The Way to Rainy Mountain

Choose one of Al Momaday’s illustrations. Carefully describe the illustration, and then turn back to the line from N. Scott Momaday’s text that it is paired with. How do the two interact? What does the illustration add to your understanding of the line and the story it comes from?

What is the role of elders in the Kiowa nation as depicted in The Way to Rainy Mountain? Use textual evidence from Momaday’s descriptions of at least two older figures to support your claim.

How does Momaday describe the Great Plains setting in The Way to Rainy Mountain? How do the Plains shape the lifeways of the Kiowas?

Animals feature prominently in The Way to Rainy Mountain. Choose an animal to trace throughout the text. What symbolic and cultural meanings does this animal carry?

What ideas does The Way to Rainy Mountain convey about how to live well? Look both for Momaday’s explicit statements about what is good or what ought to be done, and for his implied conclusions about the actions of characters and historical figures.

Choose a recurring figure in the book, like Mammedaty, Aho, or the Twins. What techniques does Momaday use to characterize this figure? Are they flat or round, static or dynamic? Ultimately, how are they depicted?

Explore the database of Kiowa calendar images at Kiowacalendars.org. Look at the Horse Eating Sun Dance from the summer of 1879, which is depicted in many of the calendars, and which Momaday and Mooney discuss in Story XIX (67), or choose another calendar image whose history is also discussed in The Way to Rainy Mountain. Now compare the two works. How do the visual artists who witnessed these events depict them? How do they convey emotion and action? What similar or contrasting message is conveyed when Momaday tells of the same events in his book?

The Way to Rainy Mountain began when N. Scott Momaday interviewed Kiowa elders about the history and religious practices of their community. Find and interview an elder in your family or community, and craft a one or two paragraph retelling of one of their memories or stories.