Love Medicine

From finishing "Love Medicine" I feel that a great theme in this novel is the loss of a cultural identity and Native American spirituality. The two generations in this novel are characterized and separated by the sense of Americanization. For example, Albertine going to college to study western medicine, whereas her grandmother, Marie, is part of the generation where everything surrounding her environment was still pretty close to the Native American culture and rituals. I also find it somewhat ironic that this book is called "Love Medicine" mainly because of the chapter about Lipsha being the one the healing powers, but at the same time Albertine is studying to become a doctor. So in this chapter we learn that the entire family of Kashpaws/Pillagers/Nanapushes have special gifts of healing and insight. Lipsha Morrissey says that he's got the touch. But later we read that the Pillagers were members of the Midewiwin  which were medicine men and women who were blessed by the Higher Power to help others. So, even more of the irony is that this family already has the healing touch of being medicine people and of finding the cure to help others, yet earlier in the book Nector says that the Kashpaws die out pretty quickly and then we actually witness the death of Nector Kashpaw. Yet some how, with the final chapters we see the families comes together to help one another, and everyone's stories intertwined with one another, I think to emphasize the closeness of the tribe; although there were different families, it was still just one tribe and one community. 

How do you think the first generation is similar to the second one, and what do you think are the main differences? Do you think they all end up in the same manner the generation before them did?