The Way to Rainy Mountain was written in 1969 by Pulitzer Prize winning author N. Scott Momaday. The novel is about Scott Momaday's Kiowa ancestors and their journey from the Montana area to Fort Sill near Rainy Mountain, Oklahoma, where their surrender to the United States Cavalry took place. In The Way to Rainy Mountain, Momaday traces his ancestral roots back to the beginning of the Kiowa tribe while not only learning more about the Kiowa people but rediscovering himself and finding out what his true identity is. The death of his grandmother prompts Momaday to dig deeper into the background of his family. To better help him become closer with his ancestral roots, Momaday returns to Rainy Mountain to visit his recently deceased grandmother’s grave where the spirit of the Kiowa tribe was thought to be very strong. Scott Momaday’s grandmother was believed to be the last of the Kiowa’s; with her death came the death of the Kiowa culture. Momaday wouldn’t let such a spiritual people who meant so much to him be forgotten so he created The Way to Rainy Mountain with this motivation. As Momaday works through each of the Kiowa’s mythical stories, he begins to learn a lot about his ancestors and, in turn, about himself. After reading the novel, it is evident to the reader that from beginning to end, Momaday has grown tremendously and has an increased sense of knowledge and appreciation for his Kiowa ancestors and their spiritual way of life. While Scott Momaday’s was creating his world renowned novel, The Way to Rainy Mountain, his relationship with past events greatly contributed to the overall meaning of the book in three major ways. During the novel, Momaday uses his recollections of the past to help understand Kiowa myths a...
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... journey to discover himself. I recommend people to read this book because it is the first book ever written in the circular time flow format which truly is an enjoyable roller coaster ride for the reader when being able to hear a myth, and then read what history proves really happened, and finally finish off with the narrators personal views on the topic; what an experience! This book greatly effected me for the better as I not only learned of the Kiowa’s almost-lost culture but like Momaday, I became more interested in my own roots and started to do some family research of my own!
Works Cited
BOOKRAGS STAFF. "The Way to Rainy Mountain: Characters". 2005. January 2 2010.
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Momaday, N. Scott. The Way to Rainy Mountain. New York: University of New
Mexico, 1977. Print.
When Jon Krakauer published a story about the death of a young man trekking into the Alaskan frontier in the January 1993 issue of Outside magazine, the audience’s response to Christopher McCandless’s story was overwhelming. Thousand of letters came flooding in as a response to the article. Despite the claims, especially from the native Alaskans, questioning McCandless’s mental stability and judgement, it soon becomes clear that McCandless was not just "another delusional visitor to the Alaskan frontier" (4). As Krakauer retells the life of Christopher McCandless and gives his own take on the controversy around McCandless’s death in Into The Wild, the reader also creates his own opinion on both McCandless and Krakauer’s argument. Krakauer
This book report deal with the Native American culture and how a girl named Taylor got away from what was expected of her as a part of her rural town in Pittman, Kentucky. She struggles along the way with her old beat up car and gets as far west as she can. Along the way she take care of an abandoned child which she found in the backseat of her car and decides to take care of her. She end up in a town outside Tucson and soon makes friends which she will consider family in the end.
In the world of Appalachia, stereotypes are abundant. There are stories told of mountaineers as lazy, bewildered, backward, and yet happy and complacent people. Mountain women are seen as diligent, strong, hard willed, and overall sturdy and weathered, bearing the burden of their male counterparts. These ideas of mountain life did not come out of thin air; they are the direct product of sensational nineteenth century media including print journalism and illustrative art that has continuously mislead and wrongfully represented the people of Appalachia. These stories, written and told by outsiders, served very little purpose to Appalachian natives other than means of humiliation and degradation. They served mostly to convince readers of the need for so-called civilized people and companies to take over the land and industry of the region, in particular the need for mineral rights, railroads, and logging as the mountain folk were wasting those valuable resources necessary for the common good.
When chief Sitting Bull and his people ran away from their native lands to Canada, they lost all the resources they had once relied on. This led to multiple deaths due to the lack of food, warmth, and much more. A little girl of the Sioux died due to hunger and the harsh weather. M...
I enjoyed reading Disciplined Hearts by Theresa O'Nell because i find that many people today do not know a lot about the Native American culture and what they have been through. Their cultures history is not talked about as much the African American or Hispanic's are. Most Americans know about the hardships that the African American and Hispanics had to overcome to assimilate to the level that they are today. I think O'Nell is trying to talk about the history of the Native American culture because, she believes that the reason that their culture is not well-known because of the fact that they have chosen to keep living like their ancestors and not assimilate to the American culture.
Brill, Marlene Targ. The Trail of Tears: The Cherokee Journey From Home. Brookfield, CN: Millbrook Press, 1995.
Another example of how important it is to listen to stories in order to understand the land is in The Way to Rainy Mountain when Momaday writes about how the storm spirit is so important to the Kiowa’s because it can understand their language while other people have a hard time understanding it. Momaday illustrates this point perfectly when he writes, "At times the plains are bright and calm and quiet; at times they are black with the sudden violence of weather. Always there are winds"(49). This quote shows the importance the wind plays in the culture of the Kiowa’s because it is so powerful and they can speak to the spirit of the storm and it will understand them anytime.
Native American literature from the Southeastern United States is deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the various tribes that have historically called that region home. While the tribes most integrally associated with the Southeastern U.S. in the American popular mind--the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole)--were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) from their ancestral territories in the American South, descendents of those tribes have created compelling literary works that have kept alive their tribal identities and histories by incorporating traditional themes and narrative elements. While reflecting profound awareness of the value of the Native American past, these literary works have also revealed knowing perspectives on the meaning of the modern world in the lives of contemporary Native Americans.
Ellis, Jerry. Walking the Trail: One Man's Journey along the Cherokee Trail of Tears. New
Perdue, Theda, and Michael Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Penguin Books, 2007. Print.
Overall, I enjoyed Lynda Shaffer’s novel Native Americans before 1492; The Moundbuilding Centers of the Eastern Woodlands. I enjoyed the layout of the text, and how she had an independent section on each moundbuilding. I especially liked how she had subsections in each chapter to give detailed analysis about multiple subjects, such as food, military, trade network, and the decline of each civilization. Shaffer tries to shed more attention on the Eastern North America people, which I think her book does exactly that. If anyone was to read this book, it would allow their minds to think about an entire world that existed for the Columbian voyages that we are not taught in school, which is what it exactly did for me.
Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, New York, Bantam Press,1970
The concept of discovery is a manifold notion. It comprises exploring something for the first time or it could be rediscovering something has been faded or lost, forgotten or concealed. People may experience different types of discovery which could be sudden and unexpected. However it may affect them physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. This response will focus on the idea discovery that relates to the themes of aboriginal connections to their family, place and culture and also the discrimination upon them. This well demonstrated thought the texts “Rainbow’s End” by Jane Harrison, the two poems “Son of Mine” and “We are going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal as well as my chosen related text, the film “One night the moon” by Rachel Perkins. Each text presents a variety of discovery aspects that allows a deep understanding of the concept of discovery.
While many people around the world look to America and see a better life waiting for them and the American Dream waiting to be lived, often times this dream never comes to fruition, even if they do reach America. Such is the case in the short story Grandma’s Tales, by Andrew Lam in which a recently deceased Vietnamese grandmother becomes reborn as a much younger and improved version of herself ready to live life to the fullest. This rebirth symbolizes the life that she wishes she lived, however due to constant conflict and famine in Vietnam, and her deteriorating health in America, was never able to do so. Instead of mourning this fact, in her final days the grandmother chooses to live her life through her granddaughters,
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...