Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit

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Overview

Bold and impassioned, sharp and defiant, Leslie Marmon Silko's essays evoke the spirit and voice of Native Americans. Whether she is exploring the vital importance literature and language play in Native American heritage, illuminating the inseparability of the land and the Native American people, enlivening the ways and wisdom of the old-time people, or exploding in outrage over the government's long-standing, racist treatment of Native Americans, Silko does so with eloquence and power, born from her profound devotion to all that is Native American.

Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit is written with the fire of necessity. Silko's call to be heard ...

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More About This Book

Overview

Bold and impassioned, sharp and defiant, Leslie Marmon Silko's essays evoke the spirit and voice of Native Americans. Whether she is exploring the vital importance literature and language play in Native American heritage, illuminating the inseparability of the land and the Native American people, enlivening the ways and wisdom of the old-time people, or exploding in outrage over the government's long-standing, racist treatment of Native Americans, Silko does so with eloquence and power, born from her profound devotion to all that is Native American.

Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit is written with the fire of necessity. Silko's call to be heard is unmistakable; there are stories to remember, injustices to redress, ways of life to preserve. It is a work of major importance, filled with indispensable truths—a work by an author with an original voice and a unique access to both worlds.

Impassioned, defiant essays on the culture of Native Americans and their position in society--by the heralded author of Almanac of the Dead. Leslie Marmon Silko turns her fury, clear vision, and eloquent voice to a brilliant collection of essays on subjects ranging from rocks and rain to the injustice of the Anglo-American legal system. Photos.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
In her title essay, famed novelist, short story writer and poet Silko recalls her encounters with racism while growing up on a Laguna Pueblo reservation in New Mexico (she is of mixed Indian, Mexican and white ancestry), then goes on to explore sexually uninhibited Laguna society before the arrival of Christian missionaries, when women took lovers as freely as men, and hunted and went to war along with the men. That provocative piece sets the tone for an outspoken collection of original essays in which Silko criticizes tribal councils as puppets of the U.S. government and blames President Clinton for what she considers racist immigration policies and for abetting the white and mestizo ruling classes of El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico. She writes beautifully of Maya, Aztec and Mixtec codices, or folding books, relating their visual language to frescoes on pyramids and ancient dwellings. Her explorations of Pueblo myths and oral narratives emphasize the inextricable links between human identity, imagination and Mother Earth, a theme that resonates in an evocative essay, augmented by photographs, on the exotic rock formations around her home in Tucson's hills. (Mar.)
Library Journal
Another collection of essays, this from noted Native American novelist Silko (Almanac of the Dead, LJ 10/15/91).
More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
In these previously published essays and stories centered on the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest, Silko (Almanac of the Dead, 1991) weaves together autobiographical material with current and ancient Native American tales. She also blasts a broad array of individuals, professions, and government bodies with often unsubstantiated accusations, and plays fast and loose with matters of science and history.

Emphasizing the importance of storytelling as unifier and guidepost in the Pueblo culture, Silko is at her best when recounting stories that demonstrate the strong spiritual relationship of the people to the land's animate and inanimate objects, as in the tale of a drowned child whose clothes magically turn into desert butterflies or in the story of Yellow Woman, who agrees to go away with a buffalo spirit so that her tribe will always have food. Silko also collects modern tribal tales: There is, for instance, a story about a giant stone snake that is discovered at the site of a uranium mine, auguring, Silko suggests, the return of the tribal peoples to their ancestral lands. Elsewhere, Silko rails against the historic confiscation of tribal lands and to some extent details the continuing political struggle for the return of these lands and land-use rights. While her sincerity is unquestioned, and though she has a twice-told run-in with INS agents, readers may become impatient with the barbs tossed without elaboration at anthropologists and archaeologists, and with blanket assertions about "greedy elected officials" or the existence of a "police state" in the Southwest run by the Border Patrol. At best, her evidence for these charges is anecdotal and circumstantial.

One wishes Silko had confined this volume to storytelling and remembrances of her life and her ancestors' lives; the contribution she is capable of bringing to the reader's appreciation of the Pueblo culture is diluted by unsupportable and tired diatribe.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780684827070
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Publication date: 3/18/1997
  • Pages: 208
  • Sales rank: 413,731
  • Product dimensions: 8.50 (w) x 5.50 (h) x 0.48 (d)

Meet the Author

Leslie Marmon Silko
Leslie Marmon Silko

Leslie Marmon Silko:

One of the reasons I felt I must write the essays in this book was to remedy this country's shocking ignorance of its own history.

U.S. history courses in elementary and secondary schools usually begin with the arrival of the Englishspeaking Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock or, if the teacher is quite daring, with the failed colony at Roanoke, Virginia- Yet the true history of the United States begins thousands of years earlier with the stories of the paleo-Indian mammoth hunters on the plains of what is now northeastern and north-central New Mexico. These ancestors of the Pueblo Indian people did more than survive, they learned to thrive under the harsh conditions of the southwest desert.

In 1540, when the Spaniards marched into what is now Arizona and New Mexico, they found large, prosperous villages which reminded them of towns in Spain; and so they called the people "indios pueblos"-"pueblo" is the Spanish word for "town." The "indios pueblos" did not take the invasion of their land lying down- they resisted bitterly, and in 1680, they expelled the Spaniards to El Paso for twelve years.

In 1689, to make peace with the Pueblos, the King of Spain recognized each of the Pueblos as sovereign nations under international law Thus, the Pueblos of New Mexico (and Hopi of Arizona) were acknowledged as nations by international law, almost one hundred years before the United States even existed.

If our U.S. educational system actually gave students a complete history of this country, a great deal of prejudice aimed at Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens might be ended as our school children began to understand who really settled this country, and who really did the work of planting crops, mining ore, and building cities and railroads.

Until the whole story of the origins of the United States of America is known, there can be no justice, and without justice, there can be no peace.


Reading Group Discussion Points

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Introduction

Reading Group Discussion Points
  1. What is the significance of the title "Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit," both in the essay of that name and in the book as a whole? What similarities join all the essays and make them a collection?
  2. Who is Yellow Woman and what does she represent? Why does every culture or group of people need a figure such as Yellow Woman? Are there any such figures in white, European America? If so, who are they? How do figures such as Yellow Woman embody a culture?
  3. Through Pueblo myths, Silko explains how, to Native American people, human identity, imagination, and storytelling are inextricably linked to the land. Discuss this concept-the inseparability of the land, the people, and the stories. For example, how does a giant sandstone boulder about a mile north of Old Laguna become part of a story about Yellow Woman? Discuss how the land itself evokes the stories.
  4. There is fear that, as time goes by, Native Americans will drift further and further from their roots until their culture and customs have disappeared. But Silko writes, "The old people say, if you can remember the stories you will be all right. just remember the stories." How do stories, many of which are not written down, keep Native American culture alive? What is it about "story" that has such power?
  5. Consider, as Silko does, the telling of stories as opposed to writing them down, where the remembering and retelling are a communal process. In her essay, "Interior and Exterior Landscapes," she writes how "the ancient Pueblo people sought a communal truth, not an absolute truth. For them the truth lived somewhere in the web ofdifferingversions." Discuss the advantage of this method. How does it differ from the European-American way of telling stories? How do the ways people tell stories illuminate their culture and systems of thought?
  6. Steeped in the lore, religion, culture, and history of Native America, Silko wrenches our perspective and newly interprets for us that which is familiar — our notions of land, family, and story. How does she change the way one sees such things as rocks, snakes, and photographs? What is the new perspective on gender and sexuality Silko's essay, "Yellow Woman and the Beauty of the Spirit" gives us? What are some of the other subjects Silko turns her attention to, in which she offers us a new vantage point?
  7. Silko often writes about the old-time people. They have no names and no faces, yet she writes of them so vividly, a portrait of them emerges. Who are they and what do they believe? Why is Silko so attached to them? In naming them the old-time people, does she imply something about the people living today? If so, what might that be?
  8. Silko informs us that the worst injustice against Native Americans does not come from racist citizens, but rather from the federal government itself. She writes: "Without wealth or political power, Indian tribes have to rely upon the constitutional legal system and the moral conscience of society for survival.... If this society, through its government, does not live up to its promises and commitments to Indian people, then no rights are secure." Do you agree or disagree? According to Silko, what are these promises and commitments, and why does she think the federal government hasn't lived up to them? What are your assessments?
  9. In the essay "Border Patrol State," Silko offers us a disturbing firsthand account of how the Border Patrol harassed her and her companion because they appeared "to fit fictional profiles of undesirables." Silko believes that this practice signifies the beginning of a frightening slide toward more government-mandated "race policies" whose only end is genocide. "The slaughters in Rwanda and Bosnia did not occur spontaneously-with neighbor butchering neighbor out of the blue"; she writes, "politicians and government officials called down these maelstroms of blood on their people by unleashing the terrible irrational force that racism is." Do you agree or disagree? What other evidence does she provide in her essays that support this conclusion? Do you think what happened in Bosnia and Rwanda could happen in the United States? What are some of the other controversial issues that Silko addresses in Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit?
  10. In the essay "Tribal Prophecies," Silko asserts that a force has been set into motion in fulfillment of a tribal prophecy in which the Native American people will regain their ancestral lands. She writes, "...all things European will gradually disappear, and the rain will return, and the animals will come back, and the herds of buffalo on the great plains. The tribal people of the Americas, like the tribal people of Africa, will regain their ancestral lands." Does she substantiate this prophecy? If so, in what way or ways? What does she imply will happen to the Europeans? What is your view of prophecies such as this one?
  11. In the essay, "Fifth World: The Return of Ma Ah Shra True," Silko writes, "If it has taken environmental catastrophe to reveal to us why we need the rain forest, perhaps we might spare ourselves some tragedy by listening to the message of sand and stone in the form of the giant snake." According to Silko, what is the message of the giant snake? To what does she attribute its arrival? What do you make of a phenomenon such as the appearance of this sand and stone-formed snake in the midst of the strip-mining operation, Jackpile Mine? What other phenomenon does it bring to mind?
Recommended Readings

Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown

Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties, Vine Deloria

Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich

Earthmaker: Tribal Stories from Native America, Jay Miller

How to Enroll in an Indian Tribe, Heather Morningstar

Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian White Relations from Prophecy to the Present, Peter Nabokov, ed.

How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World, Jack M. Weatherford

The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture, Walter Williams

Reading Group Guide

Reading Group Discussion Points
  1. What is the significance of the title "Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit," both in the essay of that name and in the book as a whole? What similarities join all the essays and make them a collection?
  2. Who is Yellow Woman and what does she represent? Why does every culture or group of people need a figure such as Yellow Woman? Are there any such figures in white, European America? If so, who are they? How do figures such as Yellow Woman embody a culture?
  3. Through Pueblo myths, Silko explains how, to Native American people, human identity, imagination, and storytelling are inextricably linked to the land. Discuss this concept-the inseparability of the land, the people, and the stories. For example, how does a giant sandstone boulder about a mile north of Old Laguna become part of a story about Yellow Woman? Discuss how the land itself evokes the stories.
  4. There is fear that, as time goes by, Native Americans will drift further and further from their roots until their culture and customs have disappeared. But Silko writes, "The old people say, if you can remember the stories you will be all right. just remember the stories." How do stories, many of which are not written down, keep Native American culture alive? What is it about "story" that has such power?
  5. Consider, as Silko does, the telling of stories as opposed to writing them down, where the remembering and retelling are a communal process. In her essay, "Interior and Exterior Landscapes," she writes how "the ancient Pueblo people sought a communal truth, not an absolute truth. For them the truth lived somewhere in the web of differing versions." Discuss the advantage of this method. How does it differ from the European-American way of telling stories? How do the ways people tell stories illuminate their culture and systems of thought?
  6. Steeped in the lore, religion, culture, and history of Native America, Silko wrenches our perspective and newly interprets for us that which is familiar — our notions of land, family, and story. How does she change the way one sees such things as rocks, snakes, and photographs? What is the new perspective on gender and sexuality Silko's essay, "Yellow Woman and the Beauty of the Spirit" gives us? What are some of the other subjects Silko turns her attention to, in which she offers us a new vantage point?
  7. Silko often writes about the old-time people. They have no names and no faces, yet she writes of them so vividly, a portrait of them emerges. Who are they and what do they believe? Why is Silko so attached to them? In naming them the old-time people, does she imply something about the people living today? If so, what might that be?
  8. Silko informs us that the worst injustice against Native Americans does not come from racist citizens, but rather from the federal government itself. She writes: "Without wealth or political power, Indian tribes have to rely upon the constitutional legal system and the moral conscience of society for survival.... If this society, through its government, does not live up to its promises and commitments to Indian people, then no rights are secure." Do you agree or disagree? According to Silko, what are these promises and commitments, and why does she think the federal government hasn't lived up to them? What are your assessments?
  9. In the essay "Border Patrol State," Silko offers us a disturbing firsthand account of how the Border Patrol harassed her and her companion because they appeared "to fit fictional profiles of undesirables." Silko believes that this practice signifies the beginning of a frightening slide toward more government-mandated "race policies" whose only end is genocide. "The slaughters in Rwanda and Bosnia did not occur spontaneously-with neighbor butchering neighbor out of the blue"; she writes, "politicians and government officials called down these maelstroms of blood on their people by unleashing the terrible irrational force that racism is." Do you agree or disagree? What other evidence does she provide in her essays that support this conclusion? Do you think what happened in Bosnia and Rwanda could happen in the United States? What are some of the other controversial issues that Silko addresses in Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit?
  10. In the essay "Tribal Prophecies," Silko asserts that a force has been set into motion in fulfillment of a tribal prophecy in which the Native American people will regain their ancestral lands. She writes, "...all things European will gradually disappear, and the rain will return, and the animals will come back, and the herds of buffalo on the great plains. The tribal people of the Americas, like the tribal people of Africa, will regain their ancestral lands." Does she substantiate this prophecy? If so, in what way or ways? What does she imply will happen to the Europeans? What is your view of prophecies such as this one?
  11. In the essay, "Fifth World: The Return of Ma Ah Shra True," Silko writes, "If it has taken environmental catastrophe to reveal to us why we need the rain forest, perhaps we might spare ourselves some tragedy by listening to the message of sand and stone in the form of the giant snake." According to Silko, what is the message of the giant snake? To what does she attribute its arrival? What do you make of a phenomenon such as the appearance of this sand and stone-formed snake in the midst of the strip-mining operation, Jackpile Mine? What other phenomenon does it bring to mind?
Recommended Readings

Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown

Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties, Vine Deloria

Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich

Earthmaker: Tribal Stories from Native America, Jay Miller

How to Enroll in an Indian Tribe, Heather Morningstar

Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian White Relations from Prophecy to the Present, Peter Nabokov, ed.

How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World, Jack M. Weatherford

The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture, Walter Williams

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