From the start, the relationship between humans and douen bears strong overtones of real-life race relations. Characteristic of both white-black and European-Native American relations are played out, although in each case the analogy is imperfect. Both are represented by the quick judgment by humans that the douen are inferior. Antonio, for example, starts out his relationship with Chichibud by calling the latter a beast, to which he responds "Oonuh tallpeople quick to name what is people and what is beast." (92) This is certainly reminiscient of justifications for slavery, which tended to emphasize the inferiority and essential inhumanity of the slaves. Similarly, the subjugation of Native Americans was freqently justified by essentially racist ideas like manifest destiny, which was based on the presumption that land was the white man's to do with as he wished. The humans at the first settlement have similar ideas, as they expect duoen to call them "boss" and laugh at the idea of calling them Compere (which I assume is a term of respect, like 'sir,' although I'm not really sure).
The duoen are clearly fearful of this type of human attitude, as Chichibud reveals right after Tan-Tan stmbles upon the foundry: "Tan-Tan, if douens don't learn tallpeople tricks, oonuh will use them 'pon we...we see how allyou does act, even towards your own." (230-231) Here, though, is where the parallels fade a little. Unlike Africans, the duoen are not being taken from their homes to live in a society dominated by another race. Unlike Native Americans, they are not being invaded by an organized enemy. The humans come in one by one or in small groups, apparently with only what they can carry. There is no threat of a mass migration - no one on the other side of the portal would want to cross. It is unclear exactly how numerous the duoen are, but one has to assume that they vastly outnumber the humans. Additionally, they have taken the extremely prescient step of trading for knowledge as much as for goods. They trade for human artifacts, but they use them to learn as much as for their value as tools. To make a long story short, the duoen appear to be well on their way to winningany encounter with humans, misadventures at their papa tree notwithstanding (there, they seemed handicapped as much by their desire to avoid killing humans as by weakness). I would love to read a sequel to this novel merely to see how this situation develops, and how the human assumption of superiority fails when presented with experience to the contrary.