LeAnne Howe's novel Shell Shaker greatly focuses on the issue of the power struggle between men and women and shows the importance of powerful women. Since this story revolves around two similar deaths of powerful male chiefs and their apparent corruption, Howe explores the motivations behind their corruption. In both cases, the men have been elected as chief after many years of manipulating their people and tribal council because they have lied about their intentions as chief. In fact, the text suggests that each may have originally had generally good intentions and qualities, but, unfortunately, these men allow their greed for more power and money to overpower their sense of their communities' needs.

    Howe explores the importance of women in power and the proper way to lead the Choctaws with her insistence that they must cling to Choctaw traditions, beliefs, and ideals. Redford McAlester audaciously abandons Choctaw tradition when he rids of the tribal council and decides to make tribal decisions on his own. This tradition has been upheld for centuries with his people, and this method has even caused his election to office. Thus, Howe exploits the irony of how the Choctaws inadvertently lead to their own demise by placing a corrupt leader in office.

     Auda Billy and Gore Battiste discuss the politics of expectations of Choctaws, so Howe allows the reader to understand the importance of this issue of keeping close ties with the Choctaw community, which mirrors the kinship traditions for centuries between many Native American tribes. Battiste believes the Choctaws can "still be tribal people" but also "make it in the white world" (112). In fact, the Billy sisters seem to embody this idea because each of them has become a successful, modern career-woman. However, Auda points out the need to "maintain the land" and "maintain the community" (112). This argument presents the catch-22 of attempting to survive in modern America while maintaining ancestral ties because a person must seemingly sacrifice one or the other. Howe suggests that, even if the Choctaws move on in geography or careers, they need to remain politically involved and responsible for the welfare and future of their tribe and family. In other words, she implies the necessity of a balance between the tribe's traditions and modern conventions, and the women in this novel seem to be the most successful in both of these areas.

     This focus on the importance of traditions is mostly evident in the novel's connection between two generations separated by time and geography. The Billy family has moved from Mississippi to Oklahoma since 1738, with the Trail of Tears, but the family in 1991 learns they are still connected to their ancestors and even able to feel their spirits. Because the Billy family remains connected with its ancestors, they continue to understand their heritage and traditions. Similarly, the modern-day family remains closely attached to each other even though they have moved away from home and live in three different states. Even though Auda and her mother have had disputes and a distance between them for the past few years, her mother's sacrifice allows "the world that had separated them [to vanish]" (108). This sacrifice is meaningful to the Billy family because it further connects them to a tradition begun by Shakbatina when she similarly sacrificed herself for her daughter. After this sacrifice, Koi Chitto symbolically buries his wife with her "umbilical cord and medicine bag [tied] around her neck" (106). Perhaps because Shakbatina has been buried with her umbilical cord, which physically provides a connection between a mother and a child, or two separate generations, she remains connected to her family for many generations to come.

     Auda's realization of her strong connection to her mother, and the importance of family, is again evident when she realizes that the "gas stations and subdivisions [she and McAlester] built for the elderly with the casino money" will "never compete with the simple act of giving away a pair of jeans" (125). This realization reminds Auda of the traditions in which the Choctaws, and other Native American tribes, gave away food, water, shelter, and clothing to those within their tribe who were in need because of a death in the family, illness, or soem sort of inability to provide for themselves. Thus, Auda slowly becomes more and more aware of her obligation to her tribe in continuing traditions and remaining faithful to her ancestors' desires for their future generations.