Keywords

cultural revitalization, mixed heritage, alternative history

Abstract

Leslie Marmon Silko’s (mixed-blood Laguna Pueblo) Ceremony is a powerful novel that tells the story of Tayo, a mixed-blood Pueblo war veteran who returns to Laguna mentally crippled by his wartime experiences. As Tayo struggles to overcome the alienation his military service has created, he must also face the shame of his own mixed heritage. His suffering eventually leads him off the pueblo to a Navajo healer, Betonie, who helps Tayo create a new historical paradigm based on Navajo and Laguna mythology. Betonie’s fictional re-vision of history is, perhaps, the novel’s most important accomplishment. Through Betonie, Silko creates an alternative understanding of history that empowers both the Native American characters in the novel and Native American readers of the novel. Ceremony becomes, at least potentially, a powerful tool for the revitalization of culture.

Original Publication Citation

“‘So That the Nations May Become Genuine Indian’: Nativism and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony.” Journal of American Culture, vol. 22, no. 4, 2000, pp. 77-89. (Bode Award winner.)