Hawk Dancer examines the influence of Euro-American culture and religion on the Anishinabe people. The setting is the Northern Great Lakes region from 1934-1978. Richard was from a predominantly white culture, though aware of his native roots. Job grew up on a reservation. Their vision quest led to the development of a Native American Catholic Hermitage after World War II when the infamous "American Indian Termination & Relocation" policy of the United States began. Their inspired elder, an Ojibwe Methodist minister, also a member of the traditional Ojibwe Medicine Lodge, insisted that, "no one is required to abandon their cultural heritage in order to follow the Gospels." Baby Boomers Randy, Dean, and Erik shape the scope and purpose of the hermitage through the challenging society of their formative years in the 1960s and 1970s. The events of this history continue to have an impact on indigenous and non-indigenous American relationships.