YA lit? Native American myth-based novel

[thenthsnowflake]

This book existed by 2003 at least; it was in my school library so it was probably published before then. I barely remember the plot except for a few incidents. The protagonist was a boy or man, and at some point he and his... girlfriend, I guess, made a deal with some kind of supernatural beings, who temporarily killed them by touching them over their hearts. I remember that at the very end, he was going to lead his people to live in "the world in the lake". The book was a small paperback, in English, in a school library in the USA.

I read this book a little too young to really understand it, and it's been haunting me. My thanks for helping me track it down to read it again with more age and experience.

EDIT: Through some more googling and exploring, I found the book. TThe book is "Anpao: an American Indian Odyssey" and is by Jamake Highwater (born Jackie Marks) who apparently claimed a Native American background he did not possess. Still glad to track down this weird mythic story.