Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
The above passage is from Laguna Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko's acclaimed 1977 novel Ceremony. The excerpt emphasizes the essential role that storytelling plays within the Pueblo culture. It also sums up the repeated attempts of colonial invaders to erase Pueblo culture by destroying its ceremonies. Despite these attempts, which began in 1540 and continued until the 1930s, the core elements of Pueblo myth and ritual have survived. However, as Silko reveals in Ceremony, the years from World War II to the present have brought new threats to the Pueblos, which, although more subtle than the early Spanish conquests, are even more insidious, and must be confronted if the Pueblo culture is to survive.
In Ceremony, Silko portrays the endangered state of the Laguna reservation following World War II. The land has been damaged by runoff from the uranium mining, and a generation of young Pueblo men has been devastated by the war. Ceremony tells the story of Tayo, a wounded returning World War II veteran of mixed Laguna-white ancestry following a short stint at a Los Angeles VA hospital. He is returning to the poverty-stricken Laguna reservation, continuing to suffer from battle fatigue, and is haunted by memories of his cousin Rocky who died in the conflict during the Bataan Death March of 1942. His initial escape from pain leads him to alcoholism, but his Old Grandma and mixed-blood Navajo medicine man Betonie help him through Native ceremonies to develop a greater understanding of the world and his place as a Laguna man.
In his search for healing, Tayo seeks a cure from Ku'oosh, the old medicine man. Ku'oosh realizes that he cannot heal Tayo because, "Some things we can't cure like we used to...not since the white people came." While the return to the old ways helps Tayo, something else is needed to complete his healing ceremony. This is where Betonie, a new kind of healer, comes in. Betonie still wears the traditional clothes of a medicine man and uses the traditional paraphernalia, such as prayer sticks, gourd rattles and sacred herbs. But Betonie also uses contemporary items as healing tools, such as coke bottles, phone books and old gas station calendars with pictures of Indians on them, all common objects on the reservation. When Tayo questions the use of such non-traditional items for his ceremonies, Betonie responds, "In the old days it was simple. A medicine person could get by without all these things. But nowadays..."
Betonie provides Tayo with the blend of tools and faith Tayo needs in order to undertake the completion of the ceremony, which can cure both himself and his people. The key to survival of Pueblo culture, as Silko demonstrates in Ceremony, may be found in allowing traditional Pueblo ceremonies to change to meet the present-day realities of reservation life. It's in this fusion of old and new that the Pueblos may find the healing they so desperately need after suffering nearly 500 years of colonialism.
Ceremony gained immediate acceptance when returning Vietnam war veterans took to the novel's theme of coping, healing and reconciliation between races and people that share the trauma of military actions. It was largely on the strength of this work that literary critic Alan R. Velie named Silko one of his Four Native American Literary Masters, along with N. Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor and James Welch. Her publications include Laguna Woman: Poems (1974), Ceremony (1977), Storyteller (1981), Almanac of the Dead (1991), Gardens in the Dunes (1999) and The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir (2010).
1. Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (Viking Press, 1977), p. 2.
An excerpt from my soon-to-be released memoir, Riding Spirit Horse: A Journey into Shamanism.
Years ago, one of my shamanic mentors gifted me an old Navajo "storm pattern rug," recognizable by its large central rectangle connected by zigzag lightning lines to smaller rectangles in each corner, which represent the four directions, winds and sacred mountains of the Navajo. The central rectangle symbolizes the Lake of Emergence, the portal through which their ancient ancestors first emerged to enter the present world. The lightning bolts carry blessings back and forth between the mountaintops, bestowing good spirits on the weaver and her household.
Navajo rugs and blankets are textiles produced by Navajo people of the Four Corners area of the United States. Weaving plays a role in the creation myth of Navajo cosmology. According to Navajo mythology, a spirit being called Spider Woman instructed the women of the Navajo how to build the first loom from exotic materials including sky, earth, sunrays, rock crystal and sheet lightning. Then Spider Woman taught the Navajo how to weave on it. Because of this belief, traditionally there will be an intentional mistake somewhere within the pattern. It is said to prevent the weaver from becoming lost in Spider Woman's web or pattern.
My mentor suggested that I sit on the rug whenever I journey into the spirit world. I took his advice and journeyed at home while sitting on the rug. When I entered a trance, the rug became a mandala-like portal before me. I went through a doorway at the center of the undulating geometric pattern. I came out beneath a numinous web of light that surrounded the planet. The web emanated a blue glow against the black night-time sky above it. Spider Woman descended from the web on a strand of light and stood before me. She looked menacing and I feared being trapped in her web. She told me that I had nothing to fear. She conveyed that she was the weaver of the web of life. She said the Navajo rug would serve as a portal for me to journey into the spirit world.
I thanked Spider Woman and returned through the portal to my body. When I opened my eyes, I saw a large spider on the rug beside me. I thanked the spider for being there to support my shamanic journey. It was a good omen