An Overview of Native American Oral Literature::

Common Themes

Nature

A common theme running through most American Indian oral texts is that which expresses the spiritual importance of nature. You can find this importance of nature and land exhibited in practically any traditional Indian myth, prayer and song. Here is an excerpt from a famous healing song that takes place on the third day of the eight day ceremony of the Navajo, the Night Chant or Nightway. It reflects the importance of nature in the healing process:

"Tsegihi!¹
House made of dawn.
House made of evening light.
House made of the dark cloud.
House made of male rain.
House made of dark mist.
House made of female rain.
House made of pollen.
House made of grasshoppers.
Dark cloud is at the door.
The trail out of it is dark cloud.
The zigzag lightning stands high up on it.
Male deity!
Your offering I make.
I have prepared a smoke for you.
Restore my feet for me.
Restore my legs for me.
Restore my body for me.
Restore my voice for me" (Matthews 1902: 142).²

Here is another song-prayer - this time a Song of the Sky Loom by the Tewa - that reflects the same theme:

"Oh our Mother the Earth, oh our Father the Sky,
Your children are we, and with tired backs
We bring you the gifts that you love.
Then weave for us a garment of brightness;
May the warp be the white light of morning,
May the weft be the red light of evening,
May the fringes be the falling rain,
May the border be the standing rainbow.
Thus weave for us a garment of brightness
That we may walk fittingly where birds sing,
That we may walk fittingly where grass is green,
Oh our Mother the Earth, oh our Father the sky!" (Spinden 1976: 94).³

And it's a theme that carries on into modern, written American Indian literature, as evidenced by the following excerpt from a novel by Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday:

"Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures that are there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk" (Momaday 1968: 83).⁴

Notes::

• 1 - Tsegihi, the House Made of Dawn is a shrine in the Canyon de Chelly called the White House.
• 2 - Washington Matthews, ed. 1902. "The Night Chant, a Navajo Ceremony." Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 6. New York: AMS, 1974.
• 3 - Herbert J. Spinden, ed. 1976. Songs of the Tewa. Santa Fe: Sunstone.
• 4 - N. Scott. Momaday. 1968. The House Made of Dawn. New York: Harper Collins.