There is certainly a clash between Native American culture and the broader culture of the US in Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine as some characters hold onto their Native American customs, others mostly abandon them, and still others create a strange blend. Let's look at this in more detail.

We read in one place in the story that the government allotted land to the Native Americans to try to turn them “into farmers.” Indeed, many of the characters grew up on the reservation, living a modified version of Native American life that is filled with “white” customs but still retains some Native American customs. Marie, for instance, goes to the convent when she is fourteen years old, convinced that she wants to become a nun. She has lived a blended life of Native American and white ways.

There are some, though, who refuse to accept white ways. Moses Pillager, Lulu's husband, lives on an island, following an older way of life and speaking the Ojibwe language. He refuses to give up his traditional life and embrace American ways even when Lulu leaves him. Eli Kashpaw also maintains a more traditional lifestyle and speaks Ojibwe even though he lives on the reservation.

The members of the younger generation, like Lipsha, have largely given up traditional ways, but Lipsha still has “the touch” possessed by some Chippewa people, and he believes his grandmother Marie when she talks about “love medicine,” a kind of magic. He tries to use it on his grandparents but cannot shoot any geese, so he substitutes frozen turkey hearts instead. This seems quite humorous, but it is also a symbol of the clash between Native American and American cultures.