Answer:
One theme is IDENTITY., or the loss of identity.
The speaker's father is without title, which means that his cultural identity was lost because he chose to move to the city and work
Explanation
What words in the poem indicate the cultural identity of the speaker and the father?
buffalo, shaman, arrow, hunt, first kill, buffalo song, vision, horns and hides, animal tracks, bow string
How can we tell that the speaker is comparing and contrasting 2 'worlds' in this poem?
Two 'worlds' or cultures are compared in this poem: the Native American society and the mainstream American society.
The speaker talks about 'hunting' in the wild which Native Americans did, but the father "hunted" in the stockyards. (He worked in a place where herds of cattle are kept.)
Native American boys went on 'vision' quests to find the spiritual meaning of their life but the father was "without a vision" when "he migrated to the city...to work in a packing house." In mainstream American society, a boy becomes a man when he starts working and earning money, which the speaker's father did. The maturity that the father achieved was not the same as in Native American culture.
