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8. The Priest of the Sun, January 26
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in House Made of Dawn, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Home, Belonging, and Identity
Nature
Religion, Ceremony, and Tradition
Storytelling
Connection vs. Isolation
Summary
Analysis
The entirety of this chapter comes in the form of one of Tosamah’s sermons. He lovingly describes the landscape of his native Oklahoma, including a landmark known as Rainy Mountain. The area surrounding Rainy Mountain is completely desolate, allowing observers to feel isolated and to then imagine the moment of Creation.
Tosamah’s sermon is adapted from an autobiographical account that N. Scott Momaday later published in his book The Way to Rainy Mountain. The shared backgrounds of Tosamah and Momaday suggests that the educated but flawed Tosamah is the character who represents the author most closely.
Themes
Tosamah describes a visit he took to his grandmother’s grave. His grandmother, Aho, lived during the “last great moment” of the Kiowa people. The U.S. Cavalry eventually drove the Kiowas off their land and imprisoned them at Fort Sill. Tosamah describes the history of the Kiowas’ migration to the Southern Plains, which he followed to travel back to Aho’s grave. In the story he tells, he connects to his ancestors by connecting to the land they traveled across; his grandmother had that connection innately, as she was able to perfectly visualize places she had never been.
Tosamah recognizes and resents the violence of colonialism, which robbed the Kiowa people of their land and traditions. His journey to connect with his ancestral land also serves to connect him with his past, highlighting once again how integral homeland is to Native American identities.
Themes
In Tosamah’s sermon, he describes seeing Devils Tower (a butte that stands over the prairies). Tosamah believes that Devils Tower is a natural feature that generates “an awful quiet in the heart of man.” In the Kiowa legend of Devils Tower, seven sisters escape up a tree when their brother turns into a bear. The tree grows higher, becoming Devils Tower, and the sisters ascend to become the stars of the Big Dipper.
The story has already shifted into first person for Tosamah’s sermon, and as he tells the legend of Devils Tower, it shifts again into an emotionally distant, matter-of-fact third person. This narrative voice echoes the novel’s third-person narration in its moments of distance from the characters’ thoughts and feelings, which suggests that this mode of storytelling is an element of some Native American traditions.
Themes
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Tosamah discusses Aho’s reverence for the sun. As a child, she attended the last Kiowa sun dance in 1890, which she knows as “Sun Dance When the Forked Poles Were Left Standing” because the soldiers interrupted before the ceremony was finished. He remembers hearing his grandmother pray in a language that he doesn’t understand, but which he recognizes as sorrowful.
Aho’s memory of the incomplete sun dance emphasizes that U.S. colonialism not only tore Indigenous people from their homes; it also undermined their traditions. The fact that the ceremony was interrupted by soldiers also reiterates the inherent violence of colonialism. The aftermath of that violence is a loss of culture, which Tosamah illustrates with his inability to understand his grandmother’s native language.
Themes
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Tosamah recalls the wise old men who used to visit Aho’s house. They are severe, quiet, and dedicated to tradition. Their wives serve them, chatting in their kitchens in bright, ornate clothing. The children, including young Tosamah, play together outside while the elders sing and talk. This joy has faded: Tosamah’s sermon returns to the present, narrating his return to the silent rooms of his grandmother’s house. He sees a dead cricket and reflects on the significance of death and dying. The next morning at dawn, Tosamah visits his grandmother’s grave near Rainy Mountain.
Tosamah remembers his grandmother’s house as full of joy and love, emphasizing that Native American communities flourish when their members can live freely by their traditions. Aho’s generation, the remainders of the Kiowa’s “last great moment,” is dying, weaking the community’s connection to its traditions.
Themes
