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As the novel accelerates in the last three stories, Lipsha grows into its protagonist. He starts from humble beginnings, confused about his origins and his place in life. Introduced in “The World’s Greatest Fisherman” as one of the family, close friend to Albertine, and an early foil to the bully King, he fades to the background until he takes center stage in “Love Medicine” and becomes the focus of “Crossing the Water.” 

Lipsha grows up in the last movement of the novel. A sensitive and earnest young man, he has always known that he has “the touch” that allows him to heal others and visions that reveal deep truths. For example, while Nector dies, Lipsha feels the life force draining out of him. He remarks that “time was flashing back and forth like a pinball machine,” an image that could also describe the novel’s structure. Lipsha delivers some of the novel’s most profound advice when he comforts Marie after Nector’s death, and she confides that Lipsha was always her favorite. He understands that life is indestructible, reflected in symbols such as the dandelion seed and root.

Lipsha’s journey is not complete until the final chapter, the novel’s climax. When he learns about his biological mother, he knows that he’s “on the verge of knowing who he was.” Boldly, Lipsha journeys to the border to resolve the details of his own identity. He works through confusion, joins the army, and then gets hit with the vision of his father’s escape, and so he continues his quest. Lipsha finds his half-brother, King, and through him, his father, Gerry, with whom he has much in common. They share faces, the ability to cheat at cards (a skill both men learned from Lulu), and heart conditions. Most importantly, Lipsha and Gerry share stories and time, and Lipsha finds what he’s been looking for: peace, purpose, and the ability to return to the reservation with newfound self-awareness.

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