The way to rainy mountain
Momaday N. Scott
About the author- --- Momaday N. Scott
who is wholly absorbed in his Native Indian culture
throughout his life.
• He was born with an Indian origin
• He spent his childhood in several Indian
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reservations and developed intense interest and
passion in the Indian culture and tradition
His career centers around the Indian culture and
tradition
His works are informed of the Native Indian
traditions
Prof. Momaday lifelong journey
• 1934 born in Lawton, Oklahoma.
• 1935 moved to Arizona
• 1958 graduated from the University of New Mexico and
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taught on the Apache reservation at Jicarilla
1963 earned a doctorate and taught at the University of
California at Santa Barbara
1969 moved to the University of California at Berkeley
1973 left Berkeley for Stanford
since 1982 taught at the University of Arizona
Primary works
• House Made of Dawn,1968
• The way to Rainy Mountain,1969
• Angle of Geese and other poems ,1974
• The Gourd Dancer,1976
• The Names: a memoir,1976
• The Ancient Child,1989
• In the Presence of the Sun,1992
“The Indian world is full of aesthetic values, art. My father
was an artist, a painter, and he taught painting to the
children at Jemez Pueblo. They exhibited all over the world.
They became famous for their art. He once said to me, ”You
know, Scott, I have never known an Indian child who
couldn‘t draw.“ I believe that. I haven’t either. That seems
intrinsic somehow. That‘s a real part of the Indian world, this
love of symmetry and composition. It’s a great thing. That
has been important to me as well. Indian people have a
strong sense of humor. It‘s not easily understood by other
people, but it’s there and I love that. That‘s been a part of
my life too.”
------Momaday N. Scott
General History of North American Indian
Before the Discovery of the New Land
• The origin of the American Indians
• The general situation of north American
Indians
• The nine culture areas of north American
Indians
The origin of American Indians
Ancestors: nomadic hunters of Asian
Mongoloid over Bering Straight land ice
bridge during last glacial period(最后一次
冰川期14—4万年以前）
The general situation of north American Indians
• The approximate population: 1millon
• 240 tribal entities
• Over 500 languages
Contact with European whites
• Spanish policy
• French policy
• English policy
Nine culture areas of north American Indians
• Subarctic
• Northwest coast
• California
• Western plateau
US Indian policies
• Removal period(1820-70)
• Assimilation Era(1870-1934)
• The Dawes Act(1887)
• The Indian New Deal of 1930s
• 1950s “termination” of some reservations
• 1970s “self-determination”
Kiowa People
• Briefing
• History
• Current Tribal Issues
Introduction
• Plains-dwelling Tribe
• Language Family: Tanoan-Kiowan
• Name: The term Kiowa, meaning ‘the principal
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people’ is derived from Kaigwa, by which the
Kiowa were commonly known
Location:Southwest Oklahoma
Population:Approximately 1,800 in early 1700s
10,000 today
History
• Emergence (?—1700)
• Evolution (1700-1850s)
• Decline (1850s-1950s)
Emergence (?—1700)
• Western Montana
• Hard Life
Evolution (1700—1850s)
• Black Hills
• Horse
Evolution
• Buffalo
• Vast Territory
Decline (1850—1950s)
• Gradual loss of land
1835 The Kiowa sign the Treaty of Fort Gibson,
promising peace with fellow Indian tribes and
the U.S. government
1853 The Kiowa sign the Treaty of Fort Atkinson,
Promising peace with the U.S
1865 The Kiowa agree, under violent protest, to
settle on a reservation south of the Arkansas
River.
1868 The Kiowa are assigned to a reservation in
Oklahoma.
Decline
• Deprivation of Sun Dance
• Near Extinction of buffalo
Current Issues
• 1968 Kiowa Tribal Council is formed
• Living standard
• Education
• Culture
Sun Dance
Kiowa Sun Dance
Decision Making
• Tai-me keeper was inspired by a dream
• Messengers were sent out to instruct tribal
members of the time and place
Six Days of Preparation
• Tai-me keeper rode throughout the camp
to give instructions & two men were
selected to find the Y-shaped fork
• Killing of the buffalo
• A mock battle & dances performed by the
Calf Old Woman Society
• Building of the Sun Dance lodge
• Buffalo hunting ceremony
Four Days of Dancing
• Dancing began at sunset
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on the sixth day
Dancers, drummers &
singers all decorated
Making offerings to Taime & Sun Dance ended
A large social dance
ending with the buffalo
dance
The Logic of Sun Dance
• The Plains Indians perception of the world
• The dilemma
• Sun Dance as a solution of the conflict
between viewing the buffalo as wise and
powerful, even closer to God than humans
& having to kill and eat them to survive
• The sacrifice of dancers is also a way of
returning something to nature
The end of Sun Dance
• The government outlawed Sun Dance in
1904
• Reasons
• Sun Dances of certain tribes were too
cruel
• Sun Dances reflected a worldview different
from the whites, so the whites curbed it as
a way of converting the Plains Indians
Devils Tower
• Located in the Black Hills near Hulett and
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Sundance in Crook County, northeastern
Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River.
It rises dramatically 1,267 feet (386 m)
above the surrounding terrain and the
summit is 5,112 feet (1,558 m) above sea
level.
First declared United States National
Monument, established on Sep 24, 1906, by
President Theodore Roosevelt.
The Monument's boundary encloses an area
of 1,347 acres (5.45 km2).
In recent years about 1% of the
Monument's 400,000 annual visitors climb
Devils Tower, mostly through traditional
techniques.
Pre-class questions:
• 1 How do you understand the title of the lesson?
• 2 Which rhetorical speech is repeatedly used in this lesson to achieve the
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fixed effects?
3 How many sections can you divide the lesson into?
4 Tell the students what difficulties they will face in understanding the
lesson.
5 How does Momday begin his essay? Why does he begin this way?
6 How is the essay organized? How does the author combine the telling of
his grandmother’s story with his exploration of the history of his Kiowa
ancestors?
7 What is the mode of writing of this piece? Is it descriptive or narrative?
How do the descriptions serve the purpose of the writing?
8 In several places the author describes the landscape in detail. Why is the
land so important for him in the exploration of his racial and tribal heritage?
9 How does Momaday end his essay? Why does he end it this way/
Detailed study of the text
• Para. 1
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1. What is the role of the first paragraph?
The opening paragraph of the essay is a lyrical description of the
author‘s ancestral land, which plays a key role in his exploration of
his Kiowa identity. The land is crucial for Momaday because the
migration of his people took place here. The land is the visible
embodiment of the tribal history. The old days are gone forever.
The Kiowa warriors are dead. The culture has almost disappeared.
What remains is the land which is the visible embodiment of their
people's past. By directly involving himself with the landscape of his
ancestors, the author is able to identify more closely with them and
relive their experiences in his imagination more vividly.
• ... and in summer the prairie is an anvil's edge.
• (1) In summer the earth of the prairie is
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extremely hot and hard.
(2) An anvil is an iron or steel block on which
metal objects are hammered into shape.
Here the word anvil is used metaphorically.
• Loneliness is an aspect of the land.
• Loneliness is a major quality of this
landscape. As we can see, the depiction of
the land is injected with the author's own
emotions and imagination, bringing out
the spirit of the place.
• The author emphasizes loneliness
perhaps because this quality enables one
to concentrate one's mind on the earth.
• All things in the plain.., in the eye...
• "in the eye”
• The word eye is used in the singular to mean
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man's power of seeing or observing.
eg. --to have your eye on something: to have
noticed something
--- not to see eye to eye: to disagree with
someone
---to have a good eye for something: to be
good at noticing and recognizing what is
attractive, valuable
---to my eye: in my opinion
--more than meets the eye: more complicated
than it seems to be at first
• Para. 2
• Function of Paragraph 2
• The author explains his purpose of his
visit to Rainy Mountain: to be at his
grandmother's grave.
• This paragraph serves as a transitional
• infirm: weak or ill especially because one
is old
• Para. 3
• Main idea of Paragraph 3
• This paragraph sums up the history of
the Kiowas as a Plains Native culture--the
golden time and the decline in their
history.
• But warfare for the Kiowas... rather than of
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survival...
(1 Warfare was important for the Kiowas
more because of their militant tendency than
because of their need for survival. The Kiowas
often fought just because they were good
warriors, because they fought out of habit,
character, nature, not because they needed
extra lands or material gains for the sake of
surviving and thriving.
(2) preeminently : much more important
Word study :disposition
• A particular type of character which makes
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someone more likely to behave or react in a
certain way; temperament; an inclination,
tendency. The word disposition is used to refer
to the normal or prevailing aspect of one's
nature.
eg.
He had a cheerful disposition.
He had a disposition to quarrel.
Word study: matter
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a matter: a decision, a situation, etc.
eg.
a matter of disposition: 处于本性，由于习惯
a matter of opinion: a question of different views
a matter of life and death： an extremely serious or
dangerous situation that could end in death
a matter of time：used to say that something will
definitely happen sooner or later
a matter of taste： depending on your taste, your
judgment
a matter of seconds: only a few seconds
Paragraph 4
• main idea :
• This paragraph is about how the Kiowas
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migrated from western Montana and how the
migration transformed the Kiowas. Like
Paragraph 3, this part uses the author's
grandmother's story as a focal point, but quickly
moves on to the story of the Kiowa people.
The use of words like "she belonged to the last
culture" and "her forebears" smoothes the
transition.
• it was a long journey toward dawn..,
golden age.
• They moved toward the east, where the
sun rises, and also toward the beginning
of a new culture, which led to the
greatest moment in their history.
• Not least, they acquired the sense of
destiny, therefore courage and pride.
• (1) not least: last but not least, equally
important
• (2) destiny: fate; an inevitable
succession of events as determined
supernaturally or by
necessity,
implying a favorable outcome
• No longer were they slaves to... priests of the
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sun.
(1) inversion for emphasis.
(2) slave: a person who is completely
dominated by some influence, habit, person, etc.
Note the preposition used with it is "to",
not "of".
eg. She doesn't want to be a slave to fashion.
(3) lordly, (adj.) haughty, like a lord.
The word "lordly" echoes the word "pride". And
it is contrasted with the word "slave".
(4) priests of the sun: pious believers of the
Sun Dance religion
• From one point of view.., from a sunless
world.
• Discussion:
• (1) What does the old prophecy refer to?
• (2) What does the sunless world refer to?
• (3) Explain the meaning of the sentence
in your own words.
• Para 5
• What is the role of Paragraph 5?
• In this paragraph, the author returns to
his grandmother again. Since she is the
immediate reason for him to come to
Rainy Mountain, she is the link between
the author and his ancestors.
• I wanted to see in reality.., my pilgrimage.
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(1) Note the contrast between "in
reality" and "in the mind's eye".
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(2) the mind's eye: in imagination. Aho
had never been to places like the Black
Hills, but
she had seen them quite
well in imagination, for she had heard so
much about them from the older
generations. It is through the oral tradition
that the Kiowa cultural heritage has
been handed down from generation to
generation.
• (3) pilgrimage: a journey made by a
pilgrim, especially to a shrine or holy place;
any long journey to a place of historical
interest. For Momaday, the journey is
indeed to a holy place, a place where his
ancestors lived and thrived in their golden
age.
Summary & Assignments
• 1. Summary of each section
• to make the students aware of the
thoughts and ideas offered by the author
and make the students know what we
should learn from the lesson.
• 2.Assignments: