An An Introduction to Introduction to

Native Native American American

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Composition & NovelComposition & Novel

Mrs. LutesMrs. Lutes

Native American LiteraturesNative American Literatures

American Literature did not begin with Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, or Emily Dickinson. It began many years before with the deep tradition of oral storytelling that existed within over

400 Indigenous American nations.

Our class will chart the evolution of our national literature and cultural identity. Themes and values to be found in Native American stories, whether traditional oral stories or contemporary written literature, have profoundly influenced who we are today.

HistoricalHistorical & Cultural& Cultural ContextContext

We will immerse ourselves in stories of the Great Plains tribes—primarily Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, and Lakota.

• The peoples of the Great Plains were nomadic tribes who hunted American bison for their survival.

• The buffalo provided them with all of their needs—food, tools, housing, clothing, utensils, etc.

• Native Americans praised the buffalo and performed a sacred ceremony honoring its spirit before hunting it.

• They lived in tepees, which could easily be disassembled, in order to follow the buffalo’s migration.

• “Dog days” is a term used to describe the time before European contact—before horses were introduced to their culture. The Great Plains peoples had an affectionate relationship with the domesticated dog; it helped them hunt and relocate.

• Since the days of the dogs were before European contact, Natives refer to this time as a reflection of their true history, their true culture--a time when their culture flourished before its systematic destruction was instituted by the United States government.

• The first contact between Europeans and Plains Natives came in 1540 when Spaniards came to the Great Plains looking for gold.

• Thousands of people from many

nations, including the United States, continued to infiltrate tribal lands hoping to profit by means of fur trading and ranching.

• Once explorers and settlers decided to stay and start building the natives could do nothing although they usually tried to fight back.

• The settlers flagrant ways and intruding methods of desecrating the land came as a huge blow to the Native Americans.

• The Europeans also brought disease that natives were never exposed to before, which brought actual physical desecration to their people.

• Over time (hundreds of years) land was progressively taken away from them and they were not only robbed of their sacred land and the traditions it embodied for them, but they were forced into assimilating into the emerging European-American culture.

Natives had a completely different set of values and traditions:

• Whereas the European world believed in the medieval “Great Chain of Being” concept, with God at the top and animals at the bottom, Plains Indian cultures believed that “all have an equal place on the Sacred Hoop, the circle of life, and all have spirit.” Since the Great Spirit, or Grandfather, created everything, all is sacred. This means that people, animals, plants, water, wind, the sun, rocks, etc. were all perceived to contain sacred spirit, truth, personality, and knowledge.

Native ValuesNative Values

• Man’s survival was perceived to be based on a respectful relationship with the world around you. “Individuals are responsible for working toward a sense of harmony and balance with all creation.” This implies that man has a humble responsibility and not a superiority over anything. Many Native Americans tried to achieve peace with those that infiltrated their lands and did not fight back in order to honor the principle that we are all brothers born of the Great Spirit. They viewed the earth as sacred, holy, the Mother of all, and therefore had a deep respect and reverence for it. They never used more than they needed and they never wasted anything.

• “Western Europeans frequently define power in economic, historical, and political terms; it is the force by which individuals impose their will upon others. This power is frequently viewed negatively, especially today when many people regard powerful institutions as corrupt and evil. By contrast, Native power may be described as a benevolent living force that circulates through human beings so all life in this world might continue.”

• Native power is seen to be connected to word and thought; therefore, Native peoples place great value on their choice and use of words.

• Survival was a cooperative effort. The needs of the community were regarded more highly than the needs of an individual. Respected members of a tribe were ones who were motivated by community rather than

individual freedom or wealth.

• Prayer and spiritual ceremony influenced all aspects of daily life.

• A person’s choices were seen as integral to his/her spiritual journey; therefore, noninterference was valued, especially with respect to education. Rather than imposing their will on others, Native peoples have traditionally used story to educate their children and indirectly communicate their values to others.

• In Western European tradition, nature and animals are often used as a symbol whereby the symbol stands for something greater than itself. In Native American tradition, the symbol is “as valid and important as the reality it represents.”

Oral TraditionOral Tradition

• Long before European explorers came to North America, Native Americans had a rich literary tradition of their own. Their stories, histories, and legends were shared and preserved through oral tradition. The storyteller is one whose spirit is indispensable to the people.

• Although Native Americans spoke hundreds of different languages and lived in incredibly diverse societies with varied mythological beliefs, their literary traditions share the following elements:

Geri Keams—Navajo storyteller / author/ actor

• Many tribes lacked a written language. They believed in the power of words and they relied on memory, rather than writing to preserve their texts. In this regard, these stories are not defined by the boundaries of written language; there are no ending pages and they are not contained within a limited, concrete, physical source.

• There is no known original author.

• Stories acted as unifying factors. They brought listeners into harmony and balance with the entire community. Children learned to practice the social and spiritual ways of the elders. In this way, stories actually defined the community, the people as a whole; this was the sacred nature of story. This is why stories were perceived to belong to the collective tribe, and why many Native Americans believe that “something is lost when the stories leave our community.”

• The oral tradition was a performance and is offered to the audience as dramatic events in time.

• Yet, the audience is not passive and has a role in bringing out the story.

• The storyteller is very important to culture and is one of the most honored and respected members of the tribe/society.

• The relationship between the storyteller and the audience is established through: voice emphasis, gestures, use of space, eye contact, and the audience can be representative of the characters in the story.

• These stories are open to personal interpretation.

These oral stories include the following types of texts:

• cultural information (beliefs about social order and appropriate behavior)

• historical accounts including migrations (how people got to where they are)

• lessons describe how and why things are the way they are

• creation stories and the origins of societies (beliefs about the nature of the physical world)

• legends which include exploits of their heroes

• traditions, religious beliefs, ceremonies, dreamsongs, shamanic chants, naming chants and blessings

(beliefs about human nature and the problem of good and evil)

• trickster tales featuring a trickster figure who was any combination of the following descriptions: rule-breaker, malicious, cunning, foolish, chaos-causing, shape and gender shifting (a famous example is Kokopelli who was a Hopi flute player symbolic of happiness, joy, and fertility)

• instructions from spirit mentors and explanations on how to conduct ceremonies

• descriptions of natural processes such as water cycles, inter-species relationships, life cycles of plants, earth movements, and soil types

• oral maps for travel which describe historic and ongoing migrations of tribe for subsistence and holy journeys

• magical tales of transformation which articulate the mystery and complexity of being human

• adventures in love, romance, and marriage

While oral stories are meant to be passed down through generations verbally, it is important to remember that written transcripts are not exactly representative of the oral performance. But a translation/transcription of the stories is the closest we can come to sharing the Native American culture and tradition.

These oral stories were chanted, spoken, sung, and repeated over and over until embedded into the memories of the next generations. The Native American oral tradition was the only way to pass on tribal history, heritage, and cultural practices. In order to continue hundreds of years of a tribe’s history the young must listen and remember the stories the elders tell and then pass them on.

Dovie Thomason, Kiowa storyteller

Recurring Motifs in Native Recurring Motifs in Native American Literatures:American Literatures:

• respect for the interdependent relationship between humans, animals, and things of the earth

• respect and reverence for mother earth and natural elements

• the reality and power of dreams and visions

• community as sovereign to the individual; the values of wisdom, courage, bravery, respect and compassion for others, personal sacrifice, humility, and commitment to relatives and to the community

• the significance of the circle: cyclical patterns of renewal and continuance

• the real presence of ancestors and the importance of memory, tribal traditions, and history or “the old way”– a common experience of living value

• the sacred nature of children and respect for the wisdom of elders

• the importance of play and humor

• the value of the artist to a community

• the value of using ingenuity to solve problems

• the value of creating well-being among all people and being responsible for preserving the life of the people

• the value of stories, the way they are linked to the landscape, and the way they remain the substance and life of the people

• an appreciation for the consequences of foolish and self-indulgent behaior, disobedience, pride, jealousy, anger, competitiveness, and excess

• the importance of gratitude and ceremony and “returning the gifts”

• the importance of being satisfied with who we are, what we have, and what we can do

• the importance of being wise and cautious

• the importance of understanding the ways conflicts must be resolved before people can live at peace with one another

• the importance of an intimate and vital relationship between young people and their elders

• the importance of the spiritual connections among all aspects of life

• the importance of being a unique individual while maintaining a responsibility for the community

KiowaKiowa• The Kiowa are a nation that chart their ancestral

lands to the headwaters of the Yellowstone River in Montana.

• They migrated south for centuries until their eventual settlement in Oklahoma.

• The Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 established the reservation in Oklahoma to which Kiowa were confined after the Red River War of 1875. This treaty was a failure in that the government failed to supply the Kiowa people with basic necessities such as food. Their movement, trade, and worship were restricted, and the Kiowa lived a life of poverty. The Kiowa now live on allotted lands.

• The Kiowa Tribal Council currently overlooks all business related to health, education, and economic programs for the Kiowa nation. Cultural revitalization efforts include classes in the Kiowa-Tanoan language.

Kiowa Sun DanceKiowa Sun Dance• Perhaps the most significant ritual of Kiowa culture for hundreds of years was the Sun

Dance—a religious and ceremonial communal gathering held near the summer solstice.

• This gathering involved at least six days of preparations and four days of festivities.

• The event allowed reunion with friends and relatives, communication of news, healing, and spiritual self-renewal.

• Central to the Sun Dance is Tai-me, the most sacred object to the Kiowa people. It is a small figure decorated with fur and feathers. The Tai-me should be viewed with the same respect as other sacred relics so highly regarded by various cultures.

• The last Sun Dance, called the Oak Creek Sun Dance” was held above Rainy Mountain Creek in the summer of 1887. An attempted Sun Dance in 1890 was broken up by government officials who attempted to wipe out traditional Kiowa religious, ceremonial, and cultural practices.

• Although Sun Dance ceremonies were outlawed by the U.S. government, along with all other traditional Indian religious practices, the Kiowa nation has retained some of its cultural elements. (The Indian Religious Freedom Act was not passed until 1978.)

N. Scott MomadayN. Scott Momaday

• Native American literature finally gained recognition when N. Scott Momaday, an unknown Kiowa Indian writer, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969 for his first novel, The House Made of Dawn.

• Navarro Scott Momaday was born February 27th, 1934 in Lawton Oklahoma—Kiowa country in southwestern Oklahoma—and he lived the first year of his life with his grandparents on a Kiowa reservation.

• His father was Kiowa and his mother was a blend of Cherokee and English heritage.

• Momaday’s father was a painter and his mother was an author of children’s books, and they both worked as teachers on reservations.

• His family moved frequently among reservations and pueblos of the Southwest which allowed him frequent contact with many cultures including Navajo, Apache, Pueblo, Hispanic, and Anglo.

• In fact, Momaday has stated that his childhood experiences sparked his interest in Kiowa, Navajo, Jemes Pueblo, Spanish, and English words. He fell in love with poetry at a very young age.

N. Scott Momaday's parents, Alfred and Natachee, about the time of their marriage in 1933. →

N. Scott Momaday

→

• Momaday received a B.A. in political science at the University of New Mexico and an M.A and Ph.D. in English from Stanford University.

• He has taught at University of California, Santa Barbara; University of California, Berkley; Stanford University; and the University of Arizona.

• Along with the Pulitzer Prize, he has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Academy of American Poets Prize.

• He was elected into the Kiowa Gourd Clan.

• In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded him the National Medal of the Arts, “for his writings and his work that celebrate and preserve Native American art and oral traditions.”

• The Way to Rainy Mountain is Momaday’s favorite book.

• It cannot be defined in terms of genre. It is a collection of Kiowa tribal and family stories as well as personal memories of Kiowa landscape and people. It is also an autobiographical memoir written as Momaday retraced the journey that his Kiowa ancestors took from their beginnings in Montana through their surrender to the U.S. Cavalry at Fort Sill and their resettlement near Rainy Mountain, Oklahoma.

• It also contains two original poems by Momaday: “Headwaters” and “Rainy Mountain Cemetery.”

“In The Way to Rainy Mountain, N.Scott Momaday links the survival of the Kiowa people to their ability to remember, preserve, and pass on stories. Taking the idea one step further, Momaday models the necessity of personal involvement in the stories. For Momaday, to make sense of and find a place in the contemporary world, one must connect on a personal level with the stories of one’s past.”

↑ N. Scott Momaday's grandfather,

Mammedaty.

N. Scott Momaday's great uncle Pohd-Lohk. N. Scott Momaday's grandmother, Aho.

Guipagho the Elder, called Lone Wolf. N. Scott Momaday's great-great grandfather.

I.J. Galyen, N. Scott Momaday's great-great grandfather on his mother's side. He

married the Cherokee woman, Natachee.

Five generations. Clockwise, from left: N. Scott Momaday's great-grandmother (Keahdinekeah), grandfather (Mamedaty), great-great grandmother (Kau-au-ointy) and aunt (Clara) with her son (Marland).

What is Rainy Mountain?What is Rainy Mountain?

• Rainy Mountain in Oklahoma was a favored winter camp for many Plains tribes.

• It is an ancient Kiowa landmark that represents their final destination, their sacred homeland.

What is Devil’s Tower?What is Devil’s Tower?• Devil’s Tower, an almost vertical rock tower in the northeast corner of Wyoming, has been a sacred place for many American Indians for centuries.

• It was formed through the process of erosion, which stripped away softer rock and left the core, standing over 1,200 feet high.

• Some Native American tribes call it Bear’s Lodge, and the story Momaday tells in The Way to Rainy Mountain reflects this name.

• The monolith has been an object of controversy in recent years, as the National Park Service has tried to restrict its use for recreational climbing during June, when it is most frequently used as a religious site by Native Americans. An article in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, “Cultural Conflicts Regarding Land Use: The Conflict Between Recreational Users at Devil’s Tower and Native American Ceremonial Users,” contains an interesting review of the controversy, including a quotation from Momaday (http://www.vjel.org/articles/articles/dussias.html.) Incidentally, this site was used in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

What is a Vision Quest?What is a Vision Quest?• A vision quest is a journey undertaken, usually to a sacred site or remote area, in

order to pray for spiritual guidance or direction in life. The quest usually lasts four to six days and is marked by ritual purification and fasting. For some tribes, such a quest marked the passage to adulthood for adolescents.

• Vine Deloria, in God is Red: A Native View of Religion, explains:

The vision quest of many of the tribes is primarily an individual responsibility. The person fasting and praying must remain open and keenly aware that he might be chosen by the Great Mystery as a holy person, as a great and heroic warrior, as one cursed with a handicap, or have any number of other vocational responsibilities. Depending on the tribe and its traditions, the vision quest may be a relatively short-term experience. It may indicate nothing at all. Or it may require the most arduous type of life, requiring the greatest of personal sacrifices.

• In Kiowa tradition, a powerful force could be transferred to humans through a vision quest.

Native American WisdomNative American Wisdom

• “The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as was…The earth and myself are of one mind.” --Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

• “All things are connected…Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth…This we know. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself. --Chief Seattle Chief Joseph

• “The Earth our Mother is holy and should be treated as such…all forms of life are our brothers and sisters and have to be respected…Life is a holy, sacred experience…we must live our lives as a religion, that is, with a constant concern for spiritual relationships and values…we must live lives that bring forth both physical and spiritual beauty. All life has the potentiality of bringing forth Beauty and Harmony, but [humans] in particular [have] also the ability to bring forth ugliness and disharmony.” --Forbes

Slow Bull - Sioux Medicine Man, 1907

• “You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain, and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion. Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round.

Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the Nation’s hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.” --Black Elk, Oglala Sioux Holy Man, 1863-1950

• “Plants are thought to be alive, their juice is their blood, and they grow. The same is true of trees. All things die, therefore all things have life. Because all things have life, gifts have to be given to all things.”

--William Ralganal Benson, Pomo

• “This rock did not come here by itself. This tree did not come here by itself. There is one who made all of this, Who shows us everything.”

--YukiBlack Elk

• “The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of the forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the land that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers; he belongs just as the buffalo belongs.” --Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux Chief

Works CitedWorks CitedKracht, Benjamin R. “Kiowa.” Oklahoma Historical Society’s Encyclopedia of OklahomaHistory &

Culture. 26 June 2009 <http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/html>.

Mattingly, Eileen M., and Lita Nicholson. The Way to Rainy Mountain/The Whale Rider Curriculum

Unit. The Center for Learning, 2008.

Nye, Lieut. Wilbur S. (as related by George Hunt). “The Annual Sun Dance of the Kiowa Indians.”

Oklahoma Historical Society’s Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. Sept. 1934.

26 June 2009 <http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v012/v012p340.html>.

Susag, Dorothea M. Roots and Branches: A Resource of Native American Literature—Themes,

Lessons,and Bibliographies. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 1998.

The Native Americans: The People of the Great Plains. Dir. George Burdeau. TBS Productions,

Inc., 1994.