The Ancient Child by N. Scott Momaday

"The Ancient Child" by N. Scott Momaday, copyright 1934, ISBN 0-385-27972-8, and published through Doubleday, is a story about the crisis of identity and one man’s struggle to discover his true self. Written as four books, "The Ancient Child" explores the undeniable tie to identity and the discovery of how the soul truly exists. Through dreams, visions, myths, dialogue, and thought processes the reader begins to discern the true nature of the main characters and their acquisition and acceptance of their true identity.

The story focuses on Set, a middle-aged artist living in San Francisco. Born as a Kiowa Indian, Set was adopted by a white family and moved away from the reservation. As an older man, Set finds himself losing his identity to demanding patrons and losing the integrity of his soul by bending to their every will. After the death of his grandmother, Set returns to the reservation in Oklahoma where he meets the very young and beautiful medicine woman, Grey. Grey is a free spirit that possesses a calm and wise-beyond-her-years demeanor. Often ensnared by dreams of the notorious Billy the Kid, Grey finds herself struggling to find satisfaction and purpose in her own life. Together, Set and Grey set off to reconnect with something they had lost along the way. Set suffers a mental breakdown after returning to San Francisco and is returned to Grey, who teaches him to embrace his true nature as the bear and accept his Kiowa existence (Momaday).

The story couples myth and reality as way of juxtaposing the different societies, Native American vs. Western. Also, through the use of distinct dialogical differences the reader can further gather where a character is heralding from and how they tie their identity to their homeland. In the case of Grey, she possesses one dialect when with her Kiowa family, and another when she’s with her mother and the Navajo’s.

"The Ancient Child" is truly a masterful work that combines the sweet poetic language of a dream world with ruthless punches of reality to create a story that can resound through the hearts of readers across generational and cultural boundaries. Through the use of Spanish, Navajo, and Kiowa words and phrases, the reader becomes embroiled in the world of Momaday and the depth of the lives of these struggling characters. The beauty of the world that surrounds these characters is often eclipsed by their desperation for a true and whole identity and the harshness of their realities. Delicately portrayed and profoundly thought provoking, "The Ancient Child" is truly a work of art.

Momaday, N. Scott. "The Ancient Child." New York: Doubleday, 1934.

Galena and the Footsteps of Ghosts

I come from a very small town where nothing ever happens and the town is still frozen in the early 1900's era. The buildings are all standing still, waiting for their old builders and inhabitants to return. The house of Ulysses S. Grant is still decorated and open for the public to gawk at. But there was a time when Galena was the hub of Illinois. It rivaled Chicago in size and it was a toss up between which of the two would take the ultimate precedence in the state. Before the river silted in, Galena was the place where everything happened and the people who were searching for the right people or just the right opportunities flocked. One of these people was a Native American, Seneca to be exact, named Ely S. Parker. When Parker came to Galena he was a newly graduated Civil Engineer and Grand Sachem of the Seneca's. He was perpetually searching for those cultural boundaries that laid (and still to lie) between the white Americans and the Native Americans and fighting to ease the conflict between them. Parker came to Galena to build, to add to the splendor and help it thrive and ripen past that of Chicago. He built the Custom's House (today the Post Office) and the U.S. Marine Hospital. From the pictures that exist from Parker's time in Galena (shortly before the break out of the Civil War) the town looks very much the same as it does today, minus the steamboats jostling along the river front. The Custom's House still stands and in fact, I was just parked right in front of it about a week ago. It's incredible, really, to see my little town as a hub of activity and the center stone of ideas. Parker and Grant met in Galena and become friends, holding a bond all through the Civil War and long after Grant's run as President of the United States. As I walked down the streets of Galena, I couldn't help but feel in awe of what this now stagnant town had once meant to the country. Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in the town, the building and it's porch still there. Grant lived there with his family before the Civil War and before becoming President. Ely S. Parker discovered the full depths of his purpose and the extent to which he could help his people. It's easy to walk through town, when you're a local, and forget the history and the excitement. It's simple to see the town as a tourist center, with nothing really left to offer besides trinkets and crumbling buildings. But the truth is that Galena still rings with the beats of those in the past. Despite the men and women being gone, their homes and creations still harbor solidly in our streets. I don't get homesick very often but there's something about Galena that can always bring you back. It may be that America, such a young country in the consideration of the rest of the world, is not so young in Galena. We're reminded, every day, in Galena that footsteps belonging to the ghosts of the past are still hammering through the streets. We exist side-by-side in the hopes of never forgetting where we came from and who has fought to structure our world.

Oral Storytelling and Speeches

When I first started Native American Literature's and Cultures class, I was extremely nervous about the prospect of giving several speeches throughout the semester. My mind in denial, I couldn't see the need to give speeches. I'm an English major, give me pen and paper and I'll write you as much as you want on any subject. But public speaking is definitely not my medium. However, as the semester has progressed, I've discovered something new about giving speeches. In Native American cultures, much of their story telling exists orally. They may write some things down, but when it's written, there's always the idea that it will freeze, and resist change, eventually losing its relevancy and fading out. At first I found this hard to believe. It seems that it would be easier to lose something that is only committed to a few people's memories. But maybe this isn't so. In the Medieval era, most storytelling was oral across the cultures. When the first stories were written down, there was also a plethora of stories circling around their new found fragility. When we write a story down, we allow our memories so ease and thus we retain less of the story line and words. It isn't necessary to memorize a story if you can just pick it up and review it when needed. But many manuscripts from this time have been lost to termites, fire, and other sorts of destruction. So while we depend so strongly on written storytelling, there seems to be a number of ways to lose it.

In relation to speeches, this made me think for a minute. I love to write. It's my best form of communication and the most enjoyable. But perhaps there is something important to learn from speaking out loud. On the paper, words are just words. They hold no body language or connotation, they leave a lot of the tone up to the reader. This, however, is not always ideal. While I hope that my stories can apply to a number of different people and inspire the minds of those from all different walks of life, there things that are just never meant to be altered. Though I'm scared to death to get in front of the class and talk, I can see that it relates in an important way to the different modes of storytelling. I'm still telling my story, but this time so that the audience can also see and hear what I feel and mean behind each little word and expression. It's really rather more exciting to look at it this way... and a little less nerve racking.

The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions by Paula Gunn Allen

Paula Gunn Allen’s The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions is compilation of essay’s that discuss topics ranging from Native American mythology and origin stories to feminism to spiritual identity and balance. Broken down into three major sections, the book works in a cyclical nature to continually remind us about the importance of the Native American gynocentric cultures and to reinforce the identity of the Native American communities. The first section, “The Ways of our Grandmothers” discusses the importance of women in Native American cultures and the expression of this importance in the origin stories of different nations. The second section, “The Word Warriors” focuses on the different methods of story telling, in particular oral story telling, several major themes of Native American literatures, and the importance of stories to Native American cultures. As an example, Allen discusses the importance of spirituality and how stories unite as well as identify with the people of that culture. She discusses the importance of lore and compares several Western literary traditions to those of several prominent Native American writers. The third section, “Pushing up the Sky” brings together female roles, spirituality, and identity to bring forth the ideas of social identity, gender roles, and Native American feminism. Through a comparative exercise, she explains the differences of gender identification and societal views in Western and Native American cultures.

Overall, the book was an eye-opener. It challenges typical Western views of female roles, literature, gender identity, and Native American cultures in general. Allen focuses on the gynocentric methods typical of Native American cultures but also employs Western comparative strategies so as to bring a non-Native American reader into closer relation with the text. She most effectively uses this method while discussing gender roles within Native American communities and the Westerner’s fear of gender bending and overall homophobia. Allen successfully portrays the acceptance of personal identification and the importance of being in tune with the bodies true desires. Native American cultures will assign societal roles based on a person’s social gender identity, rather than their biological make-up, an idea that Western cultures are yet to grasp.

Paula Gunn Allen is seeking to challenge our ideas of Western cultures and our views of Native American cultures. She’s establishing the voices of Native Americans and in particular Native American women. By gathering different author’s and their essays into one collective text, Allen effectively argues for Native American identity and the American Indian’s rights as individual, unique, and strong systems of government and cultures.

If you’re searching for the book that will challenge your ideas and open your mind to another mode of thinking, then The Sacred Hoop is definitely a perfect choice. Allen’s unique approach to the arguments presented in this text are profound and well-thought out. It leaves the reader thinking long after you’ve finished. It’s a wonderful collection of culture and identity and definitely worth the read.

Winnemucca

In Western culture, we are used to looking through a lens at cultures that we may not understand or that we know little about. It becomes a challenge for the people with stifled voices to be heard and the dominant culture, or colonizing culture, is content with slapping stereotypes and broad ideas to the cultures that are being shut out. For many people, this is not a situation that they are content with. Throughout history, the voices of those being dominated have screamed out and reminded the world that they are still here and active and will be heard. For the Native Americans, and specifically the Paiutes, Sarah Winnemucca is one of those triumphant voices. As a public speaker, translator, writer, and orator, Winnemucca has ingrained herself in history and in the memories of both Native Americans and Westerners.

Winnemucca took the path less travelled and joined her brother and father (Chief of the Paiute tribe) in the fight for freedom and justice from the imposition of Western culture. She occupied a role dominantly held by men and brought attention to her people, transporting them to one of the most famous tribes in Native American history. I found her fascinating because she found herself in a position of those most unheard. As a Native American and a woman in the 19th century, Winnemucca had to fight harder than most to make her voice heard. She found herself embroiled in one of the first great waves of feminism and helped people to understand that a difficult truth is better than a simple stereotype. Winnemucca reached out to those that would give her a chance, which was an ingenious move. Elizabeth Peabody, a leader in the feminist movement, became an ally of Winnemucca and helped her to find a place in history. The alliance with Peabody was a very intelligent move as it provided Winnemucca with a platform and a strong base of women and men that were already involved with the feminist movement and thus supported the humanist cause (Zanjani).

By the end of Winnemucca's life, she had gained the respect of thousands of people. Her father, the chief of her tribe, said that "none of us are worthy of being chief but her" (Zanjani 1). This is a powerful sentiment and displays the impact and power that Winnemucca brought to the fight for Native American justice.

Zanjani, Sally. Sarah Winnemucca. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.

Manoomin

Manoomin, or Wild Rice, is a staple of Anishinaabeg culture. It is believed that wild rice was given to the Anishinaabeg people by a spiritual entity. The Creator told the people that their migration West would be over when they came upon the "food which grows upon the water" (LaDuke). And indeed it was. Wild rice has become a community tie. The activity of harvesting the rice brings the people together and creates a firm sense of community and tradition that is purely Ojibwe (savewildrice.org). The Anishinaabeg people see wild rice as more than just sustenance (which is wild rice's major role), they see it as a spiritual food, one that feeds the soul (savewildrice.org).

The Anishinaabeg draw a major part of their identity from the harvesting and consumption of wild rice. The myths and legends of wild rice go back in their history to more than a 1000 years ago (savewildrice.org). One myth is about a man who failed to kill a deer during his hunt. In his dismay, he returned to his campsite and found a duck sitting on him black cooking kettle. He approached the duck and it flew away. Looking into the pot, he saw the rice floating in it, but didn't yet know what it was. He ate the soup and loved it so much that he followed the path the duck had taken and found a lake full of the rice. He saw all the birds that were eating the rice and knew that if he ever failed again to kill a deer, he could still find food for his family (savewildrice.org). The fact that this story exists displays the importance of this food to the Anishinaabeg people.

Wild rice, or manoomin, is an important element in Ojibwe people's survival and cultural identity. They see the wild rice as a food that is uniquely their's (LaDuke). For hundreds of years, manoomin has been intertwined with their everyday lives, from the harvesting season to the survival in harsh winters. It's a gathering point for the community and a tie to their ancestral past.

LaDuke, Winona. Manoomin Wild Rice, Biodiversity and Bio Piracy. 2003. 7 March 2009. ibrary/uploadedfiles/ISSUE_BRIEF_Manoomin_Wild_Rice_Biodiversity_an.
doc+manoomin&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us>.

Save Wild Rice "Anishinaabeg Culture and the History of Manoomin." 2005. Savewildrice.org. 7 March 2009. <http://www.savewildrice.org/history>.