As an historical work, all sides are treated with a great deal of empathy and neither side is portrayed as having any sort of "divine right". The native Americans are not portrayed as noble savages, nor are the easterners portrayed as conquering heroes. Instead Gear weaves a complex tapestry of motivation which illustrates the clash of cultures in a remarkably realistic fashion. Life is short and hard and failure is far more frequent than success in a story which seems to portray life beyond the frontier quite accurately.
You might remember Gear from the "People of the __________" series which he coauthored with Kathleen O'Neal Gear. These are quite good, but I found that the actual historical background used in "The Morning River" was a significant improvement over these earlier efforts. After ten books in that series, Gear is an extremely mature writer whose grasp of the value of detail has produced a fine work.
I feel obliged to point out that Richard and Willow will get together in the sequel to this book, "Coyote Summer". Although I haven't read it yet, I feel confident that the relationship will be handled in the same thoughtful manner as in this first book of the series.