The Way to Rainy Mountain

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The Way to Rainy Mountain : The Cultural History of the Kiowa Indians

Reality expressed through experiences is the sole foundation of culture and tradition . Culture and tradition , at a proper date , would in turn influence the course of history : the course of man 's journey to the future . Man 's journey to the future cannot be measured by mere conceptualization or abstraction , rather by imaginative experience . In the prologue of The Way to Rainy Mountain , N . Scott Momaday said The imaginative experience and the

historical express equally the traditions of mans reality (Momaday , 4 . Here the traditions of man 's reality are the direct result of imaginative experience and historical express . Reality itself is the product of experience the actual is the result of the actual . As such , when man is portrayed as the mover of history , he becomes also the receiver of such history . Thus , man 's experiences during the course of history are simply the source of man 's traditions . These traditions mirrored its very source

Now , in the book The Way to Rainy Mountain , Momaday detailed the history of the Kiowa Indians . The author argued that the history of the Kiowa Indians mirrored the traditions to which the Kiowa Indians now possessed . In 1790 , Kiowa Indians led by Guikate made a handsome offer to a Comanche party . The leaders of the two parties agreed to settle their perceived differences . They agreed to establish distinct hunting grounds . In addition , the two parties agreed to form an alliance an alliance which survived for many years . The Plains Apache also affiliated with the Kiowa . This generally increased the defense value of the alliance

The Kiowa Indians lived a nomadic life . They feed on buffalo meat and gathered fruits and vegetables . Their hunting grounds ranged from the Arkansas River to the Grand Canyon . The environment to which they survived varied extensively . Some were marsh-oriented some were desert and some were grasslands . Here Momaday made a categorical assertion that the environment to which Kiowa Indians were located had a significant impact on the configurations of the Kiowa Indians traditions and culture

The author said , .the headwaters of the Yellowstone River eastward to the Black Hills and south to the Wichita Mountains [in what is currently southwestern Oklahoma . It is there , says Momaday that] .a single knoll rises out of the plain .[which serves as a landmark for the homeland of the Kiowas] , to which .they gave the name .Rainy Mountain (Momaday , 4 . The culture and traditions of the Kiowa Indians depended highly on the environment and their own historical experiences . Their so-called homeland ' were actually the course of actions they been doing for many centuries . For example finding a suitable home for their tribe was one action that led to the establishment of a community . In this sense , by highlighting their traditions and values , they were also highlighting the goodness ' of their historical experiences

This historical experience though was never detailed and expressed as modern history...