The Way to Rainy Mountain

By N. Scott Momaday

First published in paperback by UNM Press in 1976, The Way to Rainy Mountain has sold over 200,000 copies.

"The paperback edition of The Way to Rainy Mountain was first published twenty-five years ago. One should not be surprised, I suppose, that it has remained vital, and immediate, for that is the nature of story. And this is particularly true of the oral tradition, which exists in a dimension of timelessness. I was first told these stories by my father when I was a child. I do not know how long they had existed before I heard them. They seem to proceed from a place of origin as old as the earth.

"The stories in The Way to Rainy Mountain are told in three voices. The first voice is the voice of my father, the ancestral voice, and the voice of the Kiowa oral tradition. The second is the voice of historical commentary. And the third is that of personal reminiscence, my own voice. There is a turning and returning of myth, history, and memoir throughout, a narrative wheel that is as sacred as language itself."--from the new Preface

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Release date: Sep 1, 1976
• ISBN: 9780826326966

N. Scott Momaday

N. Scott Momaday (1934-2024) is an internationally renowned poet, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, artist, teacher, and storyteller. He authored numerous works that include poetry, novels, essays, plays, and children’s stories. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his debut novel House Made of Dawn and was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Academy of American Poets Prize, the National Medal of Arts, the Ken Burns American Heritage Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, and the Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry. A longtime professor of English and American literature, Momaday earned his PhD from Stanford University and retired as Regents Professor at the University of Arizona. In 2022, he was inducted into the inducted into the Academy of American Arts and Letters. 

Book preview

Acknowledgments

The Introduction to this book first appeared in The Reporter for January 26, 1967. In slightly different form, it was incorporated in the text of my novel House Made of Dawn, published by Harper & Row in 1968.

I wish also to acknowledge my own book, The Journey of Tai-ma, which is in a special sense the archetype of the present volume. The earlier work was produced in collaboration with D. E. Carlsen and Bruce S. McCurdy at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in a fine edition limited to 100 hand-painted copies.

Finally I should like here to thank those of my kinsmen who willingly recounted to me the tribal history and literature which informs the book.

ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8263-2696-6

©1969 by the University of New Mexico Press

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 69-19154.

ISBN 0-8263-0436-2

University of New Mexico Press paperback edition, 1976

For Al and Natachee

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Prologue

Introduction

The Setting Out

The Going On

The Closing In

Epilogue

Preface

THE WAY TO RAINY MOUNTAIN was first published twenty-five years ago. One should not be surprised, I suppose, that it has remained vital, and immediate, for that is the nature of story. And this is particularly true of the oral tradition, which exists in a dimension of timelessness. I was first told these stories by my father when I was a child. I do not know how long they had existed before I heard them. They seem to proceed from a place of origin as old as the earth.

The stories in The Way to Rainy Mountain are told in three voices. The first voice is the voice of my father, the ancestral voice, and the voice of the Kiowa oral tradition. The second is the voice of historical commentary. And the third is that of personal reminiscence, my own voice. There is a turning and returning of myth, history, and memoir throughout, a narrative wheel that is as sacred as language itself. It is appropriate that these discrete voices should be heard, that they should be read aloud, that they should remain, as they have always remained, alive at the level of the human voice. At that level their being is whole and essential. In the beginning was the word, and it was spoken.

The Way to Rainy Mountain is dedicated to my parents, whose spirit informs it. My mother lived easily and well in the element of language. Her inspiration was indispensable to the expression of my own spirit. My father told the stories, he drew the illustrations, and he was true to the journey. He was a man who bore dreams to me and to the world. Again I make the dedication, and I make it in wonder, in faith, and in love.

N. Scott Momaday

Jemez Springs, New Mexico

Headwaters

Noon in the intermountain plain:

There is scant telling of the marsh—

A log, hollow and weather-stained,

An insect at the mouth, and moss—

Yet waters rise against the roots,

Stand brimming to the stalks. What moves?

What moves on this archaic force

Was wild and welling at the source.

Prologue

THE JOURNEY BEGAN one day long ago on the edge of the northern Plains. It was carried on over a course of many generations and many hundreds of miles. In the end there were many things to remember, to dwell upon and talk about.

You know, everything had to begin. . . . For the Kiowas the beginning was a struggle for existence in the bleak northern mountains. It was there, they say, that they entered the world through a hollow log. The end, too, was a struggle, and it was lost. The young Plains culture of the Kiowas withered and died like grass that is burned in the prairie wind. There came a day like destiny; in every direction, as far as the eye could see, carrion lay out in the land. The buffalo was the animal representation of the sun, the essential and sacrificial victim of the Sun Dance. When the wild herds were destroyed, so too was the will of the Kiowa people; there was nothing to sustain them in spirit. But these are idle recollections, the mean and ordinary agonies of human history. The interim was a time of

Reviews for The Way to Rainy Mountain

[thelostentwife · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was introduced to N. Scott Momaday's unique book in a class this semester where we discussed the overlying themes and message of The Way to Rainy Mountain.Told in a three part process through myth, historical, and personal journey, Momaday relates the oral traditions and his own connection to the Kiowa people. They journeyed from Montana to their final settlement in Oklahoma over centuries of time, and in three sections (not counting the beautiful introduction and epilogue), he recounts their origin stories, the passing movement of the tribe, and finally the narrowing of the culture as it was eliminated through the diecide of the Tai-me.This is a deceptively small book, filled with quite a bit of white space, but do not let it fool you. It's rich in message, history, and myth - recording oral tradition that, before, was just one generation away from dying. And even then, it's a fragment of what could, if not already has been, be lost.I've read this book three times, the first in a linear fashion - myth to myth, historical to historical, personal to personal. The second in the way it is written, horizontally. And the last way thoughtfully, drawing connections throughout the book, tracing themes, investigating ideas, researching as I went. I recommend all of these ways in order to attempt to understand all of the importance of Momaday's message.

[sean191 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Read this in college 8 years ago... I recall parts were interesting, but I ended up actually writing a term paper against teaching it because I thought it was weak overall. The professor actually agreed with my rationale. I'm afraid I can't remember what that rationale was at the moment, but I should still have a copy of that paper somewhere.

[treeseed · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Kiowa, known among themselves as Kwuda and also Tepda, were once, along with their allies the Commanche, fierce fighting lords of the southern plains and master horsemen. There are roughly 17,000 of them left and their reservation is in Oklahoma but they are not native to that region having come from the mountains beyond the source of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. They eventually migrated onto the Great Plains. Like other tribes of the Great Plains they have a rich body of mythos, a spiritual vision of themselves replete with ceremony and sacrifice such as the Sun Dance and they have suffered greatly at the hands of white expansionism and racism. One of the most famous modern sons of the Kiowa is N. Scott Momaday who in addition to writing this book received the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for his book, House Made of Dawn. He is a Professor of English at the University of Arizona. I enjoyed The Way to Rainy Mountain because it took me inside the Kiowa consciousness however briefly. This book communicates its wisdom on an emotional level. It speaks more to the right brain, than the left. It conveys by way of subtleties of perspective rather than facts, although it uses certain carefully selected facts to embellish the artful nuances of the narrative. As a Kiowa, Momaday has the benefit of the inside track of first hand observations and first-person accounts from elderly relatives who lived according to the old traditional ways. Published in 1968, this book was written at a time when it seemed even to Momaday that the Kiowa were defeated, their golden age having ended somewhere around 1833, existing in decline until around 1875 and finally dwindling to the struggles of only around 5,000 survivors. Today's outlook is brighter and young Kiowas are once again taking up the ways of their grandfathers and grandmothers and the traditions are being restored, however, at the time of the writing of this book that was not the case and so the tone of Momaday's writing is conveyed with words in the past tense. It is a looking back, a reflective view but also the tale of personal journey. This is a very short book than can be read in the space of an hour or so. It is illustrated with large black wood-cuts made by Momaday's father, Al Momaday. It is told in chapter form, or in the form of little tales almost in the style of the old oral teaching tales. Each entry is numbered and contains three individual but related parts. The first part is from Momaday's father's voice, from the ancestors' oral tradition. The second part is from a historical perspective. The third part is Momaday's personal feelings, recollections, questions, and observations relating to the first two parts. It tells the Kiowa creation story, illuminates their most important myths, rituals and beliefs and examines the Kiowa spirit. Momaday is a talented and poetic writer with an ability to set tone and to create vivid images that I find most enjoyable. Here is a sample of his evocative style: "In New Mexico the land is made of many colors. When I was a boy I rode out over the red and yellow and purple earth to the west of Jemez Pueblo. My horse was a small red roan, fast and easy-riding. I rode among the dunes, along the bases of mesas and cliffs, into canyons and arroyos. I came to know that country, not in the way a traveler knows the landmarks he sees in the distance, but more truly and intimately, in every season, from a thousand points of view. I know the living motion of a horse and the sound of hooves. I know what it is, on a hot day in August or September, to ride into a bank of cold, fresh rain." This book is small and short but in its brevity it manages to create a mood that transports. It illuminates in minimalist terms a profound, intangible quality of spirit as it is found uniquely among the Kiowa. It manages in a most mysterious way to convey distinction, to illustrate the inner foundation of the outer characteristics of this people and their history. It is not a history book but it is a reconnoitering, one that like the gaze of a man surveying the plains from horseback in the midday glare, shadowed by his hand above his brow, penetrates far into the distance and assists him in his journey. It is a personal story with intimate reflections and at the same time it is legacy...transcendent and made available to us all. For me this book is one of those aesthetic pleasures, like the drinking of tea from a fragile porcelain cup. It is defined in part by its simplicity but treasured for its richness and the refinement of its impact.

[angelalam-300700 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great story about the history and personal journey of Momaday to honor his grandmother, a Kiowa Indian.

[psalva-706031 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Momaday frames the history and legends of the Kiowa people through the lens of his own pilgrimage, in honor of his grandmother, from Yellowstone to Rainy Mountain in Oklahoma. It’s a moving book which examines the power of language and spoken word, deals with grief and loss, and ultimately is a preservation of story. Because Momaday weaves his personal history and family interactions among the legends of his people, all of the tales gain more weight and life, each reflecting upon the other. It’s a thing of beauty.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

N. Scott Momaday weaves his gentle words and observations of nature in balance with historical facts and often in contrastwith the violent, murderous, and shameless episodes of U.S. soldiers and his own Kiowa ancestors.Al Momaday's illustrations are perfectly evocative.Readers may well be inspired to search out George Catlin's incredible paintings of Kotsatoah and Mammedaty!