American Indian Rituals

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony is a complex blend of stories including the past, present and myth. Each of these storylines contains a great deal of information on the history and culture of American Indians. The presence of animals is widely relevant in both the mythical realm and the present story line of Ceremony. Silko uses animals when describing mythical or spiritual characters and also in some of the different rituals that Tayo encounters. In American Indian culture, animals were held in very high regard. They were viewed as “powerful spirits who assumed the form of creatures” or an ancestor that has taken on another form (Harrod). There is a great sense of kinship between humans and animals. There was little distinction between the two beings. It was assumed that all humans will at one point become animals and that all animals were at one point human. This “kinship” is the cause for many of the animal rituals performed by the American Indians. As seen in Ceremony, animals represented the connection between the living world and the spiritual world. Their involvement in rituals is believed to give power to those involved and increase the success of the rituals. For example when Tayo is taken through his healing process, he assumes the form of a coyote. The power from the spiritual realm of the animals gave Tayo the strength to transition back into the real world as a whole being, healed from his past. Many animal rituals involve a similar transference of power between human and animal. One way that this is seen in American Indian culture is in the hunting rituals. Howard Harrod states in his book titled The Animals Came Dancing: Native American Sacred Ecology and Animal Kinship” that, “these rituals were clearly informed by the intention either to capture animals for food or to acquire their power for other purposes, such as healing or success in war,” (75-76). The main goal of the rituals was this transference of power and there were many steps and requirements that were necessary to achieve this end. Silko mentions a “bundle” in Tayo’s coyote ritual. These bundles are a central aspect of the animal rituals. These bundles could include anything from animal skins, body parts, furs, plants and “powerful” rocks. Not only were these bundles vital to the ritual, but the presence and possession of the bundles was significant as well. Whoever possessed the bundle was held in a high social status and the transfer of the bundle was a ritual in itself (Harrod). These bundles were viewed as living entities and once they were opened, they could release their powers and carry out whatever task they were created to perform.

These rituals had other requirements such as attire, songs, dance, and in many cases sexual intercourse. Many of the ancient myths derived their meaning through a union of two creatures, people, or symbols. An example of one such union is depicted in a myth involving “Man-Who-Kills-Game-Easily” and a buffalo cow. This union was a way to call the buffalo and attract more for the hunters. Often times, rituals are mere reenactments of these ancient myths and therefore involve a representation of the symbolic union of the two entities. It was believed that sex was another way of transferring power from one body to another and was therefore heavily integrated with the Indian rituals (Harrod). Silko alludes to this idea through various depictions of sex in a ritualistic manner rather than romantic. Although her descriptions do not involve animals directly, she portrays sex as a way to connect with another realm. In one instance Tayo described slipping into a dream during intercourse. His presence in the dream world was not only uninterrupted by the sexual intercourse but most likely aided by it. Rituals had many different meanings and purposes for the Indian people. Silko’s novel incorporates many of these in order to demonstrate the vast culture of American Indians. It is important to understand the significance of the different elements of these rituals in order to understand the impact that they have on those involved.

One specific ritual in this novel involved the yellow snake. Silko describes the ritual in the following passage.

“…It was a light yellow snake, covered with bright copper spots, like the wild flowers pulled loose and traveling. It crossed the wash and wound its way up the slope, disappearing into the grass. He knelt over the arching tracks the snake left in the sand and filled the delicate imprints with pollen. As far as he could see, in all directions, the world was alive. He could feel the motion pushing out of the damp earth into the sunshine-the yellow spotted snake the first to emerge, carrying this message on his back to the people.

She was walking through the sunflowers, holding the blue silk shawl around her shoulders in one hand, carrying the long curved willow stick in the other hand.” (Silko 221)

In this passage, Tayo came across a yellow and copper spotted snake and it disappeared into the grass. Tayo then sprinkled pollen over the snake’s tracks and suddenly felt the earth come alive as if he had activated a ritual. After the break a women appeared walking through the sunflowers. We discussed in lecture how this break might signify that the ritual is happening as the woman, Ts’eh, appearing out of nowhere. We wanted to see if some of the Native American rituals found in this book were actual known rituals or stories and we wanted to know if pollen was every used the way Tayo used it.

We came across a Native American myth called Tiyo and the snake dance that originated from the southwest region. I found it interesting right away because first the name Tiyo and Tayo are very similar and second it comes from the same region as the book. The story is about a young mans, Tiyo, journey to the end of the river. The river leads him to the ocean where he found an island, where he believed the river ended it. He then found the house of treasures where, at first, warriors were sitting in a circle around a big fire, and were surrounded by snakeskin. The chief then said, “now its time to put on our snakeskin’s” and Tiyo is no longer in a room of warriors but all different kind of snakes. The chief then tells Tiyo that he needs to choose the snake that he thinks is his daughter in order to hear their secrets. Tiyo chooses a yellow rattler snake and all of a sudden a young beautiful woman appears in front of him.

In this story I found it very similar to what had happen to Tayo in the passage above. It was interesting that in the story Tiyo chooses the yellow rattler snake and I looked up what a rattler looked like. I found that a rattler snake is “a yellow and copper spotted snake” and so a connection is tied between this story of the snake dance and the ritual happening in the passage. That only choosing/following a yellow rattler snake will lead you to the chief’s daughter/Ts’eh. Although we did not find any ritual that used pollen, this story that was told throughout the southwest region really had a similarity to the ritual that was performed in the passage. Both were yellow rattler snakes and both led to the appearance of a woman.

Works Cited

Ferguson, Diana. "Tiyo and the snake dance." Native American myths. London: Collins & Brown, 2001. 112-116. Print.

Howard L. Harrod, The Animals Came Dancing: Native American Sacred Ecology and Animal Kinship (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2000).

Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (New York: The Viking Press, 1977).