What is the significance of Opal giving Charles a traditional burial? How does the story shift with the end of this chapter? Why do you suppose the author makes this choice?
Opal and Charles represent a generation that still felt strong connections with their ancestors, through their parents’ memories and their own… And so she acted on that connection in her ritual burial of Charles. Then she dies in childbirth; Vickie is adopted; the primary connection with her native heritage is broken. Vickie tries to forge one, in her relationships with the men who father her daughters, and in her friendship with Jackie, but those relationships don’t last. She has to turn to books to learn of Cheyenne history. The damage of forced assimilation has been done. Her children and grandchildren will struggle with the impact of this.
From Vickie on, the story thread seems to double back with each generation: we only learn of Opal’s fate from Vickie, we only learn of her children from their grandchildren. It is harder to piece together the continuity of the family story.
I think this is intentional, to give readers the sensation of struggling to understand where they came from that the characters experience. To help us feel how important connections are missing and must be pieced together—because it’s the story that matters, more than the DNA, to identify with one’s heritage.
The tradition harks back to the family’s and the tribe’s roots. The tradition of putting the body in the trees echoes placing him within the higher branches of a family tree. Then burying him after four days returns him to the roots, his roots. It’s a poignant metaphor.
The story shifts generationally and in tone with the end of this chapter. From here on, we’re in the urban setting of Oakland. As @JLPen77 says in their post above, the narrative depends on backstory from here on, with each character’s story being elucidated by the generation that follows that character. We are meant to sense the struggle to understand where their roots lie, and from where their traumas arise.
The description of Charles’ burial and end of chapter represented to me the end of the “old ways” embedded in the traditions of the people. There is sorrow that is felt by Opal but also the author suggests sorrow for the passing of a tradition(s).
I think she wanted him to have some type of ritual that was a part of his heritage. By hanging him high in the tree he is closer to his reward. Opal was giving Charles one last gift. Once Opal dies and Vickie is adopted, all connection to Charles’s heritage will be gone.