Betty and Albert Wishkob are Chippewa Indians living on the Little No Horse Indian Reservation. Betty is a night janitor at the hospital. One night, she hears about a baby that had been abandoned by her parents. She goes to the room and nurses the baby, Linda. She adopts her and raises her along with her other three children.

Both Betty and Albert take care in squeezing and kneading Linda’s limbs and skull until she takes on a normal form. They do this until Linda is eleven years old. 

Betty soon lost her job and Albert sold firewood, corn, and squash to town. Albert always took the children out into the woods, teaching them how to set snares and fish perch. After they would come back, Betty would try to get them clean again.

Betty and Albert had three children, in addition to Linda, Cedric, Albert Jr., and Sheryl. 

Cedric is one of the older children of Betty and Albert Wishkob. Very little is known about Cedric only that he is the one who gave Linda the nickname Tuffy, that he is a war veteran, and that he moved to Pierre, South Dakota and married a woman called Cheryl, who, in turn, is described as a devout Christian. 

Linda sometimes visits him and he eventually helps Linda dispose of the rifle that Joe had used to kill Linden.

Albert is mentioned only once and it only known that he either moved off reservation or build a new house closer to the town of Hoopdance.

Sheryl Wishkob Martin is the oldest daughter of Betty and Albert Wishkob. When they were young, Sheryl told Linda that she was ugly and that she did not like her because she was white. 

The relationship later became a lot better and Sheryl tries to dissuade Linda to give up her kidney for Linden. 

When Grace Lark tries to take possession of the allotment of Sheryl’s parents she takes direct action by boycotting the Lark gas station and helping Whitey to get his own gas station going.