The main characters of "Reservation Blues" were affected in different ways by having the choice to stay on the reservation or actually leaving the reservation. The reservation was a place where the Indians could feel at home. Also the reservation was a place that could feel like a closed box to the Indians. Each Coyote Springs band member had a different reason for wanting to leave or stay and he or she each was affected differently also. Many of the other Indians as well as the band members ponder the question of if the band should have stayed on the reservation of if they should have left.
There are many positive and negative things for the characters leaving the reservation. One of the positive aspects of leaving the reservation is that Coyote Springs was able to try and get past the "going nowhere life" that could happen if you stayed on the reservation. The main example of this were the fathers of Coyote Springs and how they were always drunk, gone, or made nothing out of their lives. Coyote Springs had seen too much of that and wanted out, they wanted to be famous. With being famous also comes money, something that is not very prominent on the reservation. Some of the negative things that happened were that the reservation looked down on the band to the point where they even wanted to remove the band. Also the competitive New York and even Seattle was very intimidating to Coyote Springs. It was a new world almost and the book illustrated many of the differences between the whites and Indians. The book showed that the whites could, given the chance, walk all over the Indians or use them such as with Betty and Veronica did.
There were also many positive and negative reasons for staying on the reservation. When anybody stays on the reservation, native as well as Coyote Springs .
they have similar people around them. These similar people have the same past, the same understanding of their life, and they all have the reservation connection.