The Way to Rainy Mountain: The Going On Summary & Analysis

The tribal voice tells a story of a woman pounding meat. Her child kept bringing balls of the meat outside and returning to ask for more. Finally the child came inside with an enemy, who said he would harm the family if they did not feed him and his people. While the woman cooked, her husband snuck outside and led the enemies’ horses upstream. He then birdcalled to the woman, who set fire to the fat and threw it at the enemies before escaping with the child. The voice of history describes a decorated tipi that was destroyed by fire in the late nineteenth century. Momaday’s personal memory is of walking through the Rainy Mountain cemetery and the earth seeming to glow dark red in the sunset. He remembers the world seeming to stop while the sun disappeared.

Well-made arrows have tooth marks on them, says the tribal voice, because Kiowas straighten arrows with their teeth. Once a man was making arrows at night and he saw an enemy through the flap of his tipi. He told his wife not to be afraid, that if the person were Kiowa they would understand his words and say so. As he spoke he drew his bow and aimed it all around. When there was no answer, he shot the man through the flap. The voice of history interjects that old men were the best arrowmakers because they were experienced and patient. Momaday then remembers his father telling of an old arrowmaker who used to visit him when he was a child.

The tribal voice says that Kiowa is a hard language to understand, but the storm spirit understands it. Once the Kiowas tried to make a horse from clay, but it became a terrible force that terrified the tribe. When storms come, it is that animal roaming the sky. They are not afraid, though, because it speaks Kiowa and they can tell it to pass them over. The voice of history simply states that the plains can be serene sometimes and wracked by violent weather at others. Momaday then remembers the storm cellar by his grandmother’s house. He says he has seen it storm so hard that a grown man couldn’t open the door to a storm cellar against the wind.

Quoetotai, a young warrior, fell in love with Many Bears’ wife, the tribal voice says. One day Many Bears shot him with an arrow and ran away. Quoetotai survived and decided to take Many Bears’ wife. The two of them left to be with the Comanches for fifteen years, and when they returned Many Bears welcomed them back, giving them six horses and declaring himself and Quoetotai brothers. The voice of history reflects that the artist George Catlin, who spent a lot of time with Indians, thought that the Kiowas were better looking than the Comanches and Wichitas. The voice of Momaday’s memory describes Catlin’s portrait of a Kiowa man, reflecting that he looks strong, at ease, and tolerant. Momaday says he would have liked to see the man as Catlin did.

Once a man came upon a buffalo with steel horns, the tribal voice says. The buffalo killed his horse and the man climbed a tree to escape. The buffalo began attacking the tree, and the man shot arrows at the buffalo that merely bounced off, leading the man to think he would die. Before firing his last arrow, something spoke to the man telling him to shoot the cleft of the buffalo’s hoof. The man did, and he felled the buffalo. The voice of history then tells of a buffalo hunt, presumably in the 1920s or 30s, in which two Kiowas set loose a demoralized buffalo—one that did not at all resemble the wild ones of the past—so that they could hunt it. Momaday then remembers that once while walking by a herd of calving buffalo a mother buffalo charged him. She didn’t hurt him, but in that moment he knew what it was to be alive.

The next section concerns women. The tribal voice says that bad women “are thrown away,” and then describes the wife of a newly-blinded man betraying him by leaving him to starve. He was rescued by a band of Kiowas who brought him back to the camp, and they threw his wife away the next morning because she was bad. The voice of history then notes that Kiowa calendars provide evidence that life was hard for both “good” and “bad” Kiowa women. They had low status, and were subject to all kinds of physical punishments. Momaday then remembers that Mammedaty’s grandmother was a Mexican captive who would not submit to the Kiowa role for women, and consequently she rose to great respect in the tribe.

The tribal voice tells a story of a group of young men deciding to follow the sun to see where it goes in winter. They rode after the sun farther south than any other Kiowas had been before, and one night after setting up camp they saw men with tails jumping from branch to branch in the trees over their heads. They turned back home after that, longing for the familiarity of their homeland. The voice of history quotes James Mooney again, who describes the vital importance of the horse to Kiowa life. Before the horse, travel was impossible and hunting arduous. Horses transformed Kiowas into nomadic warriors and buffalo hunters. Momaday then remembers how cherished summers were at Rainy Mountain, and how during the summer he would live in an open arbor at his grandmother’s house. When winter would come and he would return to the house, he would feel confined and depressed.