The fictional events of There There, the debut novel by Tommy Orange, take place in modern-day Oakland, California. Orange, who was raised in Oakland and is himself half Cheyenne Indian and half white, is intimately familiar with the setting and uses his personal knowledge to breathe life into his Native American characters. While the fictional characters’ lives take place in modern times, Orange begins his novel with a nonfictional prologue that provides background to their stories. 

Though the events Orange recounts in the prologue date back to 1621, he begins the novel by evoking the Indian Head test pattern—an image that was broadcast on television to facilitate the adjustment of monitors in studios and at home up until the 1970s. The test pattern featured an image of an Indian head “surrounded by circles that looked like sights through riflescopes.” Orange remarks that all one would have to do would be to adjust their aim slightly “to set the sights on the target.” In opening the novel with this provocative image—that of an Indian head as a target to be shot at—Orange establishes the idea that Native Americans have experienced traumatic persecution and racism at the hands of white people and that these experiences have shaped how they are perceived in America today and the situations in which they now live. 

After the prologue, the novel moves into fiction and begins to introduce the characters who will narrate the rest of the story. Orange’s writing style is intimate and colloquial, and he tells the stories of his characters from first-, second-, and third-person perspectives; these stylistic choices allow readers the opportunity to connect to characters in unique ways. Readers may also relate to Orange’s characters because of their humanity and the hardships they face: they struggle with alcoholism, discrimination, addiction, trauma, depression, and financial desperation. 

While their backgrounds and hardships are all unique, the characters of There There are united by their struggles in identity. Characters like Blue, Orvil, Edwin, Calvin, and Thomas grew up separated from their Native American heritage, whether by parental figures or by their own shame regarding their identity. The separation they have experienced in the past leads some to believe that they are not “truly” Native American. In his interview with Dene, Calvin expresses his sentiment that someone like him who is unfamiliar with Native American culture is unworthy of calling himself a Native American. Similarly, Orvil feels disingenuous when he tries on Native American regalia.

The Big Oakland Powwow presents the opportunity for the characters who struggle with identity to connect to their heritage. They do this in a variety of ways: Blue and Edwin, for example, help organize the powwow as a celebration of their culture, while Thomas and Orvil perform Native American music and dance at the powwow and are able to feel a connection to their heritage through those traditions. Some, like Edwin, are able to take pride in their identity—possibly for the first time. 

Ultimately, the powwow results in chaos, and many central characters are injured or killed in the shootout during the attempted robbery. Rather than blaming the violence on the perpetrators—Octavio, Calvin, Charles, Carlos, Daniel, and Tony—Orange suggests that the trauma from centuries of oppression of and violence against Native Americans is finally surfacing in this modern, urban setting. Orange implies in the interlude that the tension caused by the oppression, financial desperation, and identity crises experienced by earlier generations of Native Americans has been passed down and has led up to this event. 

The Big Oakland Powwow represents Native Americans’ perseverance throughout history in maintaining their culture, even when faced with assimilation and forced migration to cities. As Orange states in the prologue, Urban Indians have adapted their way of life to urban settings, established Indian Centers, held powwows, and otherwise succeeded in keeping many of their traditions alive. However, the Oakland powwow’s spiral into chaos and violence highlights the irrevocability of the damage that has been done to Native cultures—and the consequences of centuries’ worth of trauma that Native peoples have experienced.