The Lie: The White Man and Friends

Works Cited:
Bird, Gloria. "Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony"" Wicazo Sa Review, Vol 9, No. 2 Autumn 1993. University of Minnesota Press. 04 Jan. 2009 .

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition). New York: Penguin Books, 2006.

loria Bird’s article called, Toward a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony,” Bird discusses her feelings of decolonization of her language and culture. She remembers a song that went along with a game. She knew the words and everything, but she felt like the song did not belong to her. Her feelings were the same when it came to her cultures language. She felt left out because she did not understand the language, so when her mother did not want her to hear something, she would speak in their Indian language.

Her mother believed that, “once the old people are gone, the songs, the stories, the knowledge will be lost” (Decolonization 1). Bird found herself in a double bind with the song, feeling as if she did not have the right to sing that song. She makes a reference to Leslie Silko’s, Ceremony. The first time that Tayo meets the medicine man, Ku’oosh, and as he speaks to Tayo, he is unable to understand fully what the medicine man is saying. Tayo feel embarrassed. This continues throughout Ceremony as Tayos’ grandmother makes Tayo aware that he is different and not a full-blooded Indian.

Both Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Gloria Bird’s Towards Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony”, a topic that comes to mind is “the lie”, but not just the lie about the whites, but the lies and the deceptions of your own people. Tayo, a very sick solider of Word War II, had to cope with the colonization of the white people and also his “so called” best friend Emo.

Bird describes Tayo’s view of “the lie” as, “Tayo is employed to reject the internalization of negative typifications as he frees his cattle from the white man’s land debating whether or not to label the man a ‘thief’” (Decolonization 6). Here this is where Tayo begins to see through the lie and break out of the colonization, which has been embedded in his head for so long. Tayo and his people have been forced to think that they are the ones whom are to be thought of as the “thieves” and not the white people. In Ceremony, it is even admitted by Tayo that, “he had learned the lie by heart – the lie which they had wanted him to learn” (Ceremony 191). As the lie unfolds in the novel, Tayo cuts open the wire that help Josiah’s cattle which Tayo believes, finally, that those cattle did not rightfully belong to the white man. The cattle rightfully belonged to him now.

Emo, a troublemaker from the start of Ceremony, betrays Tayo with a plan to hunt him down and kill him. But once Tayo figures out the betrayal and runs away from all of his friends, as Harley then eventually takes the blame and has to face the consequences. “Tayo was halfway up the hill before he stopped: suddenly it hit him, in the belly, and spread to his chest in a single surge: he knew then that they were not his friends but had turned against him, and the knowledge left him hollow and dry inside, like the locust’s shell” (Ceremony 225). Not only has Tayo believed the lie about the whites, now he comes to find out all of his friends have turned on him.

Bird also shows a bit of betrayal by her family. She had always felt like she was “stealing” the language of her people. For example, her mother, “she spoke Indian around me only when she wanted to exclude me” (Decolonization 1). Also, at family gatherings, Bird would have no idea what her aunts and uncles were talking about because she had a lack of understanding of the language. Her family’s actions made her believe that she was unworthy of her language. She admits, “It seems I have lived under the weight of meaninglessness, the nadir of making meaning, of finding a way in the only language I know to reconnect something, as if to somehow jar the language out of the illusion of its impotence. Auntie did this same sort of thing to Tayo, when she did not fully accept him because he was mixed-blood.

The white man was perceived as a friend of the Indians, but everything belonged to them, no matter what it was. That was a lie. Emo tricked Tayo into trusting him as a friend. He lied to Tayo. Tayo’s life is full of deception and bridges burnt down. Bird is able to give examples from her own experiences as a child.

(Not too sure how to end this thought yet…)

Decolonization of the Mind - Gloria Bird

Works Cited:
Bird, Gloria. "Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony"" Wicazo Sa Review, Vol 9, No. 2 Autumn 1993. University of Minnesota Press. 04 Jan. 2009 .


Gloria Bird’s article called, Toward a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony,” Bird discusses her feelings of decolonization of her language and culture. She remembers a song that went along with a game. She knew the words and everything, but she felt like the song did not belong to her. Her feelings were the same when it came to her cultures language. She felt left out because she did not understand the language, so when her mother did not want her to hear something, she would speak in their Indian language.

Her mother believed that, “once the old people are gone, the songs, the stories, the knowledge will be lost.” (1) Bird found herself in a double bind with the song, feeling as if she did not have the right to sing that song. She makes a reference to Leslie Silko’s, Ceremony. The first time that Tayo meets the medicine man, Ku’oosh, and as he speaks to Tayo, he is unable to understand fully what the medicine man is saying. Tayo feel embarrassed. This continues throughout Ceremony as Tayos’ grandmother makes Tayo aware that he is different and not a full-blooded Indian.

Extra Credit: Speaker

On Thursday April 16, 2009, I attended what was more than just a lecture, but a passionate woman who only wanted to tell of her life and the struggles that her and her Lakota people had to deal with in the past, present, and as she indicated, far into the future as well. Mary Brave Bird or also known as Mary Crow dog, came to Ohio University with more than just a heavy heart, she came with stamina and the strength to keep fighting for her ancestors. Mary paced back and forth the front of the room in the University Baker Center as she told of her past. She was born on the Pineridge reservation. Her was father was the first to leave her soon after she was born and not much later her mother did the same. She was then forced to live with her grandparents until her and her siblings were old enough to be sent to boarding school. As she grew up prior to boarding school, she was nurtured with love and the most important thing was family. In the Catholic boarding school she said that it felt like there was no love or family at all. The priests and the nuns would have no time for talk of Indian culture; there was only room for the lessons and the teachings of GOD. Although today Mary accepts Jesus and believes in him, her Lakota beliefs and ideas is the strong force within her. Her faith she said, was one of her only reasons that she is even alive today. She discussed her experience during the Indian Revolution. The things that she saw were extremely terrible. One time she recalled Green and Yellow Thunder, a native man in Nebraska, who was made to dance naked in front of the Legion men as entertainment. Later he was killed and stuffed into the trunk of a car. One of the most important things that Mary hold within herself, to this day, is her Lakota language. She had to learn the language twice, which she places the blame on her grandparents that she had to do that. She said, "Language comes with feelings -- emotions with the universe." Between each deep breath that Mary took because she was getting very emotional during parts of her story, you could see the passion in her eyes and the pride that she took in all of her work and her culture. But most of all, I have never seen a speaker so great full for the attendance of so many listeners. I thought she was going to break out into tears again when the group that sponsored her to come speak to us gave her a gift. I thought that listening to Mary Brave Bird was very enjoyable.

New Cattle, Night Swan, and Hummingbird

1. We learn of Josiah’s new cattle business and of the almost wild Mexican cattle he buys. What symbolic associations do the Mexican cattle carry? (Consider breeds and breeding, contrast with Herefords, where they go, and relation to nature, fences etc).

In nature, most animals do not want to be kept in by a fence. The fence keeps them from running free and does not allow them to roam across the land. So, the importance of the cattle breaking free from the fence shows how unhappy they were being stuck in the same spot all the time. Not to mention there is a huge drought that has swept over that land where the herd lived. They had no choice but to break free and try to save themselves from death because of the lack of water. The fact that the Mexican cattle were brought to Josiah by a Native American. This serves as a symbol of mixed ancestors. That possibly the Mexicans and the Native Americans have to use one another in order to prosper. Josiah had plans to breed the different cattle together in order to be able to survive in the drought, after he read about the idea in a book. But the ideas of the book did not really go with Josiah's current sistution. Pretty much he wanted to create a "power cattle", a type of cattle that would have to best meat, as well as survive in the drought. But he was unable to do this, which symbolizes the idea of failed attempts for a proper civilization. Possibly why the whites were able to take over the land in the new world, and then move all the Native Americans onto reservations.

2. We are also introduced to Josiah’s Mexican lover, the Flamenco dancer, Night Swan. What do we find out about her? What significance attaches to her character? What’s with all the blue? How does what she tells Tayo connect with elements that come up in other parts of the novel?

Night Swan is a very sexy, old woman, whom Josiah met and fell instantly in love with her. She used to dance flamenco for men, when she was younger, so they would fall in love with her. She is now a grandmother and she dances for her gandchildren. Night Swan is a mixed Mexican and had traveled a great amount in order to find water. She ends up dancing and seducingn Tayo in order to teach him a lesson about change. She knows how powerful her sexuality is, but is able to use it for good.

3.We get poetic installments of the Hummingbird tale on p. 42-45, 49-50, 65-66, 76, 97, 104-105, 140 (to this point) How might you relate this story to Tayo’s?

In Hummingbird, the poem, the shawman, were doing witchcraft and dancing on their roofs. This made one of the sisters very angry and so she took the clouds away from them for a long time, which caused a huge drought. The Shawman became worried and wanted to know how they could get the clouds back so they could have water again. The poem goes along with the situation that Tayo believed he was in. He wished the water and rain away because it was making things very hard during the war. After he prayed many times, the rain stopped. In fact, it stopped for six years, and he blammed himself for the drought. He felt that it should be taken into his own hands to figure out a way to get the rain to come back. Both Tayo and the Shawman had the same task in mind.

Ceremony

1.) Given what you have read so far (esp. the Pueblo stories, the Hopi film, and Silko essays), what connections can you draw between the first few pages (the poems) of Ceremony and these materials?

So far I have found that the animals play a big role already, in the story. Tayo focuses on a deer in his mind to relax after his dream. When I think back to the story of the creation of the animals by the two sisters, I think of their baskets and how when they brought the deer to life, it made them happy because it was food for them to eat. Later is talks about him milking his goat and helping his father carry water to the few animals they have. Animals are a big part of what makes up the earth and what keeps the cycle of animal life and survival in sync.

Most importantly, Tayo speaks of a drought that he prayed for. It sounds a lot like the time when one of the sisters withheld the clouds from the shawmen because she did not like their witchcraft. The hummingbird had to help them find the sister and please her in order to stop the drought. Also, the importance of prayer and poems to the gods is very prevalent in both Ceremony and in the stories of the Pueblo.


2.)Describe, as best as you can, Auntie’s attitudes about Tayo, mixed blood, and religion.

Auntie's attitude is accepting to others that are unlike her. She is very critical towards others, as well as spiteful. She is to take care of Tayo. Although she is the eldest of her family and the motherly figure is to raise the children and to take care of the family, she is able to care of Tayo and her family well, but she is still critical of Tayo's mixed blood. She adds to his feelings of exclusion from the family. He is made to feel different and not as if he belongs. She even tries to call herself a martyr, but as a Christian, one should be open-minded and accepting of others. But in fact she is a rather narrow-minded "Christian."

She Had Some Horses

There are many different places where there is evidence that Joy Harjo is referring to the "horses" as emotions. In the third stanza she talks about, "horses who danced in their mother's arms." When I read that, it made me think of a little girl dancing around with her mother. Also, when she writes, "she had horses who were much too shy, and kept quiet in stalls of their own making," it makes me think of a young girl in gradeschool sitting alone as all the other little girls are lauging and giggling in a circle.

Harjo displays more than just emotions in this stanza, she displays what seems to be vices. I say vices because some little girls are too shy and it sometimes inhibits their interaction with others. These vices of keeping their voice to themselves continues into the stanza which states, "She had horses who called themselves, "spirit", and kept their voices secret and to themselves." On that note, I feel that the "spirit" is implied to be a female, only because males used to always have to upper hand on women (especially their own wives) and so women did not have much of an opinion, let alone a voice to stand up for themselves.

I believe that the clear truth is vivid. She throws out gruesome words such as rape, hated, destruction, knives, blood, and licking razor blades. I believe that is the harsh reality of emotions and thoughts in some females heads. These words, if acted on or out, then they stick in a persons head to haunt them for years.

The end of the poem brings it to a simple close. She has some emotions she have loved and some others that she has hated. She has had some vises that have been good and bad. Finaly, there has been some memories that have been loved and cherished and others have been hated and gruesome.