Geoff- Post 7 (up to pg 166?)

Hey, I was sort of in and out of class on Tuesday, but I'm pretty sure the board said to read to page 166. Anyway, that's how far I've read.
I thought it was sort of unusual how the poem that started off the reading not only described the ceremony that followed but was analogous to Tayo's mental state. I'm inferring that different ceremonies have different stories about their origins, and that the particular ceremony is decided upon based on what story the patient's condition matches. Just an inference. So, Tayo's ceremony occurs, and here's the million dollar question: Is he really cured of all his problems? I'm inclined to think no, but if he wasn't, why did Tayo leave Betonie? Betonie says "'One night or nine nights won;t do it any more...the ceremony isn't finished yet...remember these stars...I've seen them and I've seen the spotted cattle; I've seen a mountain and I've seen a woman.'" (152). What does this mean? Will Tayo return? This is obviosly some major incident of foreshadowing, but I don't know what it is foretelling.
Then we got the story about Betonie's weird family. His grandather was a medicine man who took a Mexican girl for his wife, and they started changing ceremonies together (I still think it's weird that he decided to take a random Mexican girl into his home). Is the Mexican girl a witch child, like the boy that lived with the bears? There is evidence to the contrary (i.e. she was clothed and spoke Spanish), but her strange behavior around the hunters, and the fact she was hiding in a tree at night, makes me wonder about her unexplained origins. Anyway, the significant part of the story is that the Mexican girl started changing the Indian's ceremonies. "She had come for his ceremonies, for the chants and the stories they grew from. 'This is the only was,' she told him. 'It cannot be done alone. We must have power from everywhere. Even the power we can get from the whites.'" (150).
The passage ends with an introduction to the character Helen Jean, an Indian girl who has become an impromptu prostitute. I was always wondering why the book didn't mention Indian girls; I guess this is one, but it sure does seem like the only woman on the reservation is Auntie.
Finally, it seems like, according to Betonie, the world is a cosmic battleground where the hordes of whites and their witchery do battle against the Indians and their righteous medicine. Doesn't this seem really racist? Why does it have to be an us versus them? Everybody's an American; they're really all the same. So why are the Indians always blaming white folks for their problems?