History Literature / AYellowRaftInBlueWater

* NunsNRosaries: Ida's sister Pauline owns a colorful beaded rosary and is extremely proud of it. However, when Clara comments that the beads of the rosary are most likely scrap beads left over from other regular rosaries, Pauline grows upset and throws the rosary away.

* TheRez: One of the main settings for all three stories. Rayona's and Christine's stories alternates between that and UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}}.

* TookALevelInKindness: Annabelle Stiffarm, who originally treated Rayona the same way her boyfriend Foxy Cree treated her, but later on becomes rather friendly to Rayona when they meet together at the rodeo.

* {{Jackass}}: Rayona's cousin Foxy Cree, in the way that he treats her and his girlfriend Annabelle Stiffarm. Annabelle pretty much goes along with it at first when we meet her, but later on acts pretty pissed about her boyfriend's behavior and gives him a serious scolding after Rayona's rodeo ride.

* MixedAncestry: Rayona Taylor (Native American/African American) and Dayton Nickles (Native American/Caucasian).

* CurlyHairIsUgly: Lee mocks [[spoiler:his mother]] Aunt Ida when Christine gives her a home perm treatment on New Years' Eve to give her curly hair. At first, Ida seemed to appreciate it in the mirror, but after the mocking, she ended up straightening her hair again and doing it up in a long braid.

* CurlyHairIsUgly: Lee mocks [[spoiler:his mother]] Aunt Ida when Christine gives her a home perm treatment on New Years' Eve to give her naturally curly hair. At first before the mocking, Ida looked at herself in the mirror with the perm and seemed to appreciate it, but after the mocking, she ended up restraightening her hair, doing it up in a long braid.

* YourCheatingHeart: Christine suspects her husband of cheating on her during her pregnancy. However, their relationship is otherwise mutually open, with the both of them willing to see other people while in the marriage, until Elgin decides to permanently walk out on the marriage.
** And this is actually [[spoiler:the very reason Christine exists, since her mother, Clara, slept with her sister's husband and got pregnant by him]].

* SympatheticAdulterer: Christine would imagine herself to be this whenever she was on dates with married men who hooked up with her only because their wives treated them badly, or so she thought in her own mind how she imagined their wives to be -- always angry and after them for money. Then Elgin cheats on Christine and finds herself in the role of one of those wives.

* DishonoredDead: Christine is upset that Aunt Ida decides to drape a tablecloth over Lee's coffin instead of having the American flag draped over it in honor of his service to his country as an American soldier.