2nd Posting Response
Brian Jay Green (bjg8530@silver.sdsmt.edu)
Thu, 6 Nov 1997 18:26:10 -0700 (MST)
I will tell you something about stories, [he said]. They aren't
just entertainment. Don't be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all
we have to fight off illness and death. You don't have anything if you
don't have stories. This quote is touched throughout the entire book on
several different occasions. On page 13 a story is told of the water
being taken away by Iktoa'ak'o'ya-Reed Woman. Without this story
the native Laguna Peublo people would have no traditional reason as to why
it had been dry for 4 years. Ma'see'wi and Ou'yu'ye'wi and all the people
were fooled by that Ck'o'yo medicine man (48) Nau'ts'ity'i was very angry
so she took the plants and grass from them. No baby animals were born.
She took the rainclouds with her. (48-49) Tayo hearing this story could
kind of start to heel, because he now knows that his cursing of the rain
in the war had nothing to do with the lack of rain on the reservation.
Old Betonie tells Tayo about how Sun Man won the clouds back from Ck'o'yo
or Kaup'a'ta the gambler. (170-176) We now find out in the story how the
reservation started to get rain. The final connection to the passage that
I have selected deals with the ceremony that Old Betonie and his helper
Schush conduct the hoop ceremny to help Tayo heel himself from the war
shock. Ceremonies or stories aern't just for entertainment. They are all
we have, all we have to fight off illness and death.
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