Challenging the Episteme with Storytelling: Learning without Limits the Native Way

Abstract

Leslie Marmon Silko is an eminent writer among the Native Americans who is trying to resuscitate Native culture and reconstruct the identity of her people. In her novels like Ceremony and Almanac of the Dead, she has extensively written about the Native way of life. Her short stories are also an endeavour to construct the identity of her people. Due to her concern with the construction of the identity of her people, she often compares white institutions with the Native institutions. In her short story “Man to Bring the Rainclouds”, she compares the death rituals of her people with the Christian rituals and establishes that the Pueblo customs were deeply connected with the land. The current paper is a study of her short story “Humaweepi, The Warrior the Priest.” In the story, she compares the whites’ methods of educating the children to her people’s methods of educating the younger generation. She establishes in the story that the Pueblo way of educating the children was superior because it did not put any strain on the learner; rather the student learned everything without any stress or labour. Moreover, the Native system of education taught the learner about the importance of developing a bond with the natural world and hence trained the students to become eco-warriors.