrowing circle, but some lived, some survived this narrowing circle of