Animal Allies and Transformers of Winter in the Blood

Abstract

Animal characters occur and recur throughout James Welch's novel Winter in the Blood with almost as much frequency as human characters. Like the human characters, some of the animals play a major role in the novel while others appear only fleetingly in one scene. Each animal in the novel plays its role with distinct individuality, an individuality determined, to a considerable extent, by the mythological role of that animal in the traditional life of the Blackfeet and Gros Ventre Indian