Fifteen years isn't long for a writer to continue with her characters. I'm working on one big continuous novel anyway. All of the books are part of it. In your new book Father Damien expresses the idea that Catholicism helped destroy the traditional fabric of the reservation, and many characters feel the tug between Catholicism and traditional Ojibwe beliefs. There is an immense and contradictory sorrow and love at the heart of this entire subject.
Missionary work is essentially tragic.
Those who enter the field from the religious side often do so out of love, and out of love they destroy the essence of the people they love. I accept the Catholicism of many in my family. Ojibwe traditional practices are more meaningful to me, but I am not deeply religious anyway. That is to say, I do not have an assured faith. I am full of doubt.