The Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday

N. Scott Momaday, is a Native American, Pulitzer prize-winning English professor and novelist. Being from Kiowa descent, he shares stories of his people that were told to him by his grandmother. In The Rainy Mountain, Momaday writes about the history and plight of the Kiowa people in order to bring light to the dismantling of Kiowan culture. After his grandmother passed, he decided to visit the places that she told about in her stories. He wanted to better understand the stories and feel a connection to his ancestors who had traversed the path years prior. Momaday shares his experience and a message with the reader in The Way to Rainy Mountain. He writes for non-Kiowa people, specifically modern-day Americans. Writing in the second person, using words like “your”, lets him reach his audience on a more personal level. In addition to teaching readers of his culture and history, Momaday tells a story as an allegory and wants the reader to understand how the US’s oppressing of Native American cultures eventually dismantles them and hurts future generations.

Momaday achieved this purpose by using figurative language. His grandmother symbolized the final fight of the Kiowa people with her knowledge of her ancestry and her presence at the last traditional Kiowan Sun Dance, which was shut down by American soldiers. After describing how his grandmother’s house was once full of “excitement and reunion” Momaday writes, “Now there is a funeral silence in the rooms.” Kiowan culture and tradition died with her after a long fight for survival. Referring to his ancestors’ surrender to US troops, he writes, “My grandmother was spared the humiliation … by eight or ten years, but she must have known from birth the affliction of defeat.” Because of his ancestors’ pain, he and his grandmother felt pain within their lives. Using these examples, the reader is able to empathize with Momaday and better understand how his family was affected. This long-standing pain led to the eventual dissolving of Kiowan culture and tradition. Reading The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday has undoubtedly given me more insight as to what has happened to Native American cultures in the US.

A drawing of a traditional Native American Sun Dance drawn by Jules Tavernier.