Stories comprise the heart of a culture; they embody cultural values and norms, the real and the fictitious, and they act as records of tradition. Stories communicate cultural identity, origins, and journeys, and scholars continually strive to gain deeper, more insightful understandings into the ways in which stories communicate meaning, tradition, and cultural ideology. Ever concerned with the accurate representation of oral narratives in written form, scholars endeavor to showcase the storytelling performance so as not to erase the voice of the narrator.
Oftentimes, the focus of such representation lies in the structure of each narrative in isolation. While this type of analysis is vital to the field of ethnopoetics, the essence of the storytelling event—the tone, the body language, and the natural rhythm among other elements—often vanishes. N. Scott Momaday’s book, The Journey of Tai-me, reflects this concern with the faithful depiction of an oral tradition in textual form, and presents the stories of the Kiowa people—Momaday’s own people—in a segmented, yet almost conversational, flow from creation and beginnings to stories occurring in the historical memory of the tribe. These stories center primarily upon Tai-me, a medicine bundle used in the Sun Dance of the Kiowa.
“It was all for Tai-me, you know, and it was a long time ago” (69). Although this book is about Tai-me and its journey with the Kiowa people from the mountains of Montana to the lower plains of Oklahoma, it does not begin with Tai-me because “they did not yet know of Tai-me” in the beginning (3). Although not divided by clear, marked chapters, the book is separated into three sections with illustrations of images from the stories drawn by Momaday himself. The first section relates the remote, mythological past of the Kiowa, including their emergence into the world through a hollow log and their first interactions in the world around them, often under the guidance of Grandmother Spider. The second section, in which Tai-me finally comes to the Kiowa people, deals with the travels and the hardships of life for the Kiowa, as well as with encounters with nearby tribes such as the Utes and Osage. Moreover, the stories demonstrate important aspects of Kiowa life, such as the importance of social roles and societal expectations. In the final section, Momaday presents stories in which his grandmother, Aho, and other family members are key actors. Ultimately, this section describes the beginnings of Kiowa clans—especially Momaday’s own, the Gourd Dance Clan—as well as the correct proceedings of the Kiowa Sun Dance from beginning to end. Most importantly, it depicts Tai-me’s role in the ceremony.
While Momaday achieves his task of maintaining the beauty of Kiowa storytelling in written form, his style may be cumbersome for readers unfamiliar with the stream-of-consciousness flow of the narratives represented. While the preface to the book provides modest background information concerning why the book was written, Momaday offers little ethnographic data to contextualize each story. To obtain this information, one must refer to Momaday’s book The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969), a precursor to The Journey of Tai-me, in which he provides more extensive biographical and personal history along with the history of his tribe. This will help give meaning to the stories he presents.
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[Review length: 535 words • Review posted on August 25, 2010]