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Submitted by Quaan on November 26, 2005
Category: English
Words: 1360 | Pages: 6
Views: 310
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Overview of Silko's "The Man to Send Rain clouds"
Leslie Marmon Silko's short story "The Man to Send Rain clouds" shows the
differences between organized religion and the beliefs of the Native American people in a
way that most would not be able. Arguing that the relationship between Native American
and Mexican American cultures has often been ignored but these practices are evident in
the fiction of Leslie Marmon Silko.
Born 1948 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, of mixed ancestry - by her own description
Laguna, Pueblo, Mexican, and white - Leslie Marmon Silko grew up on the Laguna
Pueblo Reservation, where members of her family had lived for generations, and where
she learned traditional stories and legends from female relatives. Silko's first published
book is the collection of poems Laguna Woman (1974) which draws richly upon her
tribal ancestry (Abcarian 1568.) Silko writes, "You don't have anything if you don't have
the stories" (Mitchell 28). While still in college Silko wrote and published a short
story "The Man to Send Rain Clouds." For this story she was awarded with the National
Endowment for the Humanities Discovery Grant (Seyersted 18.)
The strength of tribal traditions is based not on Indians' rigid adherence to given
ceremonies or customs but rather on their ability to adapt traditions to ever changing
circumstances by incorporating new elements. As in this short, story the younger Indians
not only honor their ancestor's beliefs but also incorporate the new beliefs being taught in the village by the Spanish priest. They blend both sets of beliefs by burying the grandfather in the way of their ancestors yet giving him a sprinkling of Holy water as he is placed in the grave. In doing these things they hope to provide him with enough water to let him help them by sending rain clouds to them as he passes from...
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