This paper examines the essential role of storytelling in Native American culture and literature. Through analysis of works by Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, John Rogers, Gerald Vizenor, William Apess, Sherman Alexie, Wendy Rose, and Linda Hogan, the paper identifies core literary conventions—including rituals, myths, chance encounters, trickster figures, and themes of struggle and identity—that distinguish Native American narrative traditions. The paper argues that storytelling serves as a vehicle for preserving cultural history, processing trauma, and asserting indigenous identity in the face of centuries of oppression and assimilation pressures.
Native American culture has existed as a unique entity for thousands of years. Amongst several other factors, native language, customs, and way of life distinguish the Native American people from all other civilizations in the world. Native American literature also expresses its own distinct individuality. Vital to that individuality is storytelling. In the words of Tom Arviso Jr., "it is through the telling of stories that the history, legends, myths and customs of Indian people have been preserved and passed on through the centuries" (Arviso, 2002, para. 1).
This culture of storytelling yields rituals, myths, chance encounters, trickster figures, themes of struggle and identity, effective uses of language, and reactions to the events occurring around it. Understanding these literary conventions reveals how Native American literature functions as a vehicle for cultural memory, spiritual continuity, and collective survival.
A tradition of ritual runs deep in Native American culture and is reflected in Native American literature. In Scott Momaday's The Rise of the Song, the character of Abel enacts a death ceremony: "He drew the old man's head erect and laid water to the hair. He fashioned the long white hair in a queue and wound it around with yarn. He dressed the body in bright ceremonial colors" (Momaday, 1995, p. 139).
Momaday's attention to detail in this rendition of ritual paints an effective picture and offers instructions for this particular rite. The lengthy description of Abel's actions mirrors the long and slow death of the grandfather. Written in the late 1960s, the Vietnam War may have influenced Momaday to focus on death and death ritual, exploring how ceremony provides meaning and continuity during times of loss and trauma.
Myths form a large portion of the Native American literary canon. Myths often help to explain acts of nature or traumatic events and can serve prophetic functions. In Call That Story Back, Leslie Marmon Silko creates a myth to account for the coming of the white man to North America. In this myth, a witch offers a story to a group of magicians and says, "as I tell the story / it will begin to happen" (Silko, 1995, p. 185).
The story describes the arrival of Europeans to the continent and the negative effects they have on nature and Native peoples (Silko, 1995). Silko formats her story in a poetic style, lending credence to its mythic makeup. The words the witch uses to tell this tale give the illusion that a spell is being cast. The modern age has witnessed destruction of the environment. Silko's story not only predicts what has happened to nature but also what is to come if humanity refuses to call the story back—a warning about the consequences of ignoring indigenous wisdom.
Chance is a convention often utilized in Native American life and literature. In John Rogers' biography Return to White Earth, a chance meeting with a porcupine is equivalent to a message from the Great Spirit (Rogers, 1995). In mother's recounting of a hunting story, she explains how she met a porcupine and "knew that meeting a porcupine at night was not a good omen" (Rogers, 1995, p. 56).
Later, when they narrowly escaped a charging moose, father exclaimed, "No wonder we met the porcupine" because "surely the Great Spirit was watching over us" (Rogers, 1995, p. 57). Rogers' characters speak using simple language, giving the reader the feeling this story was being told by the young boy who witnessed it. Rogers published his biography late in his life, a time when a new generation of Native Americans were slowly losing touch with their cultural past. By writing these stories from his life, Rogers attempted to instill a sense of wonder and pride for Native heritage in the minds of Native peoples.
Tales of tricksters inhabit many Native American works. Tricksters traditionally take on various roles in Native American stories, serving as boundary-crossers and agents of transformation. In Gerald Vizenor's Measuring My Blood, Vizenor's father is described as "a compassionate trickster who did not heed the sinister stories about stolen souls and the evil gambler" (Vizenor, 1995, p. 69).
Vizenor's life seems filled with "tricksterness." He wrote that as a baby his grandmother "would hide my bottle to wean me in the trickster manner" (Vizenor, 1995, p. 74). Vizenor's words create a lonely and lost world, reflecting the state of the Native American still struggling to survive culturally in a modern era. The trickster figure, though complex and ambiguous, embodies resilience and adaptive survival.
Struggle exemplifies a common theme in much Native American literature. From the moment Europeans set foot on the North American continent, Native American culture has struggled to survive. William Apess faced obstacles and conflict throughout his early nineteenth-century childhood. In his biography A Son in the Forest, he described his initial fear for his own race and later posited: "the whites did not tell me that they were in a great majority of instances the aggressors – that they had imbrued their hands in the lifeblood of my brethren, driven them from their once peaceful and happy homes – that they introduced among them the fatal and exterminating diseases of civilized life" (Apess, 1995, p. 27).
Apess wrote in a gentle voice. He knew he wrote for a largely white audience and had no desire to insult or threaten them. During his life, Native Americans were being persecuted and pushed further westward. His biography is an attempt to show that Native Americans could live within white culture while maintaining their dignity.
In a more modern poem, Sherman Alexie retells the battle of Little Bighorn as a dream. In the dream, the character of Crazy Horse says, "survive survive survive" (Alexie, 1995, p. 293). These three words not only reflect the turbulent history of Native America but also speak to all people who exist today and consider themselves Native American. The mantra of survival echoes across centuries of literature, transforming historical trauma into an affirmation of ongoing cultural existence.
Married to the theme of struggle is the search for self-identity. The Native American culture, once hated by the majority and then ignored by them, struggled to define itself against imposed narratives. Children were being born with mixed-race parents. Sometimes these children fought to understand who they were. In Neon Scars, a biography, Wendy Rose wrote: "How many almost comic photographs do I have of the sharp faced blond and delicate lady who sits before the long-faced mustached Englishman and, between them, holds the chubby little girl with the dark round face, that little Indian baby" (Rose, 1995, p. 98).
Rose's ability to make fun of herself and her situation opens readers' hearts and allows them to listen more deeply to her words. The Native American search for identity also produced optimistic summations. When describing her own mixed blood, Linda Hogan wrote: "I am a tree, grafted branches / bearing two kinds of fruit" (Hogan, 1995, p. 264). In more modern times, the Native American has become a respected part of the history and community of the United States. The positive outlook of white America may have strengthened Hogan's more positive expression of her own identity and heritage.
The Native American culture has survived countless wars, manifest destiny, genocide attempts, reservation life, ridicule, ignorance, and an overwhelming drive to assimilate into white society. In a culture that began writing its literature down so recently in its long existence, it is remarkable that so much of that culture survives today.
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