Rainy Mountain
Passage to Rainy Mountain
N. Scott Momaday, in the memoir “The Way to Rainy Mountain”, traced the ancestral roots of his tribe back to the start of the Kiowa tribe. Momaday had always known about his ancestry but the death of his grandmother, Aho, prompted him to seek an in-depth personal exploration of his family history and background. Therefore, Momaday went back to his grandmother's residence and he observed that the spirit of the Kiowa tribe was faint but still very stirring. When he travelled to Aho’s house after her death, he’s looking to build a connection with his ancestors. Momaday felt that he could learn a lot of things and gain some insight from his visit to the motherland. From this article, it is evident that the Kiowa people were very spiritual and had an unbending love for nature because they strived to preserve the environment and performed spiritual dances and rituals in veneration to the sun. This memoir is an embodiment of the Kiowa culture, and N. Scott Momaday gives the reader a succession of oral narratives from the Kiowa community. The sense of community and culture of the Kiowa people was very interesting to Momaday. He describes the nomadic life of the Kiowa tribe as they travelled from Yellowstone to Rainy Mountain (Momaday 602). They raided the southern plains, captured settlements, hunted buffalo, and stole horses. They were known to be fierce warriors and they opposed the whites from taking their lands. Unfortunately, the tribe wasn’t as strong as the white settlers and soldiers that were invading their lands as they moved west. The Kiowa community was outnumbered and didn’t have the weapons or industry to compete with the newcomers. They were forced to adapt once more to the cultures of the neighboring people marking the start of the decline of the Kiowa culture (Momaday 601). They also went through a kind of spiritual crisis around this time because the buffalo they had hunted and honored were in short supply. The
N. Scott Momaday, in the memoir “The Way to Rainy Mountain”, traced the ancestral roots of his tribe back to the start of the Kiowa tribe. Momaday had always known about his ancestry but the death of his grandmother, Aho, prompted him to seek an in-depth personal exploration of his family history and background. Therefore, Momaday went back to his grandmother's residence and he observed that the spirit of the Kiowa tribe was faint but still very stirring. When he travelled to Aho’s house after her death, he’s looking to build a connection with his ancestors. Momaday felt that he could learn a lot of things and gain some insight from his visit to the motherland. From this article, it is evident that the Kiowa people were very spiritual and had an unbending love for nature because they strived to preserve the environment and performed spiritual dances and rituals in veneration to the sun. This memoir is an embodiment of the Kiowa culture, and N. Scott Momaday gives the reader a succession of oral narratives from the Kiowa community. The sense of community and culture of the Kiowa people was very interesting to Momaday. He describes the nomadic life of the Kiowa tribe as they travelled from Yellowstone to Rainy Mountain (Momaday 602). They raided the southern plains, captured settlements, hunted buffalo, and stole horses. They were known to be fierce warriors and they opposed the whites from taking their lands. Unfortunately, the tribe wasn’t as strong as the white settlers and soldiers that were invading their lands as they moved west. The Kiowa community was outnumbered and didn’t have the weapons or industry to compete with the newcomers. They were forced to adapt once more to the cultures of the neighboring people marking the start of the decline of the Kiowa culture (Momaday 601). They also went through a kind of spiritual crisis around this time because the buffalo they had hunted and honored were in short supply. The