The Way to Rainy Mountain

N. SCOTT MOMADAY

The Way to Rainy Mountain

Momaday Bio Information

N. Scott Momaday is of the Kiowa and Cherokee descent

He was born on February 27, 1934 in Lawton, Oklahoma.

His work “House made of Dawn” got the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969.

He received the National Medal of Arts from President George W. Bush in 2007.

He is considered as the founding father for the “Native American Renaissance”

Momaday Bio Information

Momaday’s Motto: “I simply kept my goal in mind and persisted. Perseverance is a large part of writing.”

He preserved Native American art and oral traditionAs a child growing up among various Indian tribes in

Arizona, Scott Momaday developed an appreciation for the healing power of stories and their words.

Momaday remained at Stanford to earn a master's and Ph.D. in English and continued to write fiction and poetry.

Later part of his life, N. Scott Momaday served as Regents Professor of English at the University of Arizona

The Culture of the Kiowas

Kiowas mean “The Principle People”They speak the Kiowa-Tanoan languageThe ancestors of this tribe were hunters and

gatherers who did not live in one area for a long time to grow crops

Their main form of shelter was the tipi or skin lodge

Are brave warriors who fought with other tribes near and far

Social, Cultural and Historical Aspects

In the essay “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” Momaday links back to his ancestry and home through his writing. It was written in 1967, an time during which his grandmother just passed away. She was the last living link to their ancestry in their family.

The time period (1873 to 1878) of this essay is between when the U.S. cavalry made the Natives flee to Oklahoma and how the Kiowas recreated their cultures.

The purpose of this essay is to preserve their culture, how they respected mother nature and abided by the “Go Green” principle.

Literary Criticism--Historical

Historical Criticism- Using literary works and the illustrations in order to gain insights into the periods they study.

Gardner states literary scholars read history books and various sorts of historical documents, from newspapers articles to personal letters to gain insights into the composition and significance of a given work.

Original location of the Kiowa tribe

Kiowa Tipi and Women

Rain and Sun Dance by the Kiowas

Applying Historical Criticism

The Kiowas respected nature and the land that they lived on, but when the U.S. Cavalry captured them and pushed them to one corner of Oklahoma, majority of their tribe died. From the people who survived, the U.S. army took away their way of living, and freedom of practicing their religious practices and ceremonies. So, the Kiowa people lived with physical bodies without souls.

“Loneliness is an aspect of the land.”“War was their sacred business, and they were among the

finest horsemen that world has ever known.” “But warfare for the Kiowas was preeminently a matter of

disposition rather than of survival, and they never understood the grim, unrelenting advance of the U.S. Cavalry.”

Applying Historical Criticism

The grandmother used to participate in dance, ceremonies and other cultural events. After captured by the US. Army, she not only got humiliation as a child but, could not even practice according to her traditional values. She got depressed and lost most of her hope thinking whether she or her tribe will be able to practice their cultural ceremonies and get pride and dignity for their tribe.

“My grandmother had a reverence for the sun, a holy regard that now is all but gone out of mankind.”

“She seemed beyond the reach of time.”

N. Scott Momaday Interview