Novel looks at being a young Native American in an urban environment

Tommy Orange is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, but he grew up in Oakland. He writes that he’s one of many urban Indians who “know the sound of the freeway better than we do rivers, the howl of distant trains better than wolf howls.” Orange’s new novel, “There There,” is set in Oakland. His many disparate characters -- all urban Indians -- struggle with what it means to be Native and struggle to connect with disappearing traditions.