Old Teofilo symbolizes his people and their proud heritage, choosing to go off alone and die quietly in the fields beneath a bare cottonwood tree that Silko says “…stood apart from a small grove of winterbare cottonwoods which grew in the wide, sandy arroyo.” (Rain pg 115) The analogy between the cottonwoods and the Pueblos is an easy one to see, as well as the correlation between Teofilo the Elder who dies alone and the cottonwood that stands away from the others in the grove.

When Ken and Leon meet Father Paul

“Before they wrapped the old man, Leon took a piece of string out of his pocket and tied a small gray feather in the old man’s long whit hair. Ken gave him the paint. Across the brown wrinkeld forehead he drew a strip of blue paint. He paused and watche Ken throw pinches of corn meal and pollen into the wind that fluttered the small feather.” (Rain pg 116).

on their return to the farm, Leon does not lie to Father Paul, he simply omits the critical information that Teofilo is dead, laconically anwering Father Paul’s suggestions that Leon has some sort of authority over his clan’s elder with a dry assurance that Teofilo will not be staying at the sheep camp alone anymore. Father Paul’s arrogance continues with his mistaken belief that his presence among the Pueblo is welcomed and not simply tolerated, leading Father Paul to believe he has the authority to instruct Leon not only in how to care for his elder, but to invite both to Mass on Sunday.

Some topics in this essay:
Father Paul, Ken Leon, Pueblo Silko, Father Paul’s, Pueblo’s Ironically, Rain Clouds”, father paul, Teofilo Elder, Summon Rain, rain pg, ken leon, father paul’s, send rain, christian burial,