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The Way to Rainy Mountain

by N. Scott Momaday, Al Momaday (Illustrator)

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 1,014 ratings · 66 reviews

First published in paperback by UNM Press in 1976, "The Way to Rainy Mountain" has sold over 200,000 copies.
"The paperback edition of "The Way to Rainy Mountain" was first published twenty-five years ago. One should not be surprised, I suppose, that it has remained vital, and immediate, for that is the nature of story. And this is particularly true of the oral tradition, w...more

Paperback, 88 pages

Published September 1st 1976 by University of New Mexico Press (first published 1969)

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Nov 02, 2010 Tatum Rosell rated it 3 of 5 stars

N. Scott Momaday dedicated The Way to Rainy Mountain “in wonder, in faith, and in love” to his mother and father. This heartfelt depiction of the Kiowa Indian oral tradition encompasses all aspects of mythical tradition, historical accounts, and Momaday’s personal experience of his culture. Momaday uses three authorial voices taken on to effectively translate his multi-faceted view of Kiowa tradition. These contrasting voices add an interesting element to the tone of the piece.

The voice of hi...more N. Scott Momaday dedicated The Way to Rainy Mountain “in wonder, in faith, and in love” to his mother and father. This heartfelt depiction of the Kiowa Indian oral tradition encompasses all aspects of mythical tradition, historical accounts, and Momaday’s personal experience of his culture. Momaday uses three authorial voices taken on to effectively translate his multi-faceted view of Kiowa tradition. These contrasting voices add an interesting element to the tone of the piece.

The voice of his father, which is synonymous with the ancient myth of the Kiowas, is the reasoning behind N. Scott Momaday’s inspiration and need for sharing this history. The father voice lends a religious and cultural context to the overall theme. The second voice is one of a historical perception. This voice seems to add a balance to the mythical story weaving of the oral tradition by grounding the audience with time and fact; the factual evidence is perhaps another way in which an analytical reader can respect or understand the significance of the oral tradition. Momaday finally incorporates his unique experience, growing up as a Kiowa. His childhood memories add an almost mournful tone to the peace, as he reflects on something that was once whole and is now only in the hearts of the few remaining Kiowas.

The memory of his grandmother’s death is perhaps his most thought provoking memory, as he explains the cycle of life; this can be readily paralleled to the culture of the Kiowa people. This cycle brings his grandmother back to a childlike state, releasing her spirit into the earth; likewise, the novel seems to bring the Kiowa back to life with the retelling of myth and history. The people, however far from what they once were, live on through the pages. The text is certainly lovely from a literary standpoint, containing descriptive pros and vivid memories; however, the mythic voice sections evoke an even more impactful tone when read aloud. Momaday has created a wonderful preservation through literature that should be enjoyed and shared.
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Oct 20, 2012 Lydia Presley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, fiction, historic-fiction

I was introduced to N. Scott Momaday's unique book in a class this semester where we discussed the overlying themes and message of The Way to Rainy Mountain.

Told in a three part process through myth, historical, and personal journey, Momaday relates the oral traditions and his own connection to the Kiowa people. They journeyed from Montana to their final settlement in Oklahoma over centuries of time, and in three sections (not counting the beautiful introduction and epilogue), he recounts their...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Carl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-literature

This is my favorite passage from the book, page 26 of the first edition:

"The sun's child was big enough to walk around on the earth, and he saw a camp nearby. He made his way to it and saw that a great spider--that which is called a grandmother--lived there. The spider spoke to the sun's child, and the child was afraid. The grandmother was full of resentment; she was jealous, you see, for the child had not yet been weaned from its mother's breasts. She wondered whether the child were a boy or a...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Kyle Aisteach rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wish every tribe had an N. Scott Momaday recording oral traditions this way. Momaday weaves together three narratives: The stories, historical perspectives, and personal memories. The end result is much more a family history than a collection of Native American tales. And that, unfortunately, was its weakness for me. Unless I believed that Momaday's ancestors were the most important people in the tribe's past, their story simply has too much predominance for my taste. There were other great pe...more

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Jul 10, 2009 Doug rated it 3 of 5 stars

Read this because it's required reading for our school's academic team this year. Not a book I'd normally pick up. But I did find certain aspects interesting. The Native American Kiowa culture was interesting. The respect the tribe showed nature and their enemies juxtapositioned with the lack of respect the European invaders showed is rather disconcerting. The book didn't really focus on this but it was evident nonetheless. Makes me once again question this "God bless America" thing. If a God sa...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Victoria rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, education, non-fiction

This book is very strange, and very short. It is Momaday's account of his grandmother culture, after his grandmother's death when much of the Kiowa tribe and legend has died off and gone to nothing. In a series of chapters, he relates legends, facts and personal history. Each chapter is divided into three paragraphs. The first is the legends, the mythology of the Kiowa tribe. The second is the facts that may or may not be related, and then the third is his own take on it.

Thematically, the book...more

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Dec 31, 2010 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: native-american, history, mythology, western-us, memoir, anthropology, poetry

Reading this little book back in 1978 while a student at Indiana University (the $1.19 price tag from the book store is still on the cover) got me interested at the time in taking several anthropology courses to learn more about North American Indians. Momaday tells the story of his Kiowa ancestors through myths and legends passed down by his people including their surrender to the US Calvary and their relocation from Montana to Oklahoma. I found some of their rituals like the Sun Dance particul...more

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Nov 25, 2008 Lani rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: persons interested in broadening their author base

Recommended to Lani by: C.C. Russell

Momaday is known as the 'father of Native American literature', and this book helps to show why. Illustrated by the author's father, the novel is an unusual mixture of legend, history, and one man's personal journey to find himself. The formatting takes some getting used to, but in the end is effective. The forward is a must-read introduction to the book itself; despite Momaday's flowery style, it sets the stage for the story-teller voice for the rest of the book. A short read, it's a good choic...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Marina rated it 1 of 5 stars

Parts of it were ok, but on the whole it really wasn't enjoyable and at least to me, the novel seemed insincere and intentionally poorly written. The ingenuity of the triads quickly wears off and leaves the book with nothing but hardly-memorable stories and poetic descriptions of the world of culture that Momaday and modern day readers have missed out on. He could have done so much more with the rich cultural heritage - instead he oversimplifies it and centers it around his enlarged ego.

Sorry -...more

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Jul 20, 2012 A.E. Reiff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It seems enough to alert the reader this book exists, in case anybody is tired of consumer infatuation. These 90 page wonders full of meditation and forethought. It has to be his best, meaning simplest, clearest, but it is probably anthropology too. It ought to be read before or after viewing his
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbqzm6... but to take it on its own it is about the alien and the unknown as feet in old age and death, that is to say that even though he calls himself Rock Tree Boy he i...more

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Apr 02, 2008 Christy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: native-american-lit-and-history, readinglist1

This is a history of the Kiowa people told in fragments. Momaday provides short pieces of Kiowa myth alongside related historical details and personal recollections of the landscape and his grandmother. It is a fascinating introduction to Kiowa history and mythology because of this personal connection.

Some favorite passages:

A word has power in and of itself. It comes from nothing into sound and meaning; it gives origin to all things. By means of words can a man deal with the world on equal terms...more This is a history of the Kiowa people told in fragments. Momaday provides short pieces of Kiowa myth alongside related historical details and personal recollections of the landscape and his grandmother. It is a fascinating introduction to Kiowa history and mythology because of this personal connection.

Some favorite passages:

A word has power in and of itself. It comes from nothing into sound and meaning; it gives origin to all things. By means of words can a man deal with the world on equal terms. And the word is sacred. A man's name is his own; he can keep it or give it away as he likes. Until recent times, the Kiowas would not speak the name of a dead man. To do so would have been disrespectful and dishonest. The dead take their names with them out of the world. (33)

.............................................

One morning my father and I walked in Medicine Park, on the edge of a small herd of buffalo. It was late in the spring, and many of the cows had newborn calves. Nearby a calf lay in the tall grass; it was red-orange in color, delicately beautiful with new life. We approached, but suddenly the cow was there in our way, her great dark head low and fearful-looking. Then she came at us, and we turned and ran as hard as we could. She gave up after a short run, and I think we had not been in any real danger. But the spring morning was deep and beautiful and our hearts were beating fast and we knew just then what it was to be alive. (55)

.............................................

East of my grandmother's house the sun rises out of the plain. 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 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. (83)

.............................................

These passages in particular are meaningful because they emphasize the value of the landscape (passage 3), the ability to find meaning in small experiences (passage 2), and the power of language (passage 1). The power of language is especially significant because of the centrality of storytelling in Native American cultures and because, as Momaday points out, Kiowa culture is essentially dead and the only way that it can survive is through verbal traditions, through language. He writes, "But indeed the golden age of the Kiowas had been short-lived, ninety or a hundred years, say, from about 1740. The culture would persist for a while in decline, until about 1875, but then it would be gone, and there would be very little material evidence that it had ever been. Yet it is within the reach of memory still, though tenuously now [in 1969], and moreover it is even defined in a remarkably rich and living verbal tradition which demands to be preserved for its own sake" (85-6). Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain is a loving preservation of this verbal tradition and of the remains of the culture.(less)

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Sep 22, 2010 Marcie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Like one long dream-memory for me. As I read, I thought many times, "I've been there and felt that!" Or "yes, my grandmother's hands were that way, too!" or "I remember my grandmother doing that when I was a child"...

The book reminded me that the Wichita Mountains is good medicine for everyone.

I also enjoyed Louise Erdrich's essay, "The Names of Women" included in the back, about "all the mothers going back into the shadows, when women wore names that told us who they were."

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Oct 10, 2007 Deborah rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm re-reading this book (and the accompanying "teaching the way ..." because a colleague asked me to sub for him in his Native Lit class this week. It's been some time since I read this book, and I have to say I realize with some shame that now, at age 45, I am finally ready for it. Sometimes we just aren't prepared to appreciate a book, or we can't let it "in." For me, anyhow, this book is alive and breathing this time through: I see things I've never seen before, especially how Momaday illust...more

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Dec 12, 2008 Danna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lovely! I'm a sucker for folklore/mythology of any kind, and this book did not disappoint. The blend of mythology, history, and personal narrative is very compelling. The layout of having one bit of each on every two-page spread reminded me of the papers I've been editing for Tom; this semester of his PhD he's been exploring antenarrative, systemic-storytelling, proxemics, and wayfinding, so I've been seeing all manner of connections in the world to these topics. *NERD ALERT* :-)

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Oct 30, 2011 McKenzie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This collection of memories, mythology, and values of the Kiowa nation was not quite what I was expecting; I was blown away by House Made of Dawn a few years ago and craved more of the same dream-like novel world. However, I appreciated the mythology of the Kiowa, especially the connection they felt to the open prairie. Rainy Mountain is only a few hours away from where I'm living now; I'd like to go visit there to understand more about this tribe of American Indians and their customs.

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Feb 07, 2011 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: identity, male, multiple-pov, read-for-school

This was a really interesting and really unique book. It's the journey the author makes to his grandmothers grave in order to understand his Kiowa heritage. It is a very small but very dense book, filled with a lot of history and insight. There are three different voices throughout the novel which the tell a Kiowa folktale, a historical narrative, and the narrator's personal insight.

Overall it was a different than any other book that I have ever read in terms of both style and content and I reco...more

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Sep 16, 2011 Jesse Hanson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

N. Scott Momaday is one of my favorite authors, but I've always had trouble connecting with these types of Native American legends. Although I do, like so many others, have a bit of Indian wannabe in me, I also have a lot of Indian can'tabe. For what it's worth, I still liked the stories herein very much and I would read anything by this wonderful, almost mystical writer.

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Oct 13, 2009 Zhuoshi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, school

The myths were wonderful; the descriptions were beautiful. It made me truly appreciate the connection between Momaday and his tribe. But the triads were confusing, and often not captivating. I think it requires much more than reading to understand this book; it involves doing research, understanding Native Americans, understanding the Kiowa tribe beyond what Momaday describe. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I had hoped. And I had the help of my English teacher.

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Apr 24, 2012 Dylan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hard to follow, even the author admits that the reader won't be able to find meaning in half the stories. The structure of the book is effective in portraying the state of mind of a person who has had their culture systematically wiped out but not much else. Glad it was only 80 pages otherwise i may not have been able to get through it for class.

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Dec 04, 2010 Randy Daugherty rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a short but very interesting read.Momaday relates the history, myths, and tradition of the Kiowa in an interesting way using the storys of his people , the ledgends he grew up with and his own reflection of his childhood.
Though of little interst to anyone not interested in things Native American it is a book I would add to my collection.

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Sep 21, 2008 Joseph added it

I have re-read this book in a relatively new edition. It is a mixture of Kiowa myths, family stories, history sketches, and personal experiences. For me it evokes a sense of community unknown in modern U.S. society. It also conveys, however dimly to the modern scientific mind, a deep sense of a peoples' experience of the sacred where that term is entirely outside of modern theology and is steeped in the land and the memory of a people. It one opens ones mind and emotions the book can connect in...more

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Mar 15, 2009 Pam rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book was filled with random selections of stories native to the Kiowa people. I would have liked a little more background and fluency to better understand the meaning of the various legends, but all in all in was an interesting, thought-provoking read.

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Jul 09, 2011 Tom Darrow rated it 3 of 5 stars

Read this book for a conference on the History of the Great Plains. It is a collection of tales and history of the Kaiowa tribe and much of it reads like poetry. Not being a poetry fan, many of the points were lost on me.

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Dec 27, 2008 Charles rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

Pretty good, but not nearly as good as his "House made of Dawn." I read this after "House" and was somewhat disappointed for that reason. Maybe if I'd read it first I'd have liked it better.

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Aug 18, 2009 C rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 50-book-08

Great book of Momaday's Kiowa Indian myths passed down from his grandmother to him before he died. Beautiful illustrations by his father, Al Momaday. This book is fantastic.

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Oct 26, 2010 Peter rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: all

Recommended to Peter by: Inner Bonding friend

it's really short.
the format is something i've never seen before and really cool.
Native American stories that aren't even really stories.

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Nov 02, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

N. Scott Momaday has a way with words in the book, The Way to Rainy Mountain. It is a great story about how you can alway come back home.

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Sep 26, 2012 Amethyst rated it 4 of 5 stars

Read in class, not bad, very descriptive... Loved all the imagery, but it was definitely a lot sadder than I would have liked...

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Sep 19, 2011 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've read excerpts from this book, but was blown away by the book in its entirety. Very poetic, historical, and descriptive.

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Sep 09, 2011 Carol Snow rated it 5 of 5 stars

Beautiful book. Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for HOUSE MADE OF DAWN. He should have won it for this one instead.

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About N. Scott Momaday

N. Scott Momaday's baritone voice booms from any stage. The listener, whether at the United Nations in New York City or next to the radio at home, is transported through time, known as 'kairos"and space to Oklahoma near Carnegie, to the "sacred, red earth" of Momaday's tribe.

Born Feb. 27, 1934, Momaday's most famous book remains 1969's House Made of Dawn, the story of a Pueblo boy torn between th...more

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Quotes from The Way to Rainy Mountain

“A word has power in and of itself. It comes from nothing into sound and meaning; it gives origin to all things.” — 6 people liked it

“It was not an exclamation so much, I think, as it was a warding off, an exertion of language upon ignorance and disorder.” — 2 people liked it

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