Study Guide for The Way to Rainy Mountain

The fourth text for discussion in "The Great Plains from Texas to Saskatchewan" is The Way to Rainy Mountain, by N. Scott Momaday. Momaday is the only one of our four core text authors still living.

Exploring Rainy Mountain

Our first-day discussion of the work, our initial exploration, will be based on the commonplace entries, marginalia, and curiosities of all of us, with designated discussion leaders facilitating the flow. Here are some comments and questions I might put into the mix.

· What's the reason for writing this book? (I think it's different than the reasons for Webb and Cather, although there are some motivations in common.)

· What are the materials from which the book is constructed? What are their origins, that is, where did Momaday get them?

· What is the form or structure of the book, that is, how are the materials arranged and presented?

· Can we place this work in relation to the history, including recent history, of American Indians on the Great Plains? Did that history create a need for the book?

· What is history? What is myth? What are they good for?

Enlightening Rainy Mountain: (Suggested) Reports
Subject	Sources
A key cultural site for the Kiowa is the one depicted in the wonderful drawing on page 9—Devil's Tower. What can you find out about this landmark and about cultural issues associated with it?	Web search and ODIN search will produce an abundance of sources.
Momaday's personal narrative is grounded in a particular place, the Kiowa Reservation in southwestern Oklahoma. What can you find out of the cultural history of the Kiowa on the rez? And what is the landscape of this area (including Rainy Mountain itself) like?	See Selected Bibliography for sources on the Kiowa.
Fill us in on this key calendar event of the Kiowa, the Leonid meteor shower of 1833.	Mooney, Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians Other print sources? (Ask about my Plains Folk column)
Peyote religion is mentioned, but not explained, in Momaday's book. So explain it for us.	Anderson, Peyote
In his reconstruction of Kiowa myth and culture Momaday draws heavily on the works of James Mooney, the early anthropologist. What elements does he draw from Mooney? What is the difference between Mooney's use of this material and Momaday's?	Moses, Indian Man Mooney, Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians Mooney, “In Kiowa Camps”
Extending Rainy Mountain: (Suggested) Reports
Subject	Sources
In Momaday's account of Kiowa history there is a golden age. Link this up with Webb's depiction of classic Plains Indian culture--but then also link it to what recent historians have said about the precarious nature of buffalo culture on the plains. Was there a golden age? And why do we care if there was or not?	Elliott West, The Contested Plains Flores, The Natural West
Momaday's investigation and recounting of his Kiowa past is a personal enterprise, a grounding of himself. What other authors have done this self-consciously? Have you? Could you define yourself with a story? And would the sense of place figure in that story as prominently as it does for Momaday?	Schwieder, Growing Up with the Town Debo, Prairie City Consider examples from your home region and locale.

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