Summary Of Storytelling In The Way To Rainy Mountain

Most stories we read are complete fiction, written for the sole purpose of the reader’s entertainment. Although storytelling is common in all cultures, it is woven into the Native American culture. They utilize storytelling as a way to pass down oral traditions and explain how their society and way of life came to be. Whether they teach a lesson or entertain, storytelling aids in a variety of way in their culture. Storytelling is a vital tool used in the Native American heritage.
“ The center of Native American storytelling is the community” (Jacobs). Its role is to connect all aspects of the culture. It also gives insight to the community, to their history, and to their religious beliefs. They supply history of a tribe, traditions, life lessons,

N. Scott Momaday’s story “ The Way to Rainy Mountain “, brings out multiple key reasons as to why storytelling is so important in upholding legends and bygone times. Momaday’s memoir is written to document his native tribe, the Kiowa’s, formation and early life. The article “Storytelling traditions of Native Americans” also states that “Native American oral storytelling traditions allowed tribes to transmit their mythological, spiritual and historical understandings of themselves and the worlds they inhabited to their children and their children’s children “(1). Their stories preserve ceremonies and traditions that would otherwise be forgotten as time progressed. It also preserves their language that would otherwise start to fade away as well. Whether it be the antiquity of the whole Native American race, a tribe, or a single person, A significant part of their life is passed down in the form of a story so it isn’t a lost

When anything out of the ordinary occurs in nature, Native Americans explain how it came to be through a story. Leslie Silko’s article exemplifies natural phenomena with her yashatoah story. “ And today they say that Acoma has more beautiful butterflies: red ones, white ones, blue ones, yellow ones. They came from the little girl’s clothing” (Silko 774). The story describes a young girl drowning herself in the river, and when the mother strews the girl’s clothing, they turn to butterflies. Natural Phenomena stories can be about a variety of things, from star constellations to an abundance of a certain animal in that area. N. Scott Momaday’s memoir “ The Way to Rainy Mountain “, includes a folktale about how a constellation was formed. Seven sisters and their brother were playing and the boy abruptly started to run on his hands and feet. He grew fur on his body and his fingers transformed into claws. The boy altered into a bear and started to chase the girls until they were saved by a tree stump. Just before the bear could kill them they climbed the tree stump and were released into the sky and they became the stars that make up the big dipper (59). Through stories that tell about such phenomena, Native Americans can become closer with origin of the landscape in which they