Two Roads

Cal is a member of the Creek tribe. This is just one tribe of Indigenous people. Research the Creek tribe and some aspects of their culture, including their dress, the organization of their communities, their housing, their diet, and their spiritual ceremonies. Then, explore which aspects of this culture are depicted in the novel.

Roads are an important symbol in this novel. Pop explains to Cal that their life is a circle and that they can take two different roads and end up together at the end. When Two Roads ends, the reader knows which roads the two characters will take in the immediate future, but not in the long-term future. Explore the different roads Cal and his father travel, both together and separately. Consider both their literal roads and their figurative roads. In what ways do they end up together even though they will drift apart again?

There is a distinction in the novel between the so-called “Five Civilized Tribes” and other Indigenous cultures. Research these tribes and explain what set them apart from other Indigenous tribes in the eyes of mainstream white culture. What did the government at the time mean by the word “civilized,” and how does this wording reflect the deep-seated racism that confronted (and sometimes continues to confront) Indigenous cultures across the United States?