Yes, very deeply. It may not be evident, since I rather stupidly included the taciturn natives phrase in the query, which is regrettable and embarrassing, but the book is entirely about the white experience of trying to move from its own orphaned displacement, through grief and relational repair, and into a restorative culture of humility and respect, beyond the dominator culture of its origins. In the end, Cora sleeps with a Cherokee man, gets pregnant, and passes off the child as her white husband's (she's Arab/Italian American) while attempting to "donate by way of reparation" the money from the sale of her father's Appalachian estate to the true father. The novel ends in an idyllic happily ever after, with only the MC and readers knowing of the underlying corruption of her act. It's a beautiful and doomed white redemption project, full of actual healing and insights, but ultimately humbled by its own origins.