- Latour feels like the middle of his career in New Mexico was completely tainted by the ill treatment (or in some cases, genocide) of the Navajo people.
- In many ways, he actually found the Navajo way of life superior to the white way, even though he could never say this openly as a priest.
- It was actually the Archbishop's "misguided" friend, Kit Carson, who killed off many of the last remaining Native Americans in his area of New Mexico. He herded them all into a canyon and starved them out until they had no choice but to surrender.
- It turns out that Manuelito, the leader of the Navajo resistance, actually came to Archbishop Latour and asked him to make a case for the rights of the Navajo in Washington.
- Latour refused, though, saying that a Protestant American government would never listen to a Catholic telling them how to govern. In short, Latour was too scared to even try. So Manuelito just got up and told him to tell his friend Kit Carson that he would never take him (Manuelito) alive.
- As he feels himself dying, Latour tells his young companion Bernard that he hopes the Navajo will survive, although he's afraid that the white people will eventually kill them off.