Origins of Native American Eloquence:

The move from Southern California to West Lafayette, Indiana encouraged curiosity and an appreciation for the land, marked by history. On the banks of the Wabash River, the historical landmark, Fort Ouiatenon stands as a witness to the Native American people who once spread across the American continent. In addition, to this landmark, battlefields, settlements, and Native American burial grounds remind Hoosiers of the history of the state of Indiana. As a youth, the history of the state was taught, adding wonder and beauty to the place that was my home for eight years. It also provided the opportunity to participate as a "settler" at Fort Ouiatenon during the annual Feast of the Hunter’s Moon. However, the education was lacking pertaining to the indigenous peoples who at one time had welcomed settlers from the Old World - only to be driven from their homes; eventually forcing them to live on reservations that lacked resources to maintain their way of life. Even in the midst of their turmoil, legends and religious myths were taught to the younger generations by the elders through oral transmission.

As an English Major, an introduction to American Literature often covers these oral traditions. In the introduction to these orations found in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Robert S. Levine discusses the oral arts, stating:

The languages, political economics, and religious beliefs of Native American peoples are extremely diverse, and so are their tales, orations, songs, chants, and other oral genres... [later adding] all literature has roots in the oral arts (Levine 29).

By the time the European colonists had arrived on the American continent, their oral literature had already transferred to written stories. So when they arrived, “Europeans were intrigued by indigenous oral performances and sought to translate them into alphabetic written forms” (Levine 29). Once Europeans became familiar with these traditions they recognized Native American oratory as a “verbal art.” The eloquence found in Native American storytelling is also found in speeches given by certain Native American leaders.

One such leader is Tecumseh, who was a key individual in the history of Indiana. In his “Speech to the Osages,” Tecumseh shares the message of Tenskwatawa, a religious prophet. The overall message included the evil nature of the white man and that the ways of the white man should be abandoned. This meant that everything that they had obtained in trade, like alcohol, clothing, food, and manufactured goods should be left behind. In addition to releasing the ways of the white man, he called for a revival of traditional Indian culture. The tone of Tecumseh’s speech is meant to call his brethren to a remembrance of all that they have done for the white man and that it was through their compassion for these “feeble” people that they spared them from sickness, hunger, and death. The repayment for their kindness was the white man’s desire for more. There is also an acknowledgment of responsibility when he says: “The white people came among us feeble, and now we have made them strong…” (Levine 485).

Each address to his “Brothers” is a call to arms to make things right for the Native American Nations. Unfortunately, through the battles of Tippecanoe, the War of 1812, and the Battle of the Thames, these Indian Nations were defeated. The remnants of these people are sparse in the countryside that was once home to a young child who romped through the fields and glades of Indiana. The eloquence of speech is not isolated to the ancient Native Americans as the tradition of storytelling remains among the tribes of today.

This storytelling is an important part of Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, along with the rich traditions of an Indian Nation located on the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. Referring to the section on themes in Sparknotes:

“...stories are intended to pass on information that will be remembered, they are often rhythmic, almost sung, and contain a large amount of repetition. This mode of storytelling is presented in Ceremony in the form of poems, both framing the main narrative (at the beginning and end) and interspersed throughout” (Sparknotes).

The poem “Ceremony” at the beginning of the novel demonstrates the importance of storytelling:

I will tell you something about stories,

[he said]

They aren’t just entertainment.

Don’t be fooled.

They are all we have, you see,

all we have to fight off

illness and death.

You don’t have anything

if you don’t have the stories.

Their evil is mighty

but it can’t stand up to our stories.

So they try to destroy the stories

let the stories be confused or forgotten.

They would like that

They would be happy

Because we would be defenseless then.

He rubbed his billy.

I keep them here

[he said]

Here, put your hand on it

See, it is moving.

There is life here

for the people.

And in the belly of this story

the rituals and the ceremony

are still growing.

In the essay “The Very Essence of Our Lives,” Louis Owens explains that Silko’s Ceremony “is a remembering, a putting together of past, present and future into a coherent fabric of timeless identity” (Owens 91). This “remembering” found in Silko’s Ceremony is much like the poems found in Natalie Diaz’s Postcolonial Love Poem. Where Silko is focusing on the past of the Laguna Pueblo, Diaz focuses more on the missing and murdered Indigenous and Native women across the Americas. The works of Silko, Diaz, and other Native American poets and authors provide the material for an awakening and an awareness of the conditions that these indigenous people face.

Works Cited

Diaz, Natalie. Postcolonial Love Poem. Graywolf Press, 2020.

Levine, Robert S., editor. The Norton Anthology American Literature. Shorter Ninth Edition ed., I, W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. Deluxe ed., Penguin Books, 2006.

SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/lit/ceremony/themes/.