Native American Writer: Overturned Native/Foreign Consciousness

Momaday and Silko attempt to establish an authentic Indian identity based on American Indian spiritual inheritance and traditional values. We can say that their starting point for ...

Native American Writer: Overturned Native/Foreign Consciousness

Momaday and Silko attempt to establish an authentic Indian identity based on American Indian spiritual inheritance and traditional values. We can say that their starting point for the discourse is ethnocentrism. They regard the Europeans who ventured into the West as latecomers and intruders. They write from the position that Europeans robbed the native people of their homeland and the land of its spiritual resources. White colonial discourse partially based on cultural authenticity condemns Native Americans to live in marginality and eventual deterioration. Even though Native Americans have a native-born consciousness in American society, they feel obliged to hold on to what is perceived as a foreign consciousness. But Momaday and Silko don't deny the reality that the death rate among Indians had begun to exceed the birth rate. They can't help fearing racial annihilation. So, ethnocentrism is not an end to them. The major concern of these writers is the survival of American Indians in the modern American society. They reject the simplistic ideal that a return to traditional beliefs is the only way Native American can survive. In other words, they do not elevate their tribal value systems and cultures to be orthodoxy.
Momaday and Silko emphasize the difference between peoples and cultures. Able's story in House Made of Dawn and Tayo's story in Ceremony highlight their similarity and connectedness. They don't support one group's violent and destructive domination of others. Their stories argue for the equality of various cultures grounded on the common notion of humanity, for an ethic of mutual respect, and for the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Denying both traditionalism and assimilationism, they propose that the only way Native Americans, particularly those of mixed racial and cultural heritage, will be able to survive in the modern world is to adopt a nativistic paradigm and learn to adapt and alter ancient traditions to fit modern situations. They assert that the tribal cultures and values may be changed and progressed by cultural exchanges and the hybridization of different cultures. They emphasize the possibility of cultural reconciliation over confrontation through dialogues between two different cultures.