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

The mountains are also nature’s creation, and everything around us. Although nowadays man’s creations almost cover whole Earth. Momaday pay attention that one has to love nature and to give oneself up to a particular landscape. The Nature is a beautiful thing. I myself love Nature very much - with its various sceneries and landscapes.

Momaday received Kiowas storytelling traditions and a love of the Rainy Mountain area of Oklahoma from his father’s family. His book “The Way to Rainy mountain” is one of the few material evidences about the Kiowas’ culture and life.

XVII Describes three cases with Kiowas women. The first two women were bad, and the Kiowas did not like bad women. So they were thrown away from the tribe. The third one was Momaday’s ancestor. She was a Mexican Captive, but from slavery she rose up to become a figure in the tribe.

Kiowas led a nomad way of life. They inhabited one area and make use of nature’s gifts - mainly herds of buffalo. When the gifts expired the Kiowas would went to another area and so on and so forth. All Indian tribes led such a life. But in contrast to Jack London’s tribes who, while altering their place of inhabitance, just obey the Law of Life, the Kiowas’ migratory existence led to the apogee of their culture. But the fact that Kiowas culture was kept by verbal tradition caused its end. Everything vanished - the acquired during the migration horses, the religion of the Plains, the love and possession of open land. It does not disturbs very much the rest of Kiowas for they belief that when after death they will go to the evergreen grazing grounds with endless herds of buffalo. For Kiowas buffalo means a lot - it was the animal representation of the sun, the essential and sacrificial victim of the Sun Dance.

The Introduction Houses are like sentinels of the plain, but the time also put its mark upon them - the wood is burned grey and the nails turn red with rust. There is nothing within them, only ghosts. You cannot approach their bones for they belong to the distance.

Once there was a

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