Leslie Marmon Silko--Ceremony (1977)

Silko’s first novel, it provides an alternative approach to history.  Unlike secular history, which takes an academic, scientific method approach, the kind of spiritual perspective of history which Silko utilizes instead requires initiation, is eschatological and millennial.  Ceremony takes place after World War II in the Laguna Pueblo, in the shadow of Mount Taylor.  Mount Taylor is significant to the tribe as it is the location of the emergence myths of many Southwest tribes, as it marks the spot where the first man and first woman emerged from previous worlds, and the access point for the next world.  Further, it is also the site of a uranium mine, signifying another kind of emergence place, as uranium represents a very real apocalyptic threat as well.

The main character, Tayo, a veteran of mixed ancestry returning from fighting against Japan in World War II. Returning to the poverty-stricken reservation at Laguna after a stint at the Los Angeles VA hospital, Tayo is recovering from battle fatigue, and is haunted by memories of his cousin, who died in the conflict when the two soldiers were forced to take part in the Bataan Death March of 1942. Seeking an escape from his pain, Tayo initially takes refuge in alcoholism. Gradually, helped by the mixed-blood shaman Betonie, he comes to a greater understanding of the world and his own place within it.

Ceremony has been called a Grail fiction, in that the hero overcomes a series of challenges to reach a specified goal; but this point of view has been criticized as Eurocentric, since it involves a Native American contextualizing backdrop, and not one based on European-American myths.  It dramatizes the conflicts felt by many Native Americans, especially those returning from war: what to do when traditional healing is not strong enough medicine to heal wounds caused by modern technology?  Is it possible for shamanistic traditions to change enough to address modern problems?  The novel itself is a form of modern medicine, as the novel not only tells the story of trauma, but in the fragmented, multi-model narrative style (which includes multiple points of view, poems, prayers, and mythic stories), it is able to not only convey the character’s traumatic experience but involve the reader more directly than a straight ahead narrative would.  In fact, by opening with an invocation and utilizing these different modes of narration, the novel itself invokes a sort of ceremony, which involves the reader in the very sort of “new medicine” it references.

M. Scott Momaday--House Made of Dawn (1968)

Winner of the Pulizer Prize in 1969, this novel is considered responsible for ushering in a renaissance of Native American writing.  Loosely based on real life experience on the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico, it centers around the story of Abel, who returns from World War II drunk and devastated.  He was raised by Francisco, a hunter who instilled in him the traditions of his people, but now suffers from a lame leg and old age.  Back from the war, Abel stabs and kills a white man, whom he thinks is a witch.  Abel is sent to prison for the murder; once he is out, he is befriended by Ben and the social worker Milly, who try to help him adjust to the world and work outside, though they are ultimately unsuccessful, as his drinking increases and he is beat up mercilessly, to the point of hospitalization.  Ultimately, Abel returns to his grandfather, who tell him stories; the novel ends with Abel running in the race of the dead, a ritual Francisco had told him about.  Francisco dies at the novel’s close.

I read Leslie Marmo Silko’s 1977 Ceremony before reading this novel, which was obviously a huge influence on Silko’s novel.  I ultimately prefer Silko’s book, which elaborates on the structural possibilities that House Made of Dawn works with, particularly the non-chronological structure and the inclusion of poetry and chant within the novel; both of these are the kind of initiative texts which function as a form of reader initiation in the very act of reading them.  House Made of Dawn calls attention to both the significance and limitations of language within its narrative, not only in incorporating poetic language, dreams, and myth, but also through direct consideration of language.  My favorite part of the novel was Tosamah’s sermon on the significance of “The Word” at the Holiness Pan-Indian Rescue Mission, as he acknowledges both that “in words and in language, and there only, [can one] have whole and consummate being” (83) as well as that the Apostle John had stumbled onto Truth when he wrote that “In the beginning was the Word,” but that he had “diluted and multiplied the Word, and words have begun to close in upon him” when he continued on that the Word was with God, and the Word was God (84).  This lecture speaks directly to the challenge of the novel, to convey ineffable experience through words.