Where the Lost Wander

John Lowry is the novel’s second protagonist and point-of-view narrator. The character is based on an ancestor of the author’s husband of the same name, who was born to a Pawnee woman and a white father in the mid-19th century. The novel’s John Lowry is the son of a Pawnee woman and a white man who is also called John Lowry. John is confused about his mixed heritage, saying that it’s like “having fins and trying to live on land” (59). His childhood name was Pítku ásu’, or “Two Feet,” because he has one foot in each culture.

When he was eight years old, his dying mother, who was called Mary by the white settlers, presented him to the senior Lowry and his wife, Jennie. Mary said he was Lowry’s son and insisted that the Lowrys take the boy to live with him. Jennie agreed readily and has treated John well since then. John’s relationship with his father is complicated, but as the novel proceeds, he realizes that his father has always loved him.

John is 25 or 26 in 1853. Tall and broad-shouldered, he has dark brown hair and eyes and “sun-colored” skin. His love for Naomi is complicated by his lifelong feeling that he doesn’t belong to either the white or the Pawnee culture. His actions, however, reveal that his dual cultures actually serve him well. In particular, his facility for languages, skill with animals, and empathy for others help him to thrive in difficult circumstances.

Following the wise advice of Naomi’s mother, Winifred, John marries Naomi at Fort Bridger, and she helps to convince him that he does have a place to belong: by her side. After Naomi is taken captive, he pursues her with the help of his Shoshoni friends, Hanabi and Washakie, and is patient during her long recovery from her ordeal. He ends up as a surrogate father to Naomi’s three younger brothers after the May siblings are finally reunited.

Winifred, Naomi’s mother, believes in transcendence—rising above the things that trouble you. She stoically walks along the trail despite being nine months pregnant. Her chestnut hair is threaded with gray, and she has green eyes and a freckled nose like Naomi.

When Winifred’s youngest son, Wolfe, is born, Naomi says her mother is the strongest person she knows. Winifred is also wise, dispensing advice to both her daughter and to John Lowry in matters of love.

Winifred is prone to visions, including one that comes true twice: That an Indigenous woman will nurse her baby, Wolfe. Having also foreseen her own death, she is brutally murdered in an attack by Shoshoni men after her son Will accidentally kills one of the men.

Jennie Lowry, John’s stepmother, is 45 as the novel begins. Plain and petite, she is fair-skinned with brown hair and eyes. Jennie is a good wife to John’s father and a caring mother to her two girls. She has asked John to call her Mother, but he can’t do it, even though Jennie willingly took John in as an eight-year-old half-orphaned child. She taught him to read and write, reading him Shakespeare and making sure that he read the Bible. Although she has trouble openly showing affection to John, she demonstrates it when she cuts his hair with gentle hands. He tells Naomi that he loves Jennie even though he doesn’t understand her.

While Jennie is only in a few of the novel’s scenes, John thinks of her often, especially her message that although love is painful, it is worth the pain. She remains a presence in John’s life as he marries Naomi and makes a home with her brothers. John writes to her faithfully, and she and John’s father always write back.