Vera Paranteau Character Analysis

Vera is Patrice’s sister who went missing sometime before the novel’s present. She initially traveled to Minneapolis with a man who said that he wanted to marry her, but she hasn’t been seen since then. In a later chapter, one of Patrice’s friends, Betty Pye, tells Patrice that that’s a tactic that people often use to traffic and exploit women in the area: they’ll come to the reservation, tell women they want to marry them, then “sell her to someone who puts them out for sex.” This seems to be what happens to Vera. Patrice and her mother, Zhaanat, begin to have disturbing dreams about Vera, where she seems to be calling out to them, trying to get them to help her. Vera ends up on a ship, going through withdrawal from drugs while her body is used sexually by men on the ship. When the withdrawal gets even worse, men on the ship dump her body in an alley. A retired Army medic, Harry Roy, finds her there and helps nurse her back to health before bringing her home. Vera comes home broken, but when she is reunited with her family and her baby, there seems to be hope for recovery. Wood Mountain and Vera also begin a romantic relationship, which Patrice approves of, thinking that she will support anything that helps Vera heal.