Shell Shaker

Auda and Anoleta’s lovers are powerful men, and at first, Auda and Anoleta are delighted to assist these men in improving the lives of the Choctaw people: Anoleta helps Red Shoes drive out the English and the French, and Auda helps Redford make money for the tribe, building hospitals and senior centers funded by a tribal casino. Love blinds these women, and they cannot see the true nature of Redford/Red Shoes. However, Anoleta’s mother (Shakbatina) and Auda’s mother (Susan) recognize that Redford/Red Shoes is Osano, a bloodsucker, feeding on his own people. Once they realize their mistake, Auda and Anoleta try to stop Redford/Red Shoes. However, Anoleta does not recognize that part of Red Shoes’ greed is for her, a failure that allows his spirit to return as Redford.

Similarly, both Auda and Anoleta initially fail to recognize that they cannot defeat Redford/Red Shoes on their own. Anoleta is assisted by her sister, Haya, and Auda is assisted by her entire family and Shakbatina, who “slipped [her] hands in front of [Auda’s] hands, and together […] struck a pose” killing Redford (loc 4258). It is not until Auda acknowledges the importance of the communal while recognizing the attributes of the individual that she can move forward, freeing her and Anoleta’s spirits. 

Red Shoes was a real person, a famed Choctaw warrior who caused the Choctaw Civil War through his dealings with both the English and the French. The French put a price on his head, and it was a French trader who finally killed him in 1747. Howe adapts this history to the story she is telling, having Anoleta’s sister, Haya, push Red Shoes into a fire after which the French trader murders him. Red Shoes believed he could defeat the English and the French and drive them out of Choctaw lands..

In contrast, Redford uses his power to enrich himself and his friends, and to taunt the English through funding the Irish Republican Army. For Redford, much of what he does is a game, unlike Red Shoes, who was deadly serious, even if he was just as greedy as his modern counterpart. Red Shoes’ contemporaries did not want to kill him but believed they had no choice, and it took them 20 years to decide that was the only way. Redford, on the other hand, seems to have inspired less love and devotion than Red Shoes, and many people in the novel are glad to hear that Redford is dead. Nonetheless, Howe asserts that both characters are corrupted by the white colonizers. Red Shoes is corrupted by the power he feels in playing the English and the French off each other, and Redford is corrupted by his own sense of victimization, that the Choctaw suffered so much at the hands of the whites over the years, that anything they did was ethical in comparison. Ultimately, both men become Osano, blood suckers, though they started off with pure intentions.

Redford/Red Shoes is the story’s main antagonist, but neither of these men are simply evil. Therefore, Auda can say that she loves Redford one moment and “loves [his] dying the next” (loc 3871). Both Red Shoes and Redford did a lot of good for their people, but they became consumed by greed. Even then, they are not cast out of society but taken even further in, protected by elders, like Isaac and Delores, who volunteer to guard Redford/Red Shoes’ spirit and prevent it from doing any more harm. 

Tema is an accomplished actor, married to Englishman Borden Beane. Tema sees connections everywhere between her Indigenous heritage and her profession. Indeed, she sees the character of Nora from Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House as symbolic of the Choctaw people. In the play, Nora realizes that her husband, Torvald, treats her like a child because she is a woman, representative of the understanding of women at the time the play was written in the late-19th century. Nora resolves to leave Torvald so that she can finally grow and mature. Tema tells the director of A Doll’s House, “Torvald Helmer’s relationship with Nora was very much like federal government’s paternalism of American Indians” (loc 612). In fact, Tema argues, Nora has “always known that she was destined to leave her husband, in the same way that we Indians know we will one day break free of the federal government” (loc 612).

Tema’s 18th-century counterpart is Haya, Anoleta’s sister. Haya is younger than Anoleta, and she is training to become a peacemaker and diplomat, like her mother. However, it is Haya who finally acts against Red Shoes, pushing him into the fire when Anoleta hesitates. Similarly, Tema saves Auda’s life when Hector D’Amato, a member of the mob from whom Redford stole money, comes to kill her. Tema and Haya are weaker characters than Auda and Anoleta, however, they are protective and fierce when pressed. 

Adair and Neshoba are minor characters in the novel, but their actions have great consequences. For example, Neshoba accompanies the children when war breaks out, and she is the one who raises Anoleta’s daughter, Chunkashbili, who would give the Billy family their name. Similarly, Adair is the one who gets the proof they need to prove that Auda was not the one stealing money from the tribe or from the mafia.

To make up for the lack of action on Neshoba’s part, Howe devotes more time to developing Adair’s character: She is very wealthy, eccentric, and desperately in love with Gore Battiste, much as Neshoba was in love with the French cleric, Father Renoir, who would go on to help Neshoba raise Chunkashbili. Adair often feels left out, not getting as much attention as does her eldest sister, Auda, or the baby of the family, Tema. However, Adair and Neshoba are essential to the story and to their families: Without them, there would be no Billy family, and no proof that Auda is innocent.

Isaac is Susan’s brother. Isaac’s treatment at the abusive boarding school he attended made him unwilling to deal with any other facet of white society, though he did fight in World War II. Isaac has been in love with Delores Love since he was 18, and he took refuge on Delores and Dovie’s ranch after escaping the boarding school.

However, Delores was much older than Isaac, 32 to his 18, and she sent him away. In despair, he joined the army and married a woman named WaNima, who died while he was in the military. When Isaac returned home, his pride prevented him from seeking out Delores. Instead, he threw himself into his work, running a ranch and putting out a newspaper for the Choctaw people. He also spent a great deal of time with his nieces and with his great-nephew, Hoppy. This reflects traditional Choctaw values: The mother’s brother often had a hand in raising his sister’s children. Isaac’s 18th-century counterpart is Shakbatina’s brother, Nitakechi.

Isaac is reunited with Delores by the death of Redford and his desire to save his niece from jail. They get married and then drive Redford’s body to Mississippi, volunteering to accompany Redford/Red Shoes’ spirit into the afterworld and prevent it from doing more harm. Isaac functions as the voice of wisdom in the text, particularly for the younger generation. He spends a great deal of time imparting advice to his people, both intimately through his interactions with Hoppy and more generally through his advice column in the newspaper. 

Delores and her sister, Dovie, are former celebrities. The Billy sisters refer to Delores and Dovie as their aunts, “[n]ot blood relations, but Indian-way aunts” (loc 2130), meaning that they treat the women with the same respect and love they would show to blood relatives, and as members of the same tribe with a shared heritage. 

After escaping from a boarding school where they were abused and mistreated, they joined one of the Wild West shows that were popular in the early part of the 20th century, often featuring supposedly real cowboys and Native Americans. After leaving the Wild West show, they also acted in films. However, when their mother died, Delores and Dovie quit acting. Delores dedicated herself to reviving almost-extinct Choctaw traditions, particularly that of the bone-picker, and became well known in the community for her traditional Choctaw funeral rites.

Delores’ willingness to sacrifice herself to protect the community from Redford/Red Shoes leads Isaac to claim she is the Imataha Chitto, “the prophesied leader who will reunite” the Oklahoma Choctaw and the Mississippi Choctaw (loc 3284). Delores does just that, but her sacrifice is more reminiscent of Shakbatina’s, a way of reinstating peace. Delores is a much more fully developed character compared to Dovie, who believes in astrological signs, Atlantis, and herbal cures. On the other hand, as Dovie rattles on about Atlantis, the bread dough is transformed into the mud of Nanih Waiya. Through Dovie, Howe argues there are different kinds of wisdom, and all have their place and unique value.