Norma Character Analysis

Wife to James Many Horses and close friend to Junior Polatkin, Norma is described as a “warrior,” a “cultural lifeguard,” and “the world champion fry bread maker.” She grows intolerant of her husband James’s many jokes when he continues making them in the face of a terminal cancer diagnosis, and leaves him for several months to go and live with a “cousin,” who may or may not be her lover. She eventually returns home to help James die in peace. Norma teaches Junior Polatkin that “watching automatically makes the watcher part of the happening,” and that “even the little things matter.” Norma is a wild dancer, a sexual adventurer, and is critical of Victor, unable to forgive him for the bullying he perpetrated in his younger years.