“The dreams had been terror at loss, at something lost forever; but nothing was lost; all was retained between the sky and the earth, and within himself. He had lost nothing. The snow-covered mountain remained, without regard to titles of ownership or the white ranchers who thought they possessed it. They logged the trees, they killed the deer, bear, and mountain lions, they built their fences high; but the mountain was far greater than any or all of these things. The mountain outdistanced their destruction, just as love had outdistanced death. The mountain could not be lost to them, because it was in their bones… The damage that had been done had never reached this feeling. This feeling was their life, vitality locked deep in blood memory, and the people were strong, and the fifth world endured, and nothing was ever lost as long as love remained (p 204).”
This quote caught my attention as it discusses loss, especially that of land to the white men. I think the mention of “vitality locked deep in blood memory (p 204) is an important snippet in this passage as it speaks to the spiritual attachment native people have to their land. Further along in this assigned block of reading a painting is described, that of an elk who is slowly fading into the rock, as elders have not been back to repaint her since the war. I think both the imagery of their cultural markings on the land fading away and the mention of blood memory paint a picture of the sheer negative impact colonization makes in the lives of native people; regardless of their tenacity and the value they place in memories. Is silk aiming to shine light on the devastative effects of colonialism or does the importance of this excerpt lie in the idea that native people never truly lose anything that they are willing to hold tightly, with love, within their memories; perhaps linking back to the importance of storytelling and storing stories deep within ones-self?
“So he would hang around with Harley and Leroy; everyone would understand that: riding around, drinking with buddies. They wouldn’t be suspicious then; they wouldn’t think he was crazy. He’d just be another drunk Indian, that’s all.” (224)
Throughout this story, we see the relationship that Tayo faces with being both white and Indian. We see this separation between the two till the end where Tayo truly realizes that we are all the same. This quote explains how no matter what he does at this point in his story, people will find him to be crazy. Emo thought he was crazy because of how he lived in the cave alone and this made him think it was the white in him. While the white people would find him crazy for just being an Indian, showing that the Indian side is all they can see. “He cried the relief he had felt at finally seeing the pattern, the way all the stories fit together–the old stories, the war stories, their stories–to become the story that was still being told.”(229) He was seen as crazy by both sides by going through this ceremony and re-connecting himself to nature in an extremely intimate way. He had only seen the world for what it truly is, interconnected or one bing community. Would this truly make Tayo the crazy one, just because of his relationship with nature and the universe? Wouldn’t the violence and controlling nature of Emo and the white people be the true insanity in this story?
There are various moments in this book where a sunrise is described. The opening poem, “Sunrise” and closing poem, “Sunrise, accept this offering, Sunrise”. Other notable points that a sunrise is brought up is after Tayo’s first ceremony and after his meeting with Ts’eh. What do you think these sunrises signify in Ceremony? Why do you think they are sunrises and not sunsets?
Ceremony if nothing else, is a novel of transitions. Transformations of the land, of Tayo, and the people that occupy these landscapes. Old Betonie says “there are transitions that had to be made in order to become whole again, in order to be the people our Mother would remember…” (157). In what ways do the Ceremonies aid/signify transitions? How does the sunrise indicate these transitions and for what reason?
On page 214, as Tayo and Ts’eh are looking at the she-elk, Tayo says, “It’s almost gone,” as the elements of rain and wind had overtaken the painting. Ts’eh responds with, “The clay is washing away, but as long as you remember what you have seen, then nothing is gone.” (215).
This quote speaks to the value of recounting stories, whether related to the war trauma Tayo experienced or the stories that keep cultures alive. The power of stories has been a huge element of the book, and I think it’s also a huge element of sustainable development in learning about ensuring social justice for all people on Earth.
In other classes, we talk a lot about the value of multiple world views and the power of maintaining other ways of knowing to resist colonial epistemicide. One of the most critical components of that is in maintaining cultural knowledge through oral traditions.
Where, throughout the book, are there other examples of story telling keeping parts of Tayo physically or mentally alive? Why does this matter in his personal life story? Where would he be without reclaiming many of the stories that broke him?
“He wanted to scream at Indians like Harley and Helen Jean and Emo that the white things they admired desired so much- the bright city lights and loud music and soft sweet food and the cars- all of these things had been stolen, torn out of Indian land: raw living materials for their ck’o’yo manipulation. The people had been taught to despise themselves because they were left with barren land and dry rivers. But they were wrong. It was the white people who had nothing…” (189). The passage goes on to explain that it is the white people who are suffering because they must live with the fact that what they have is stolen. This is a really interesting framing of colonization to me, and it is one that is definitely part of mainstream thought surrounding it. However, I feel slightly uncomfortable with it as I don’t want to make the colonizer the victim. In this scenario how can we center other perspectives and decolonize our thought while also acknowledging the harm caused to indigenous peoples by colonization?
“It’s almost gone,”(he said). “The clay is washing away,” (she said.) “Nobody has come to paint it since the war. But as long as you remember what you have seen, then nothing is gone. As long as you remember, it is part of this story we have together.” (215)
Leslie Marmon Silko created the story of “Ceremony,” but inside of it are even more stories. Climate change and environmental injustices have been an issue that has continued for a very long time and while there is scientific evidence to support the anthropoceneic destruction, this type of information has not been discussed and respected as one should hope or assume. That being said, a huge part of environmental justice comes from story telling. Stories can be told, heard, seen, in so many different types of ways and because of this a different aspect of human emotion and relation to the issue of climate change can be demonstrated. Silko not only includes story telling as a form of direct communication between characters but she also includes poems to portray her objectives towards influencing and educating those on these types of issues and situations. While story telling is a huge characteristic of cultures, some attest to the controversy of such tales because of their origins of creation and the complexity required to continue the traditions of telling these stories and the viability of each. Stories can be shown through art, pieces of writing, films, music, etc, there are so many ways in which they can be interpreted and understood. Because of the variety within stories, is it acceptable to say that through stories, the exposure and relevance of climate change has been increased? Do stories attest for the reliability they assume? Are stories a way in which climate change can be better understood and solutions can be found or is scientific evidence the only justifiable way in which climate change and environmental injustices can be combated?
A theme I see as recurring in Ceremony is the blurring of the dichotomies of pure and evil, innocence and guilt, past and present, belonging and sepreateness.
“If the white people never looked beyond the lie, to see that theirs was a nation built on stolen land, they would never be able to understand how they were used by the witchery; they would never know that they were still being manipulated by those who knew how to stir the ingredients together: white thievery and injustice boiling up the anger and hatred that would finally destroy the world: the starving against the fat, the colored against the white.” (177-178)
In narrating white people as tools of destruction rather than the harbingers of destruction, as well as by centering Tayo’s mixed race identity, Leslie Marmon Silko complicates dominant ideas of race relations between natives and whites. Betonie describes this perfectly in saying “you don’t write off all the white people, just like you don’t trust all the Indians.” (118) Leslie Marmon Silko seems to be weaving the idea that we all display both characteristics of good and bad, that we are not defined in a way that is bounded by polarity but we are dynamic and complex individuals. How might this newly complicated understanding of self, race relations, and blame for destruction reshape how we understand agency and responsibility? How does this change how Tayo views himself and those around him?
“Tayo starts to cut the fence’s wires, but he realizes he’s being hasty because he’s so excited. There’s no reason to rush, he tells himself. Better to stay cool and make sure he doesn’t make any mistakes.”
Tayo’s interaction with the steel and barbed fence is a reflection of the interactions he can have out in the world with white people. He correlated that the fence brought up interesting thoughts about how the claiming of lands is considered a white-man problem in his culture, but he also considers the problems within his culture surrounding different tribes claiming land as their own. This conundrum was very interesting to me for a few reasons, primarily considering the greed of human nature to own a certain area. This quote also shows how haist does not help for a proper thought process. The hurried judgement of the white-man in his culture can put a shroud over the problems of greed in his own culture.
In the climatic scene of Ceremony, Emo, Pinkie, and Leroy torture and kill Harley. The narrator explains the motivation behind this torture, stating that “Harley had failed them, and all that had been intended for Tayo had now turned on Harley” (233). When considering killing Emo in order to stop the torture, the narrator explains that Tayo “ understood that Harley had bargained for it; he realized that Harley knew how it would end if he failed to got the victim he named,” implying that this act of violence would only serve to ease Tayo’s guilt over watching his friend suffer (234). Later, Tayo reflects on the incident, saying that he had almost done what the witchery had wanted (235). Is Tayo’s decision to spare Emo’s life symbolic of ending a cycle of violence? Why couldn’t he help Harley?
The conclusion of the novel, “Ceremony,” really came full circle. One of the final poems of the novel really stuck with me and pulled various concepts together for me. As Tayo is finishing his journey, he replanted the green plant that Montano asked him to. As readers, we do not know that that plant is tobacco until we read one of the final poems. The poem starts with “Hummingbird and Fly thanked him. They took the tobacco to old Buzzard” (237). Tayo delivered the tobacco that the Hummingbird and the Fly were looking for for so long. This makes me believe Tayo to be the vessel for positive social and environmental change. Did the environmental degradation illustrated throughout the novel represent Tayo’s distress and state of being?
Though the ceremony with Betonie could be perceived as a failure and Tayo is obviously not “healed” afterwards, I do think there were some integral aspects that stuck with Tayo. We observe after the ceremony that Tayo goes back and fourth with fighting the feelings of his illness but there are important breakthrough moments where you can tell he’s beginning to feel better, such as the scene where it states, “Being alive was alright then, he had not breathed like that in a while”(181). He also seems to begin to have a more in-tune relationship and perspective of nature and how the colonists treat the land versus how Native Americans treat the land. It’s mentioned on pg 186 about how the loggers logged the mountain and shot bears and mountain lions for sport. We also hear how the people were warned that “the balance of the land had been disturbed and the people could expect droughts and harder days to come” (186). This scene is then shortly followed by an interaction between Tayo and a mountain lion, in a peaceful, non harmful, harmonious way. Do you think this scene shows tribute to how Tayos relationship with the land is becoming a more central part of his healing? Additionally, it’s mentioned that without Betonie he wouldn’t have hoped to find the cattle at all. Does this serve as evidence that the ceremony with Betonie was not in vain and that there were factors that resonated with Tayo, perpetually altering his vision of reality and perhaps boosting his confidence in his capabilities? I’d like to argue that the conversations between Tayo and Betonie were essential given it equipped Tayo with traditional knowledge, stories, and oral histories that can aid Tayo in enhancing his relationship with the natural world ultimately contributing to his ability to heal. Do you think the interaction with Betonie provided an opportunity for a new door to be opened within Tayo in his new found understanding that “his sickness was part of something larger, and his cure would be found only in something great and inclusive of everything” (126) exacerbating the notion that Tayo can’t simply look to medicine men for the help he needs, he too needs to do the internal and external work with and for himself and everything around him that is innately interconnected.
Additionally, we hear Betonie discussing that race does not dictate whether people are “good or bad”, that there are both good white men and bad Indians; this conception is a social construct that has permeated the minds of all parties and has overflowed into the actions, behaviors, and even perceptions of themselves and their communities. The illusion of separateness and the complex of superiority is, at its roots, evil and a purposefully crafted phenomena that lives in the minds of people, ultimately altering how they live their daily lives. We see this permeated stigma within Tayo when he’s looking for his cattle and thinks they may be stolen; his initial instinct is to put the potential blame on a “Mexican or an Indian”— “why did he hesitate to think of a white man stealing”(191)? Do you think the introduction of the idea that good or bad people are just people individual of their race, and the altered mind set whereabouts Tayo realizes that these colonial, racist frameworks even exist within his own mind can contribute to his ability to heal? Furthermore, we learn that Josiah had told Rocky and Tayo “how ridiculous violence and anger where” (194). Could the concoction of now knowing some people are just bad, this superiority complex is fake and purposefully crafted, and that violence is unnecessary, and anger is ineffective, help Tayo to deconstruct his previous mentality and shift towards a more holistic relationship with some of the unfair occurrences that have primarily contributed to his trauma, pain, and suffering in the first place?
Long time ago
in the beggining.
there were no white people in the world
there was nothing European.
And this world might have gone on like that
except for one thing:
witchery.
Silko uses this poem to explain how indigenous witches from around the Globe, including Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Sioux, Eskimos, a witch who no one knows. This witch goes on the share a warning about “white skin people” who “…fear the world, they destroy what they fear.” This warning speaks to the ecological devastation that industrialization has brought upon a world, a world that white people look at and “see no life.” The witch unleashes chaos and destruction, the prophecy of the end of life on earth. The poem ends, “it can’t be called back”
What can we learn from this poem to try and protect our Earth? Are there lessons within this poem or is it a warning and declaration that we have no hope for a better future?
On page 189, Tayo is having somewhat of an identity crisis. He hates white people and what they’ve done to Native Americans, and he can’t escape this trauma for two reasons. One, it is evident every day what white people have done to native americans and many other people, and two, Tayo is half white. “He wanted to scream at Indians… that the white things they admired so much- the bright city lights and loud music, the soft sweet food and the cars- all these things had been stolen, torn out of indian land… The people had been taught to despise themselves because they were left with barren land and dry rivers. But they were wrong. It was the white people who had nothing; it was the white people who were suffering as thieves do, never able forget that their pride was wrapped in something stolen, something that had never been, and could never be, theirs… only a few people knew that the lie was destroying white people faster than it was destroying Indian people.” I think that it is an interesting point of view (since we don’t see it that much) that white people are the ones that suffer because they live no truth, their fortune has been based on lies and theft. It is a deep sort of recognition, and takes a lot of introspect to realize. How can identifying this help and hurt white peoples way of thinking and recognizing their destruction?
After reading Ceremony, there are many reoccurring themes that I recognized. The most important is the personality conflict in Tayo’s life. This represents the conflict between white people and native people in general, but Silko makes the conflict human and more relevant by internalizing this conflict through Tayo’s own personal struggles. On page 87, Silko discusses a story of how Spider Woman and Sun Man were trying to get the rain to come back. While discussing this story, Tayo begins to discuss that thanks to western science and learning, these important stories found in Native culture are simply superstition. Grandma tried to make him aware of the power of stories, but Tayo was conflicted. He had white culture and native culture contradicting themselves inside of him and white culture was overpowering the stories within Tayo. Tayo does progress back to appreciating the morality of native culture of immoral white culture, though. When he lets Josiah’s cattle free, he is spotted by some Texans and hurts himself trying to escape them. “He lay there and hated them. Not for what they wanted to do with him, but for what they did to the earth with their machines, and to the animals with their packs of dogs and their guns” (p189). He is able to recognize his own morality and the lack of morality of the white man, embracing his native blood and rejecting the white.
Another them that I caught on too was the structure of the book. There is no chapters and the text is poem and normal passage and Tayo’s dialogue by Silko. The inclusion of poems is important because I believe that figurative language often does a better job of portraying ideas that challenge empirical thought.
How different would this book be if there were no poems or stories? Could Silko portray the same ideas and themes?
There is an instance on pg. 235 where Tayo was almost consumed by the witchery. “The moon was lost in a cloud bank. He moved back into the boulders. It had been a close call. The witchery had almost ended the story according to its plan; Tayo had almost jammed the screwdriver into Emo’s skull the way the witchery had wanted…” We have learned of Tayo being half-white while many of his other peers and friends are full native. Is it because Tayo is half white that the witchery was almost able to consume him? Was this due to the PTSD that he acquired at war? It seems as though this witchery is a metaphor for something bigger or more psychological.
My favorite quote from this book is when Tayo and Betonie are talking about the land that the white people have taken and Betonie says “They only fool themselves when they think it’s theirs. The deeds and papers don’t mean anything. It is the people that belong to the mountain. What he is basically saying is that just because white people have a piece of paper with their name on it saying that they own the land doesn’t actually mean that they own it. In our materialistic world sure you could say they own it but they do not share the same sense of place as the indigenous people do. That’s why even though Betonie doesn’t live in the nicest home he is not going to leave because that is his home and that is his land that he is attached to. I can relate to this on a personal note because growing up I lived near a lot of family and we had a lot of family land but slowly over time it has had to be sold off to pay bills and even though these development companies and private homeowners have moved in and built around us, I still feel as if the land is more mine than theirs because of my sense of place. I am the 5th generation to grow up where I did and it hurts me to see it change into something completely different but my love for that area will never change.
As we continue to discuss Silko’s text as well as the movie “Homeland”, I began to have conversations with my partner who is from Alaska. Although he is not native Alaskan, he has a good amount of knowledge about indigenous communities and the ways in which land is being destroyed by oil and natural gas producers. Each year, Alaskan residents are given a Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) using revenues paid to the state by these producers. Drew and everyone in his family was given $2000 a year to be hush-hush about what oil and natural gas producers were doing to the land. Of course, there is more to this story than just bribing citizens to not speak up about environmental destruction. I began to think about the different opinions on PFDs and what would happen if that in order to stop drilling and other destructive practices, we would have to take away PFDs. If we took away this annual dividend, many Alaskan would be upset. Drew’s family saved up every PFD and used that money to send each of his siblings to college. Maybe others are willing to give this up to be able to stand up against oil and natural gas producers. Would non-cooperation and refusal to take PFDs be enough to take action against these massive companies?
Towards the end of Ceremony, there is some interesting commentary on white harm towards indigenous people, and of greater evil and forces within the world. We discussed this in class, and afterwards, Krystal and I tried to conceptualize some more regarding how we can apply this thinking today. In the book, Silko comments on these concepts through Tayo’s realization of the lies that have been engrained in his mind of white people never being thieves, because they can always purchase their needs (like land from Indigenous peoples). The book continues, actually commenting, “It was the white people who had nothing; it was the white people who were suffering as thieves do, never able to forget that their pride was wrapped in something stolen, something that had never been, and could never be, theirs,” (189). Earlier, Silko comments on the manipulation of white people by witchery, saying “If the white people never looked beyond the lie, to see that theirs was a nation built on stolen land, then they would never be able to understand how they had been used by the witchery; they would never know that they were still being manipulated by those who knew how to stir the ingredients together,” (177). We all had different interpretations of this, but especially important to note is agency and ownership over actions. In today’s context, I think this may have implications regarding manipulation through the media, and action and/or violence as a consequence of fake news. Does manipulation excuse violent action? Does manipulation excuse being a bystander of violence in various human rights issues? For examples, larger forces at play also could be intergenerational norms, could be a violent past of your people that you are removed of but still apart of, etc. Where does agency come into play and what role is it of people to learn of the larger forces at play that affect their views, actions, perceptions etc.?? The commentary throughout this section is very interesting, especially later on when Tayo laughs at a racist comment made, saying the person is so unaware of how they are manipulated, but that doesn’t excuse the racist comment. If you believe it is the role of people to educate themselves of larger forces of evil, how do you enforce this, instead of laughing at ignorance that is seriously harmful to others?
On page 122 of Ceremony, this excerpt from the poem below really stood out to me:
Long time ago
in the beginning.
there were no white people in the world
there was nothing European.
And this world might have gone on like that
except for one thing:
witchery….
Silko is talking about how white culture’s opinions on the indigenous reduce them to “savages’. The term “witch” is also viewed negatively in christianity because they’re viewed as demons, the devil’s way of throwing chaos into the world. But, that’s not the only way of viewing witches. Witches have been prevalent and important in indigenous communities for centuries.
My question is, shouldn’t we be talking about the differences between how white culture has shaped history to their benefit? I mean we all know this very well. But, the example of the definition of a witch is not something discussed often. How can one culture have such an affect over the global history of the world? Why isn’t every opinion expressed in the history books?
On pages 189-190 Tayo talks about his encounter with the Texan and how he does not hate white people because of their feelings about him and his community but for the impacts we have made on the Earth and all we have taken from it. He mentions the frustration he feels towards Emo, Harley, and Helen Jean for admiring the destructive lifestyle that has taken so much from them but continues to say “It was the white people who had nothing; it was the white people who were suffering as thieves do, never able to forget that their pride was wrapped in something stolen, something that has never been, and could never be, theirs.” This part made me wonder, did his strong conflicting feelings along with others like his previous guilt and struggles with personal identity lead him to be more susceptible to the witchery? Could these have helped or did they prove to hinder his experience throughout the ceremony?
One of the quotes that stood out to me the most and really had a profound impact came towards the beginning of the book where Tayo says “Here they were, trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war. They blamed themselves for losing the new feeling; they never talked about it, but they blamed themselves just like they blamed themselves for losing the land the white people took. They never thought to blame the white people for any of it; they wanted white people for their friends. They never saw that it was the white people who gave them that feeling and it was the white people who took it away again when the war was over.” (Ceremony, 43). This quote really brings my mind to colonialism and all the extremely negative effects it has had on people all over the world. This just furthers the idea that we have talked about throughout the class of white men from the global north taking advantage of those deemed lesser than them with no regard or care for their wellbeing. It shows that colonialism not only has a physical effect in terms of land taken or lives lost but a dismal mental state as well. We have taken something from them and made them feel like they are no longer a part of anything. We have constructed boundaries on their land of which they historically roamed free, have limited hunting, polluted lands, and much more. It also shows you just how amazing and compassionate these people are as well. Tayo even says, “they wanted the white people for friends”, explicitly showing that the Native Americans had no quarrels with the white people until they began to harm them. Rather they aimed to be friends, with a mutually beneficial relationship. However, obviously, as we know this is far from what actually happened. This really makes me wonder if there would have been any way for the United States and the Native Americans to be in harmony? It also makes me wonder if the Native Americans had been hostile rather than friendly if things would have gone differently?
The poem about the creation of white people that starts on 122 and ends on 128. I talks about how “they will kill the things they fear” (Silko, 126). Which is the basis for colonization, but it’s interesting that the poem gives an explanation for why colonialism happened the way it did. That does make me wonder if it allows for accountability? In my mind yes, because it’s not justifying or excusing colonialism. it just gives indigenous people control over the narrative and gives them a reason why. The poem also makes me think about the film we watched in class and how Alaskan natives are fighting to protect their cultural land from oil companies. It makes me wonder how much and how little has changed between indigenous rights and the US government between when this book was written and now? Have there been ways and policies implemented to help protect cultural land comparing from when the book was written and now? The poem says how white people will cause starvation and poison the water and in the past that has happened. Are we seeing a new version of that today? Are there things that are happening or projects being created that will cause an increased risk of anything for indigenous people?
A quote which stood out to me in Ceremony reads, “it was everything they had seen – the cities, the tall buildings , the noise and the lights, the power of their weapons and machines. They were never the same after that: they had seen what the white people had made from the stolen land,” (156). The industrialization white people have forced upon the land stolen from the natives is damaging to their culture. In Ceremony, Betonie helps Tayo through his trauma by adapting cultural rituals to fit modern circumstances. In this way, traditions and cultural beliefs can be preserved. How else does the book suggest native cultures can be preserved and honored in modern day America?
A lot of this story sheds light on the negative impact White settlers had and continue to have on Indigenous cultures. Tayo faces a great internal struggle over the fact he loathes White people for stealing their land and oppressing his people, but in fact he’s half White. Tayo expressed his want to “scream at Indians” for admiring the White people’s culture of city lights, cars, and loud music as if his peers were blind to the historically rooted injustices that came from White culture. Another quote that follows this theme and resonated with me throughout the book is when Betonie says to Tayo “They only fool themselves when they think it’s theirs. The deeds and papers don’t mean anything. It is the people that belong to the mountain”. The indigenous and moral way of thought follows the idea that land can not be owned or bought, it can only be cohabitated with people and other species. Just because the White man creates this piece of paper, signs it and calls it a deed does not truly give him the right to any piece of land, especially when an indigenous tribe or community has had their roots deeply placed there for decades. How can we, as primarily White privileged moral humans, begin to alter this white-washed perception that a printed or signed piece of paper deems ownership? Clearly this perspective goes back centuries and can be seen across the globe in different religions and cultures, but is there a way to shed light on the immense immorality of this concept when it involves White people and any Indigenous or other minority population?
I thought a lot about the introduction of the character Betonie. Betonie becomes so important to Tayo’s transformation in showing that adaptation is indeed possible, with the allowance of connections to still be made. One of the most interesting aspects of Betonie to me was the fact that he lived right over a dump, which then oversaw the town of Gallop. Tayo is surprised that Betonie chooses to live in a more so unappealing location. The point is that the trash, the town, and the people are out of place, but Betonie is not, he is part of the environment and belongs. This I think is one of the first major steps in Tayo’s overall healing journey. How can we teach ourselves to adapt in our environment when undesirable circumstances occur? Can Betonie’s teachings be helpful?
Throughout the book Ceremony, Tayo is put against his own cultural values when he has to come to terms with his friends being infected with some of the nasty attributes that are common among the white settler society. He even has to witness, or he thinks he witnesses, the murder and torture of one of his good friends. The act was meant to anger Tayo, The character Emo repeatedly taunting him and antagonizing him with different behaviors that he relates most to this white settler society.
But through Tayos close relation with his own culture to conquer the urge to take action, something that could taint the morals that he possesses. He evetually finds himself pitted against his best friends, who through different harsh practices like warefare, have tainted their view from their culture. My main question would perhaps be, what does it take for someone to let go of the cultural heritage that they have grown up learning? Why would a cutlture so tied to loving the land and the ones around you be so easily infected by the thoughts of white culture? Why is it so difficult for Native Americans to uphold their cultural heritage in the world we find ourselves in today? And what is the significance of Tayo not running out to try to save his friend from being tortured?
I found the discussion Silko presents in Ceremony discussing the distinction between forms of cultural knowledge and more rational, scientific knowledge characteristic of the natural sciences and general western intellectual thought to be an interesting one. Silko shows this distinction through the conversation between Tayo and his grandmother on the contrast between western, scientific accounts of natural phenomena and the mythological, cultural and symbolic representations of a group’s relationship to these natural phenomena. For Tayo this interpretation of natural phenomena as described by his grandmother (with reference to the origin story of the spider woman and the sun man) conflicts with the education he has received within present western public education systems and pedagogy. I typically find this discussion to be of little value, as the general secularization of the world long ago showed that these older, mythological representations of the world obfuscate our understanding of the world and our capacity to investigate it. However, I see potential fruitfulness in this discussion as it pertains to one point: that the presentation and formation of knowledge, in order to possibly be more readily accepted by a culture or applied to the social ills of the present, might benefit from an adjustment in style. Through a reinterpretation of how knowledge might be best presented and disseminated, or at least a questioning of present presuppositions regarding it, a society and its constituent individuals might become more adept in the interpretation and application of said knowledge, if not also the development of a greater emotional and cultural connection to the knowledge we actually generate.
How might other writing mediums or creative methods of presentation show a greater plurality in how one might interpret the meaning implicitly or explicitly presented by an author?
Silko’s book, Ceremony, exemplifies the ways that culture connects intimately to knowledge and the ways in which people are able to understand the world in which they reside. Tayo experiences severe trauma from the things he witnesses while deployed, which he has no explanation for. The Army doctor and American treatments for his ailments seem to be addressing the symptoms of the issue, not directly looking for nor seeking to address the cause. I see this as a major difference between the American treatment and the ceremony Tayo is in, performed by Betonie. Betonie talks and includes Tayo into his own process of healing, encouraging Tayo to put words to the feelings he’s been experiencing. As Tayo gains an understanding of the processes which formed the world he is living in, this knowledge helps Tayo to reckon with the stark contrasts he sees in society, such as, people being blinded by material objects and losing themselves to their desires, like the people who indulge in gambling, drinking, or women. He learns to understand engaging with these indulgences is driven by hopelessness, as he is shown by Betonie’s example of describing their world as bleak, and a feeling of being lost. Tayo directly experiences this and is working through these feelings during the process of this book. By addressing the root of the cause, Tayo’s feeling of hopelessness and to feel lost results in the healing of his trauma. This reminds me of the current popular responses to climate change, including initiatives such as a carbon tax, or greenhouse gas capturing devices. These solutions fail to holistically address the problems which cause their existence, and therefore, are truly ineffective at solving the problem. They may treat a symptom of this problem, but the solution is short sighted and narrow, because often, problems, like increased greenhouse gas emissions, or problems such as a mental health crisis caused by severe trauma, are driven by the same processes and ideals. Each problem concerning the environment and all life, human and non-human, is interconnected in their impacts, and creating solutions for these dimensions needs to fully address these interconnected problems.
How can taking a holistic view of an issue guide us to look for the best help? What role do culture and community play in adding to the depth of arguments that cannot be proven through data?
SD 3800 Voices in Sustainable Development 
“The dreams had been terror at loss, at something lost forever; but nothing was lost; all was retained between the sky and the earth, and within himself. He had lost nothing. The snow-covered mountain remained, without regard to titles of ownership or the white ranchers who thought they possessed it. They logged the trees, they killed the deer, bear, and mountain lions, they built their fences high; but the mountain was far greater than any or all of these things. The mountain outdistanced their destruction, just as love had outdistanced death. The mountain could not be lost to them, because it was in their bones… The damage that had been done had never reached this feeling. This feeling was their life, vitality locked deep in blood memory, and the people were strong, and the fifth world endured, and nothing was ever lost as long as love remained (p 204).”
This quote caught my attention as it discusses loss, especially that of land to the white men. I think the mention of “vitality locked deep in blood memory (p 204) is an important snippet in this passage as it speaks to the spiritual attachment native people have to their land. Further along in this assigned block of reading a painting is described, that of an elk who is slowly fading into the rock, as elders have not been back to repaint her since the war. I think both the imagery of their cultural markings on the land fading away and the mention of blood memory paint a picture of the sheer negative impact colonization makes in the lives of native people; regardless of their tenacity and the value they place in memories. Is silk aiming to shine light on the devastative effects of colonialism or does the importance of this excerpt lie in the idea that native people never truly lose anything that they are willing to hold tightly, with love, within their memories; perhaps linking back to the importance of storytelling and storing stories deep within ones-self?
“So he would hang around with Harley and Leroy; everyone would understand that: riding around, drinking with buddies. They wouldn’t be suspicious then; they wouldn’t think he was crazy. He’d just be another drunk Indian, that’s all.” (224)
Throughout this story, we see the relationship that Tayo faces with being both white and Indian. We see this separation between the two till the end where Tayo truly realizes that we are all the same. This quote explains how no matter what he does at this point in his story, people will find him to be crazy. Emo thought he was crazy because of how he lived in the cave alone and this made him think it was the white in him. While the white people would find him crazy for just being an Indian, showing that the Indian side is all they can see. “He cried the relief he had felt at finally seeing the pattern, the way all the stories fit together–the old stories, the war stories, their stories–to become the story that was still being told.”(229) He was seen as crazy by both sides by going through this ceremony and re-connecting himself to nature in an extremely intimate way. He had only seen the world for what it truly is, interconnected or one bing community. Would this truly make Tayo the crazy one, just because of his relationship with nature and the universe? Wouldn’t the violence and controlling nature of Emo and the white people be the true insanity in this story?
There are various moments in this book where a sunrise is described. The opening poem, “Sunrise” and closing poem, “Sunrise, accept this offering, Sunrise”. Other notable points that a sunrise is brought up is after Tayo’s first ceremony and after his meeting with Ts’eh. What do you think these sunrises signify in Ceremony? Why do you think they are sunrises and not sunsets?
Ceremony if nothing else, is a novel of transitions. Transformations of the land, of Tayo, and the people that occupy these landscapes. Old Betonie says “there are transitions that had to be made in order to become whole again, in order to be the people our Mother would remember…” (157). In what ways do the Ceremonies aid/signify transitions? How does the sunrise indicate these transitions and for what reason?
On page 214, as Tayo and Ts’eh are looking at the she-elk, Tayo says, “It’s almost gone,” as the elements of rain and wind had overtaken the painting. Ts’eh responds with, “The clay is washing away, but as long as you remember what you have seen, then nothing is gone.” (215).
This quote speaks to the value of recounting stories, whether related to the war trauma Tayo experienced or the stories that keep cultures alive. The power of stories has been a huge element of the book, and I think it’s also a huge element of sustainable development in learning about ensuring social justice for all people on Earth.
In other classes, we talk a lot about the value of multiple world views and the power of maintaining other ways of knowing to resist colonial epistemicide. One of the most critical components of that is in maintaining cultural knowledge through oral traditions.
Where, throughout the book, are there other examples of story telling keeping parts of Tayo physically or mentally alive? Why does this matter in his personal life story? Where would he be without reclaiming many of the stories that broke him?
“He wanted to scream at Indians like Harley and Helen Jean and Emo that the white things they admired desired so much- the bright city lights and loud music and soft sweet food and the cars- all of these things had been stolen, torn out of Indian land: raw living materials for their ck’o’yo manipulation. The people had been taught to despise themselves because they were left with barren land and dry rivers. But they were wrong. It was the white people who had nothing…” (189). The passage goes on to explain that it is the white people who are suffering because they must live with the fact that what they have is stolen. This is a really interesting framing of colonization to me, and it is one that is definitely part of mainstream thought surrounding it. However, I feel slightly uncomfortable with it as I don’t want to make the colonizer the victim. In this scenario how can we center other perspectives and decolonize our thought while also acknowledging the harm caused to indigenous peoples by colonization?
“It’s almost gone,”(he said). “The clay is washing away,” (she said.) “Nobody has come to paint it since the war. But as long as you remember what you have seen, then nothing is gone. As long as you remember, it is part of this story we have together.” (215)
Leslie Marmon Silko created the story of “Ceremony,” but inside of it are even more stories. Climate change and environmental injustices have been an issue that has continued for a very long time and while there is scientific evidence to support the anthropoceneic destruction, this type of information has not been discussed and respected as one should hope or assume. That being said, a huge part of environmental justice comes from story telling. Stories can be told, heard, seen, in so many different types of ways and because of this a different aspect of human emotion and relation to the issue of climate change can be demonstrated. Silko not only includes story telling as a form of direct communication between characters but she also includes poems to portray her objectives towards influencing and educating those on these types of issues and situations. While story telling is a huge characteristic of cultures, some attest to the controversy of such tales because of their origins of creation and the complexity required to continue the traditions of telling these stories and the viability of each. Stories can be shown through art, pieces of writing, films, music, etc, there are so many ways in which they can be interpreted and understood. Because of the variety within stories, is it acceptable to say that through stories, the exposure and relevance of climate change has been increased? Do stories attest for the reliability they assume? Are stories a way in which climate change can be better understood and solutions can be found or is scientific evidence the only justifiable way in which climate change and environmental injustices can be combated?
A theme I see as recurring in Ceremony is the blurring of the dichotomies of pure and evil, innocence and guilt, past and present, belonging and sepreateness.
“If the white people never looked beyond the lie, to see that theirs was a nation built on stolen land, they would never be able to understand how they were used by the witchery; they would never know that they were still being manipulated by those who knew how to stir the ingredients together: white thievery and injustice boiling up the anger and hatred that would finally destroy the world: the starving against the fat, the colored against the white.” (177-178)
In narrating white people as tools of destruction rather than the harbingers of destruction, as well as by centering Tayo’s mixed race identity, Leslie Marmon Silko complicates dominant ideas of race relations between natives and whites. Betonie describes this perfectly in saying “you don’t write off all the white people, just like you don’t trust all the Indians.” (118) Leslie Marmon Silko seems to be weaving the idea that we all display both characteristics of good and bad, that we are not defined in a way that is bounded by polarity but we are dynamic and complex individuals. How might this newly complicated understanding of self, race relations, and blame for destruction reshape how we understand agency and responsibility? How does this change how Tayo views himself and those around him?
“Tayo starts to cut the fence’s wires, but he realizes he’s being hasty because he’s so excited. There’s no reason to rush, he tells himself. Better to stay cool and make sure he doesn’t make any mistakes.”
Tayo’s interaction with the steel and barbed fence is a reflection of the interactions he can have out in the world with white people. He correlated that the fence brought up interesting thoughts about how the claiming of lands is considered a white-man problem in his culture, but he also considers the problems within his culture surrounding different tribes claiming land as their own. This conundrum was very interesting to me for a few reasons, primarily considering the greed of human nature to own a certain area. This quote also shows how haist does not help for a proper thought process. The hurried judgement of the white-man in his culture can put a shroud over the problems of greed in his own culture.
In the climatic scene of Ceremony, Emo, Pinkie, and Leroy torture and kill Harley. The narrator explains the motivation behind this torture, stating that “Harley had failed them, and all that had been intended for Tayo had now turned on Harley” (233). When considering killing Emo in order to stop the torture, the narrator explains that Tayo “ understood that Harley had bargained for it; he realized that Harley knew how it would end if he failed to got the victim he named,” implying that this act of violence would only serve to ease Tayo’s guilt over watching his friend suffer (234). Later, Tayo reflects on the incident, saying that he had almost done what the witchery had wanted (235). Is Tayo’s decision to spare Emo’s life symbolic of ending a cycle of violence? Why couldn’t he help Harley?
The conclusion of the novel, “Ceremony,” really came full circle. One of the final poems of the novel really stuck with me and pulled various concepts together for me. As Tayo is finishing his journey, he replanted the green plant that Montano asked him to. As readers, we do not know that that plant is tobacco until we read one of the final poems. The poem starts with “Hummingbird and Fly thanked him. They took the tobacco to old Buzzard” (237). Tayo delivered the tobacco that the Hummingbird and the Fly were looking for for so long. This makes me believe Tayo to be the vessel for positive social and environmental change. Did the environmental degradation illustrated throughout the novel represent Tayo’s distress and state of being?
Though the ceremony with Betonie could be perceived as a failure and Tayo is obviously not “healed” afterwards, I do think there were some integral aspects that stuck with Tayo. We observe after the ceremony that Tayo goes back and fourth with fighting the feelings of his illness but there are important breakthrough moments where you can tell he’s beginning to feel better, such as the scene where it states, “Being alive was alright then, he had not breathed like that in a while”(181). He also seems to begin to have a more in-tune relationship and perspective of nature and how the colonists treat the land versus how Native Americans treat the land. It’s mentioned on pg 186 about how the loggers logged the mountain and shot bears and mountain lions for sport. We also hear how the people were warned that “the balance of the land had been disturbed and the people could expect droughts and harder days to come” (186). This scene is then shortly followed by an interaction between Tayo and a mountain lion, in a peaceful, non harmful, harmonious way. Do you think this scene shows tribute to how Tayos relationship with the land is becoming a more central part of his healing? Additionally, it’s mentioned that without Betonie he wouldn’t have hoped to find the cattle at all. Does this serve as evidence that the ceremony with Betonie was not in vain and that there were factors that resonated with Tayo, perpetually altering his vision of reality and perhaps boosting his confidence in his capabilities? I’d like to argue that the conversations between Tayo and Betonie were essential given it equipped Tayo with traditional knowledge, stories, and oral histories that can aid Tayo in enhancing his relationship with the natural world ultimately contributing to his ability to heal. Do you think the interaction with Betonie provided an opportunity for a new door to be opened within Tayo in his new found understanding that “his sickness was part of something larger, and his cure would be found only in something great and inclusive of everything” (126) exacerbating the notion that Tayo can’t simply look to medicine men for the help he needs, he too needs to do the internal and external work with and for himself and everything around him that is innately interconnected.
Additionally, we hear Betonie discussing that race does not dictate whether people are “good or bad”, that there are both good white men and bad Indians; this conception is a social construct that has permeated the minds of all parties and has overflowed into the actions, behaviors, and even perceptions of themselves and their communities. The illusion of separateness and the complex of superiority is, at its roots, evil and a purposefully crafted phenomena that lives in the minds of people, ultimately altering how they live their daily lives. We see this permeated stigma within Tayo when he’s looking for his cattle and thinks they may be stolen; his initial instinct is to put the potential blame on a “Mexican or an Indian”— “why did he hesitate to think of a white man stealing”(191)? Do you think the introduction of the idea that good or bad people are just people individual of their race, and the altered mind set whereabouts Tayo realizes that these colonial, racist frameworks even exist within his own mind can contribute to his ability to heal? Furthermore, we learn that Josiah had told Rocky and Tayo “how ridiculous violence and anger where” (194). Could the concoction of now knowing some people are just bad, this superiority complex is fake and purposefully crafted, and that violence is unnecessary, and anger is ineffective, help Tayo to deconstruct his previous mentality and shift towards a more holistic relationship with some of the unfair occurrences that have primarily contributed to his trauma, pain, and suffering in the first place?
On 122, Silko shares a poem:
Long time ago
in the beggining.
there were no white people in the world
there was nothing European.
And this world might have gone on like that
except for one thing:
witchery.
Silko uses this poem to explain how indigenous witches from around the Globe, including Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Sioux, Eskimos, a witch who no one knows. This witch goes on the share a warning about “white skin people” who “…fear the world, they destroy what they fear.” This warning speaks to the ecological devastation that industrialization has brought upon a world, a world that white people look at and “see no life.” The witch unleashes chaos and destruction, the prophecy of the end of life on earth. The poem ends, “it can’t be called back”
What can we learn from this poem to try and protect our Earth? Are there lessons within this poem or is it a warning and declaration that we have no hope for a better future?
On page 189, Tayo is having somewhat of an identity crisis. He hates white people and what they’ve done to Native Americans, and he can’t escape this trauma for two reasons. One, it is evident every day what white people have done to native americans and many other people, and two, Tayo is half white. “He wanted to scream at Indians… that the white things they admired so much- the bright city lights and loud music, the soft sweet food and the cars- all these things had been stolen, torn out of indian land… The people had been taught to despise themselves because they were left with barren land and dry rivers. But they were wrong. It was the white people who had nothing; it was the white people who were suffering as thieves do, never able forget that their pride was wrapped in something stolen, something that had never been, and could never be, theirs… only a few people knew that the lie was destroying white people faster than it was destroying Indian people.” I think that it is an interesting point of view (since we don’t see it that much) that white people are the ones that suffer because they live no truth, their fortune has been based on lies and theft. It is a deep sort of recognition, and takes a lot of introspect to realize. How can identifying this help and hurt white peoples way of thinking and recognizing their destruction?
After reading Ceremony, there are many reoccurring themes that I recognized. The most important is the personality conflict in Tayo’s life. This represents the conflict between white people and native people in general, but Silko makes the conflict human and more relevant by internalizing this conflict through Tayo’s own personal struggles. On page 87, Silko discusses a story of how Spider Woman and Sun Man were trying to get the rain to come back. While discussing this story, Tayo begins to discuss that thanks to western science and learning, these important stories found in Native culture are simply superstition. Grandma tried to make him aware of the power of stories, but Tayo was conflicted. He had white culture and native culture contradicting themselves inside of him and white culture was overpowering the stories within Tayo. Tayo does progress back to appreciating the morality of native culture of immoral white culture, though. When he lets Josiah’s cattle free, he is spotted by some Texans and hurts himself trying to escape them. “He lay there and hated them. Not for what they wanted to do with him, but for what they did to the earth with their machines, and to the animals with their packs of dogs and their guns” (p189). He is able to recognize his own morality and the lack of morality of the white man, embracing his native blood and rejecting the white.
Another them that I caught on too was the structure of the book. There is no chapters and the text is poem and normal passage and Tayo’s dialogue by Silko. The inclusion of poems is important because I believe that figurative language often does a better job of portraying ideas that challenge empirical thought.
How different would this book be if there were no poems or stories? Could Silko portray the same ideas and themes?
There is an instance on pg. 235 where Tayo was almost consumed by the witchery. “The moon was lost in a cloud bank. He moved back into the boulders. It had been a close call. The witchery had almost ended the story according to its plan; Tayo had almost jammed the screwdriver into Emo’s skull the way the witchery had wanted…” We have learned of Tayo being half-white while many of his other peers and friends are full native. Is it because Tayo is half white that the witchery was almost able to consume him? Was this due to the PTSD that he acquired at war? It seems as though this witchery is a metaphor for something bigger or more psychological.
My favorite quote from this book is when Tayo and Betonie are talking about the land that the white people have taken and Betonie says “They only fool themselves when they think it’s theirs. The deeds and papers don’t mean anything. It is the people that belong to the mountain. What he is basically saying is that just because white people have a piece of paper with their name on it saying that they own the land doesn’t actually mean that they own it. In our materialistic world sure you could say they own it but they do not share the same sense of place as the indigenous people do. That’s why even though Betonie doesn’t live in the nicest home he is not going to leave because that is his home and that is his land that he is attached to. I can relate to this on a personal note because growing up I lived near a lot of family and we had a lot of family land but slowly over time it has had to be sold off to pay bills and even though these development companies and private homeowners have moved in and built around us, I still feel as if the land is more mine than theirs because of my sense of place. I am the 5th generation to grow up where I did and it hurts me to see it change into something completely different but my love for that area will never change.
As we continue to discuss Silko’s text as well as the movie “Homeland”, I began to have conversations with my partner who is from Alaska. Although he is not native Alaskan, he has a good amount of knowledge about indigenous communities and the ways in which land is being destroyed by oil and natural gas producers. Each year, Alaskan residents are given a Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) using revenues paid to the state by these producers. Drew and everyone in his family was given $2000 a year to be hush-hush about what oil and natural gas producers were doing to the land. Of course, there is more to this story than just bribing citizens to not speak up about environmental destruction. I began to think about the different opinions on PFDs and what would happen if that in order to stop drilling and other destructive practices, we would have to take away PFDs. If we took away this annual dividend, many Alaskan would be upset. Drew’s family saved up every PFD and used that money to send each of his siblings to college. Maybe others are willing to give this up to be able to stand up against oil and natural gas producers. Would non-cooperation and refusal to take PFDs be enough to take action against these massive companies?
Towards the end of Ceremony, there is some interesting commentary on white harm towards indigenous people, and of greater evil and forces within the world. We discussed this in class, and afterwards, Krystal and I tried to conceptualize some more regarding how we can apply this thinking today. In the book, Silko comments on these concepts through Tayo’s realization of the lies that have been engrained in his mind of white people never being thieves, because they can always purchase their needs (like land from Indigenous peoples). The book continues, actually commenting, “It was the white people who had nothing; it was the white people who were suffering as thieves do, never able to forget that their pride was wrapped in something stolen, something that had never been, and could never be, theirs,” (189). Earlier, Silko comments on the manipulation of white people by witchery, saying “If the white people never looked beyond the lie, to see that theirs was a nation built on stolen land, then they would never be able to understand how they had been used by the witchery; they would never know that they were still being manipulated by those who knew how to stir the ingredients together,” (177). We all had different interpretations of this, but especially important to note is agency and ownership over actions. In today’s context, I think this may have implications regarding manipulation through the media, and action and/or violence as a consequence of fake news. Does manipulation excuse violent action? Does manipulation excuse being a bystander of violence in various human rights issues? For examples, larger forces at play also could be intergenerational norms, could be a violent past of your people that you are removed of but still apart of, etc. Where does agency come into play and what role is it of people to learn of the larger forces at play that affect their views, actions, perceptions etc.?? The commentary throughout this section is very interesting, especially later on when Tayo laughs at a racist comment made, saying the person is so unaware of how they are manipulated, but that doesn’t excuse the racist comment. If you believe it is the role of people to educate themselves of larger forces of evil, how do you enforce this, instead of laughing at ignorance that is seriously harmful to others?
On page 122 of Ceremony, this excerpt from the poem below really stood out to me:
Long time ago
in the beginning.
there were no white people in the world
there was nothing European.
And this world might have gone on like that
except for one thing:
witchery….
Silko is talking about how white culture’s opinions on the indigenous reduce them to “savages’. The term “witch” is also viewed negatively in christianity because they’re viewed as demons, the devil’s way of throwing chaos into the world. But, that’s not the only way of viewing witches. Witches have been prevalent and important in indigenous communities for centuries.
My question is, shouldn’t we be talking about the differences between how white culture has shaped history to their benefit? I mean we all know this very well. But, the example of the definition of a witch is not something discussed often. How can one culture have such an affect over the global history of the world? Why isn’t every opinion expressed in the history books?
On pages 189-190 Tayo talks about his encounter with the Texan and how he does not hate white people because of their feelings about him and his community but for the impacts we have made on the Earth and all we have taken from it. He mentions the frustration he feels towards Emo, Harley, and Helen Jean for admiring the destructive lifestyle that has taken so much from them but continues to say “It was the white people who had nothing; it was the white people who were suffering as thieves do, never able to forget that their pride was wrapped in something stolen, something that has never been, and could never be, theirs.” This part made me wonder, did his strong conflicting feelings along with others like his previous guilt and struggles with personal identity lead him to be more susceptible to the witchery? Could these have helped or did they prove to hinder his experience throughout the ceremony?
One of the quotes that stood out to me the most and really had a profound impact came towards the beginning of the book where Tayo says “Here they were, trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war. They blamed themselves for losing the new feeling; they never talked about it, but they blamed themselves just like they blamed themselves for losing the land the white people took. They never thought to blame the white people for any of it; they wanted white people for their friends. They never saw that it was the white people who gave them that feeling and it was the white people who took it away again when the war was over.” (Ceremony, 43). This quote really brings my mind to colonialism and all the extremely negative effects it has had on people all over the world. This just furthers the idea that we have talked about throughout the class of white men from the global north taking advantage of those deemed lesser than them with no regard or care for their wellbeing. It shows that colonialism not only has a physical effect in terms of land taken or lives lost but a dismal mental state as well. We have taken something from them and made them feel like they are no longer a part of anything. We have constructed boundaries on their land of which they historically roamed free, have limited hunting, polluted lands, and much more. It also shows you just how amazing and compassionate these people are as well. Tayo even says, “they wanted the white people for friends”, explicitly showing that the Native Americans had no quarrels with the white people until they began to harm them. Rather they aimed to be friends, with a mutually beneficial relationship. However, obviously, as we know this is far from what actually happened. This really makes me wonder if there would have been any way for the United States and the Native Americans to be in harmony? It also makes me wonder if the Native Americans had been hostile rather than friendly if things would have gone differently?
The poem about the creation of white people that starts on 122 and ends on 128. I talks about how “they will kill the things they fear” (Silko, 126). Which is the basis for colonization, but it’s interesting that the poem gives an explanation for why colonialism happened the way it did. That does make me wonder if it allows for accountability? In my mind yes, because it’s not justifying or excusing colonialism. it just gives indigenous people control over the narrative and gives them a reason why. The poem also makes me think about the film we watched in class and how Alaskan natives are fighting to protect their cultural land from oil companies. It makes me wonder how much and how little has changed between indigenous rights and the US government between when this book was written and now? Have there been ways and policies implemented to help protect cultural land comparing from when the book was written and now? The poem says how white people will cause starvation and poison the water and in the past that has happened. Are we seeing a new version of that today? Are there things that are happening or projects being created that will cause an increased risk of anything for indigenous people?
A quote which stood out to me in Ceremony reads, “it was everything they had seen – the cities, the tall buildings , the noise and the lights, the power of their weapons and machines. They were never the same after that: they had seen what the white people had made from the stolen land,” (156). The industrialization white people have forced upon the land stolen from the natives is damaging to their culture. In Ceremony, Betonie helps Tayo through his trauma by adapting cultural rituals to fit modern circumstances. In this way, traditions and cultural beliefs can be preserved. How else does the book suggest native cultures can be preserved and honored in modern day America?
A lot of this story sheds light on the negative impact White settlers had and continue to have on Indigenous cultures. Tayo faces a great internal struggle over the fact he loathes White people for stealing their land and oppressing his people, but in fact he’s half White. Tayo expressed his want to “scream at Indians” for admiring the White people’s culture of city lights, cars, and loud music as if his peers were blind to the historically rooted injustices that came from White culture. Another quote that follows this theme and resonated with me throughout the book is when Betonie says to Tayo “They only fool themselves when they think it’s theirs. The deeds and papers don’t mean anything. It is the people that belong to the mountain”. The indigenous and moral way of thought follows the idea that land can not be owned or bought, it can only be cohabitated with people and other species. Just because the White man creates this piece of paper, signs it and calls it a deed does not truly give him the right to any piece of land, especially when an indigenous tribe or community has had their roots deeply placed there for decades. How can we, as primarily White privileged moral humans, begin to alter this white-washed perception that a printed or signed piece of paper deems ownership? Clearly this perspective goes back centuries and can be seen across the globe in different religions and cultures, but is there a way to shed light on the immense immorality of this concept when it involves White people and any Indigenous or other minority population?
I thought a lot about the introduction of the character Betonie. Betonie becomes so important to Tayo’s transformation in showing that adaptation is indeed possible, with the allowance of connections to still be made. One of the most interesting aspects of Betonie to me was the fact that he lived right over a dump, which then oversaw the town of Gallop. Tayo is surprised that Betonie chooses to live in a more so unappealing location. The point is that the trash, the town, and the people are out of place, but Betonie is not, he is part of the environment and belongs. This I think is one of the first major steps in Tayo’s overall healing journey. How can we teach ourselves to adapt in our environment when undesirable circumstances occur? Can Betonie’s teachings be helpful?
Throughout the book Ceremony, Tayo is put against his own cultural values when he has to come to terms with his friends being infected with some of the nasty attributes that are common among the white settler society. He even has to witness, or he thinks he witnesses, the murder and torture of one of his good friends. The act was meant to anger Tayo, The character Emo repeatedly taunting him and antagonizing him with different behaviors that he relates most to this white settler society.
But through Tayos close relation with his own culture to conquer the urge to take action, something that could taint the morals that he possesses. He evetually finds himself pitted against his best friends, who through different harsh practices like warefare, have tainted their view from their culture. My main question would perhaps be, what does it take for someone to let go of the cultural heritage that they have grown up learning? Why would a cutlture so tied to loving the land and the ones around you be so easily infected by the thoughts of white culture? Why is it so difficult for Native Americans to uphold their cultural heritage in the world we find ourselves in today? And what is the significance of Tayo not running out to try to save his friend from being tortured?
I found the discussion Silko presents in Ceremony discussing the distinction between forms of cultural knowledge and more rational, scientific knowledge characteristic of the natural sciences and general western intellectual thought to be an interesting one. Silko shows this distinction through the conversation between Tayo and his grandmother on the contrast between western, scientific accounts of natural phenomena and the mythological, cultural and symbolic representations of a group’s relationship to these natural phenomena. For Tayo this interpretation of natural phenomena as described by his grandmother (with reference to the origin story of the spider woman and the sun man) conflicts with the education he has received within present western public education systems and pedagogy. I typically find this discussion to be of little value, as the general secularization of the world long ago showed that these older, mythological representations of the world obfuscate our understanding of the world and our capacity to investigate it. However, I see potential fruitfulness in this discussion as it pertains to one point: that the presentation and formation of knowledge, in order to possibly be more readily accepted by a culture or applied to the social ills of the present, might benefit from an adjustment in style. Through a reinterpretation of how knowledge might be best presented and disseminated, or at least a questioning of present presuppositions regarding it, a society and its constituent individuals might become more adept in the interpretation and application of said knowledge, if not also the development of a greater emotional and cultural connection to the knowledge we actually generate.
How might other writing mediums or creative methods of presentation show a greater plurality in how one might interpret the meaning implicitly or explicitly presented by an author?
Silko’s book, Ceremony, exemplifies the ways that culture connects intimately to knowledge and the ways in which people are able to understand the world in which they reside. Tayo experiences severe trauma from the things he witnesses while deployed, which he has no explanation for. The Army doctor and American treatments for his ailments seem to be addressing the symptoms of the issue, not directly looking for nor seeking to address the cause. I see this as a major difference between the American treatment and the ceremony Tayo is in, performed by Betonie. Betonie talks and includes Tayo into his own process of healing, encouraging Tayo to put words to the feelings he’s been experiencing. As Tayo gains an understanding of the processes which formed the world he is living in, this knowledge helps Tayo to reckon with the stark contrasts he sees in society, such as, people being blinded by material objects and losing themselves to their desires, like the people who indulge in gambling, drinking, or women. He learns to understand engaging with these indulgences is driven by hopelessness, as he is shown by Betonie’s example of describing their world as bleak, and a feeling of being lost. Tayo directly experiences this and is working through these feelings during the process of this book. By addressing the root of the cause, Tayo’s feeling of hopelessness and to feel lost results in the healing of his trauma. This reminds me of the current popular responses to climate change, including initiatives such as a carbon tax, or greenhouse gas capturing devices. These solutions fail to holistically address the problems which cause their existence, and therefore, are truly ineffective at solving the problem. They may treat a symptom of this problem, but the solution is short sighted and narrow, because often, problems, like increased greenhouse gas emissions, or problems such as a mental health crisis caused by severe trauma, are driven by the same processes and ideals. Each problem concerning the environment and all life, human and non-human, is interconnected in their impacts, and creating solutions for these dimensions needs to fully address these interconnected problems.
How can taking a holistic view of an issue guide us to look for the best help? What role do culture and community play in adding to the depth of arguments that cannot be proven through data?