The Way To Rainy Mountain Summary

In The Way to Rainy Mountain, the author. N. Scott Momaday, delivered the history of his ancestors, the Kiowa tribe. Ever since the death of his grandmother, he was motivated to dig deeper into the Kiowa culture as he returned to his grandmother’s grave and commenced on a journey to Rainy Mountain. The piece provides short stories and myths in regards to Kiowa’s history. The author begins by illustrating the settlement of the Kiowa tribe where “a single knoll rises out of the plain in Oklahoma, north and west of the Wichita Range. For my people, the Kiowas, it is an old landmark, and they gave it the name Rainy Mountain” (283 Momaday). Throughout the short passage, Momaday used traditional Kiowa’s myths to guide the readers and reflect Kiowa’s culture.
As a result, I somewhat lost interest and was left in suspense as I felt as if I was reading a history textbook. Though the author gave out descriptive and detailed historical facts, he failed to connect with the readers on a personal and emotional level. He stated that “Yellowstone, it seemed to me, was the top of the world, a region of deep lakes and dark timber, canyons and waterfalls [...] In July the inland slope of the Rockies is luxuriant with flax and buckwheat, stonecrop and larkspur (285). It seemed to me that Momaday was simply describing the scenery instead of drawing connections with the readers and himself. It felt as if most of the passage was simply a narration of “what he saw”, not “how it connects to him”. Furthermore, nothing about his grandmother’s childhood was mentioned, which made it somewhat dry and uninteresting to