The Kiowa tribe is a small, nomadic group of Plains Indians residing in the American southwest. N. Scott Momaday, the author of The Way to Rainy Mountain, is a member of the Kiowa tribe. His family has been a part of the tribe for generations (McNamara, 1). Momaday divides his story into three sections: The Setting Out, The Going On, and The Closing In. Each section tells a different part of tribe’s history. Within each section, Momaday utilizes three voices to help tell the story of his tribe. He first presents the voice of the tribal folklore. The legends and myths presented in this segment may or may not be completely true, but they are a way for the Kiowa people to describe the nature of the world around them. This is seen throughout
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He begins the book by telling the story of the Kiowa creation myth. In this tale, the Kiowa people emerge to the world through a hollow log. During this process, a pregnant woman gets stuck in the log. This prevents anymore Kiowa from entering the world. That is why the Kiowa is a small tribe (Momaday, 219). Again, this story is probably not widely believed even across the Kiowa culture at this point in time, but it is used to justify why there are not many members of the Kiowa tribe. The historical voice of this particular segment discusses the origin of the former names of the Kiowa tribe. Initially, they were called the Kwuda and the Tepda, both meaning “coming out” (Momaday, 224). This demonstrates the importance of tradition and spoken language to the Kiowa people. It shows how the Kiowa people weave their religious beliefs of the creation story into the name of their …show more content…
He uses a series of stories to depict the vanishing of the buffalo and the incursion of Whites and their Anglo-American values onto native lands. The tales of this section focus on sacrifice, defeat, and death. One of the most poignant stories of this section focuses on Momaday’s grandfather, Mammedaty. According to the story, Mammedaty was trying to get a group of horses out of a pasture. One horse in particular refused to cooperate and led the other horses astray. Mammedaty lost his temper and fired an arrow toward the horse. The arrow missed and killed an obedient horse behind the troublemaker (Momaday, 653-658). Mammedaty was trying to forcefully control wild animals. This is characteristic of white culture, but is less common in native cultures. Traditionally, Native American cultures recognize the importance of balance in nature. In most cases, they do not have formal ownership over animals. They allow the animals to remain somewhat wild. Mammedaty strayed from this practice. He also let his anger get the best of him. His punishment for straying from the religious and cultural ways of the Kiowa was the death of a good horse at his
He begins the book by telling the story of the Kiowa creation myth. In this tale, the Kiowa people emerge to the world through a hollow log. During this process, a pregnant woman gets stuck in the log. This prevents anymore Kiowa from entering the world. That is why the Kiowa is a small tribe (Momaday, 219). Again, this story is probably not widely believed even across the Kiowa culture at this point in time, but it is used to justify why there are not many members of the Kiowa tribe. The historical voice of this particular segment discusses the origin of the former names of the Kiowa tribe. Initially, they were called the Kwuda and the Tepda, both meaning “coming out” (Momaday, 224). This demonstrates the importance of tradition and spoken language to the Kiowa people. It shows how the Kiowa people weave their religious beliefs of the creation story into the name of their …show more content…
He uses a series of stories to depict the vanishing of the buffalo and the incursion of Whites and their Anglo-American values onto native lands. The tales of this section focus on sacrifice, defeat, and death. One of the most poignant stories of this section focuses on Momaday’s grandfather, Mammedaty. According to the story, Mammedaty was trying to get a group of horses out of a pasture. One horse in particular refused to cooperate and led the other horses astray. Mammedaty lost his temper and fired an arrow toward the horse. The arrow missed and killed an obedient horse behind the troublemaker (Momaday, 653-658). Mammedaty was trying to forcefully control wild animals. This is characteristic of white culture, but is less common in native cultures. Traditionally, Native American cultures recognize the importance of balance in nature. In most cases, they do not have formal ownership over animals. They allow the animals to remain somewhat wild. Mammedaty strayed from this practice. He also let his anger get the best of him. His punishment for straying from the religious and cultural ways of the Kiowa was the death of a good horse at his