What is the setting in the novel, The Woman Who Loved a Bear?

The grandfather who tells the story says that he is one of the grandchildren of Walks with the Sun and the shapeshifter. If this were true, the events in the story would have taken place in the nineteenth century.

The reference to white people and the presence of horses also suggest that the story takes place not very long ago. On the other hand, the setting of the story has a timelessness to it, typical of many folk tales, and the basic story of hardship being turned into love through intelligence and courage is itself timeless and has application to any era.

Historically, the Cheyenne once lived in Minnesota and the Dakotas, before they moved to reservations in Montana and Oklahoma. The grandfather mentions that the Cheyenne once lived north of where he and his grandson live, suggesting that they are in Oklahoma. The Crow lived in the general area of the Yellowstone and Platte rivers.

The Arapaho lived nearby, in the region of the Arkansas and Platte rivers. As cultural groups, the Cheyenne and Crow were very different, with unrelated languages and different histories; the Cheyenne and Arapaho shared the same language roots and had customs in common. The notion that a native American tribe had slaves may surprise some readers, but before the advancing American frontier constricted their lives, many tribes had slaves.