Kiowas’ Life Cycle

The book consists of twenty-four three-voice sections. They are arranged into three divisions - ‘The Setting Out,’ ‘The Going On,’ and ‘The Closing In,’ thus Momaday suggests several physical and spiritual journeys - the two most obvious are the migration and history of the Kiowa and the gradual development of the Kiowa identity.

The three divisions are framed by two poems and three lyric essays (Prologue, Introduction, Epilogue), that combine mythic, historic, and personal perspectives.

Headwaters The first poem. Momaday depicts an ‘intermountain plain’ with a hollow log, and water rising against the roots.

Prologue The journey began one day long ago. They say that Kiowas entered the world through a hollow log. It was a struggle for existence, but , at the end, Kiowas lost. Their Plains culture withered and died. The buffalo was the animal representation of the sun, the essential and sacrificial victim of the Sun Dance. These are idle recollections, the mea

Some topics in this essay:
Sun Dance, Mexican Captive, Introduction Houses, Dances Ko-sahn, Introduction Epilogue, Life Kiowas’, Remember Eva, Scott Momaday, Rainy Mountain, In’ Momaday, rainy mountain, sun dance, verbal tradition, nature’s creation, representation sun essential, sacrificial victim, essential sacrificial, three-voice sections, twenty-four three-voice, “the rainy, kiowas remember, sacrificial victim sun, sun essential sacrificial, essential sacrificial victim, victim sun dance,