Exploration of the Divergent Cultural Relationships with Land in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony

AS and A Level History

Rabago

Raquel Rabago

Professor Combiths

English 1106

20 September 2004

Exploration of the Divergent Cultural Relationships with Land in

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony

In her novel, Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko uncovers the innumerable contrasts of the white ranchers and the Native Americans. The natives feel helpless as the whites spill themselves upon the contiguous hillsides and valleys. The commanding whites steal the land which had never before belonged to any single entity. Unable to retain their land, the Native Americans can only continue their existence on the allotted land, and attempt to cleave unto their heritage that is contained in the very soil beneath the mountains. The analysis of the white and Native American communities’ respect for, effects on, and interactions with the land allows for the exploration of their cultural relationships with the land.

The varying degrees of respect the white inhabitants and Native Americans have for their surroundings can be examined as one of many factors of their relationships with the land. The whites have minimal respect for the land; they manipulate it, tame it, in pursuit of nothing more than monetary gain. The main character of the novel, Tayo, explores his feelings about the whites, “The destroyers had sent them to ruin this world, and day by day they were doing it” (204). The whites are eating away at the valuable resources of the land and casting the fruits of nature away, unworthy and untouched. The Native Americans conclude the whites to be the dreadful creatures their ancestors feared and dreaded, the creatures which would lead to the world’s inevitable destruction and downfall. The whites begin hoarding the land, taking what could never belong to them, the trespassers, the intruders. They harbor no connection with the land that provides for them, nor are they aware of what may become of the land if it is treated harshly. The whites’ eyes are focused upon sales and property lines. The sentiments of the Native Americans as the whites creep into their cherished homeland is illustrated by the following passage, “And it was then that the Laguna people understood that the land had been taken, because they couldn’t stop these white people from coming to destroy the animals and the land” (186). The Natives are powerless and incapable of preventing the destruction of the land they embrace so intimately. They are helpless as a more powerful race demeans their land with barbed fences and heartless hunters scourging the countryside, “like the hunting of a mountain lion, was their idea of sport and fun” (213). The whites give no thanks or prayer to the mother earth when she releases the life of a creature to them; they are seemingly unfeeling and inhuman. On page 135, Silko utilizes a fabricated Native American tale seemingly spun during the dawn of time to illustrate what the white people of the future would be like. “They see no life/ When they look/ they only see objects. / The world is a dead thing to them/ the trees and rivers are not alive. /They see no life.” They neither feel the breath of the wind at their shoulders, nor hear the laugh of the babbling springs; the whites are spiritually dead because the land, as they see it, has never been alive. In drastic comparison, The Native Americans cherish and respect the land in myriad ways. Josiah shares with Tayo the understanding that the land is their mother, “there are some things worth more than money…this is where we come from […] the earth keeps us going” (45). The land that the Native Americans occupy is not solely the place of their residence. The earth is invaluable to them; it breathes life into each moment of every day. Money is of little comparison to the intrinsic value of the Native Americans birthplace, home, and cornerstone. More crucial to them is the protection of the land from harm, praising the land for its generous offerings, and the respect for all things living. “He stepped carefully, pushing the toe of his boot into the weeds first to make sure the grasshoppers were gone before he set his foot down” (155). Tayo ensures that no insects will be harmed by his presence; the Native Americans appreciate the sacred nature of living organisms. Along with other Native Americans, Tayo feels connected to even the smallest animals in the sense that they share the same mother, the land they proudly call their home. The medicine man, Betonie, comments on the view from his home in the mountains, “my grandmother would not leave this hill. She said the world could be seen from here” (131). The Native Americans appreciate the vast stretch of the horizon and are passionate even concerning things that are unseen and remote. Even the silent snow capped mountains are precious faces of time in their hearts, “the sacred mountain was a dusty, dry blue color” (100) [emphasis added]. The Native Americans very sense of belonging, identity, and being is founded upon the land they revere, “The ear for the story and the eye for the pattern was theirs; the feeling was theirs: we came out of this land and we are hers” (255). While the whites are preoccupied with taking things of value from the land, the Native Americans’ only concern is for the preservation of their source of being and power, their mother, their hope.

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The effects the whites and Native Americans have on the land, and the effects the land has on both groups of inhabitants is another passage for exploration of their diverging relationships with the earth. The whites, ever-wary of possession and wealth are unable to see the source of true opulence. “It was the white people who had nothing; it was the white people who were suffering as thieves do, never able to forget that their pride was wrapped in something stolen, something that had never been, and never could be, theirs” (204). The whites desire land in hopes that it will bring them contentment through power and wealth, “the white people never looked beyond the lie, to see that theirs was a nation built on stolen land […] white thievery and injustice boiling up the anger and hatred that would finally destroy the world” (191). The stolen land never allows the whites to feel adequate or powerful, this was the great lie; the lie which only made them aware of what they truly possess in the eyes of time and toll, nothing. The whites are destroying the land, causing an internecine effect on themselves and those close by. As the earth writhes under the hands of evil-doers, she punishes them with their own sinister enterprise “they had taken these beautiful rocks from deep within the earth and they had laid them in a monstrous design, realizing destruction on a scale only they could have dreamed” (246). As the whites probe and prod the land for sources of undiscovered glory, they find an element that will bring destruction to themselves and others. They are shaken from the tiers of their cloud-grazing pedestal by the rumble of their own foolish pride. In contrast, the Native Americans adapt to the land in order to destroy as little as possible. They rely on the earth for all means of sustenance, “These springs came from deep within the earth, and the people relied on them even when the sky was barren and the winds were hot and dusty” (94). The Native Americans are grateful and praise the earth even in the seasons the land has little to offer. They have learned to adapt and to manipulate each aspect of their lives in respect to their knowledge of the land. Josiah jokes with Tayo concerning the absence of necessary resources, “Maybe we’ll even write our own book, Cattle Raising on Indian Land, or how to raise cattle that don’t eat grass or drink water” (75). They seldom curse the land for the circumstances at hand and always take great care in blessing the lives of the animals that they killed. Tayo performs a compendious ritual in order to stimulate the land’s water production in an area that is dry and unpromising, “Here the dust and the heat begin to recede; the short grass and stunted corn seem distant” (94). The Native Americans acknowledge the needs of the land and exhibit their care through ceremonies and rituals in order to improve the conditions. They rely immensely on the land, without the land, their way of life would be lost. Without retaining their way of life, the identities of the Native Americans and the pride of their culture will float away as pollen in a breeze. The Native Americans feel torn from the land, as they are able to occupy less and less of her vast plains and sloping hillsides, which are claimed by the whites as their own. The following passage found on page 127 expands upon the feelings of the Natives; “Indians wake up every morning of their lives to see the land which was stolen, still there, within reach, its theft being flaunted”, (127). The Native Americans adapt to compromising conditions, grateful for the moon and the trees. They see the once vast, voluminous plains, dwindling to nothing. Simultaneously, the whites supplement their existence by ravaging the land for their own benefits and victories, testing the limits of the land in hopes of unexplored evils and uncovered secrets.

The whites’ and the Native Americans’ interactions with the land is a final example of the relationships of the individual communities with their surroundings. “They took our land, they took everything!” (55). The countryside is overrun with outsiders: all white, all killers, all destroyers; “The logging companies hired full-time hunters who fed entire logging camps, taking ten to fifteen deer each week and fifty wild turkeys in one month. The loggers shot the bears and mountain lions for sport” (186). It is not enough for the whites to be uprooting the land; they are also decimating the wildlife population for sport. The animals killed by the whites could be feeding Native American families, but are decaying in the forests amongst felled trees. Tayo hates the whites because of the destruction and death they bring. He hates them for all that they waste, and the vast amounts of land they harm, but mostly he hates them because he is, “unable to save or to protect and of the things that were so important to him” (203). Because the whites are a more powerful people in the ways of the world, the Native Americans can only dream of putting their cruel ways to an end in an attempt to save what is left of their dwindling world: once wild, untamed, and untouched. A white rancher, Floyd Lee, has poisoned and killed all of the wolves in the surrounding hills. Lee has also sealed off his portion of a mountainside with an impenetrable fence, “a thousand dollars a mile to lock the mountain in steel wire, to make the land his” (188). The fence he has constructed only shows the precocious nature of his people; even enclosed land cannot belong to a domesticated, spoiled white man. Regardless of how the whites attempt to encroach upon the land that once was the Native Americans’ world alone, the mountain will never be theirs, “the mountain was far greater than all these things” (219). Tayo sits at a mountain poolside as, “The sunlight moved up and down his back like hands and he felt the muscles of his neck and belly relax…” (222). In that passage, nature is interacts with Tayo in a positive way, helping him to find peace. This physical interaction shows the symbiosis and harmony of the Native American people and the land. The Native Americans were cautious in their use of the land, they only wished to utilize renewable resources in order to avoid making the land uninhabitable, “they could tell a good place when they found it: springs and good grazing” (255). The grass continues to re-sprout each spring; the streams are replenished by the gentle rain. They are concerned with the health and vitality of the land, they devote themselves to it, whether through rituals or prayers for a bountiful season. The ceremony Betonie performs on Tayo takes place in the mountain range above his home. Because of their close relationship with nature, the Native Americans are able derive power from the land in order to protect themselves from evils of the world. In reality, it matters little when the whites attempt to make the mountains their own; “It is the people who belong to the mountain” (128). Though the whites’ small victories of fences and logging expeditions take their toll on the land, Tayo and some of the other natives realize that the land is theirs alone. The Native Americans will always be the people of the land because of the relationship with the rain and the clouds, hovering over the wide valleys, watching them, their children.

The differences between the Native Americans and the whites expand beyond their diametrically opposed ways of life. The sentiments of the people are what has diverged their paths to such an exponential degree. The desires of the whites center upon domination, power, and control. These spoils lead them to poach and pilfer the once unblemished lands. The land will never be their own because of their perversion and destructive nature. Betonie, the Native American medicine man, remarks, “It is the people who belong to the mountain”, (128). The only beings that can belong to the land are those who value the sacred nature of life and are gracious in receipt of even the most imperceptible of fortunes.

Works Cited

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