Ceremony Part Three

        This section of the book starts out with a more in depth look at Auntie and her relationship with Tayo. She claims she is a Christian woman but she uses Tayo as a way to show the people that she is sill responsible and can raise a child but doesn't care much for Tayo at all. Auntie claiming she is a Christian woman is a massive contradiction and Tayo begins to realize that. Later on in the reading though you get a sign of oppression with Auntie. " It will start all over again. All that gossip about Josiah and about Little Sister. Girls around here have babies by white men all the time now, and nobody says anything." Auntie is feeling a transfer of oppression here and it's also very racist on both sides because it's claiming all the girls just get with white men and it's also saying the white men are only looking for women to use. Constantly learning and hearing about more of the struggles in Tayo's life he also occasionally remembers some of the good times he used to have with Rocky when they were younger. " The rattlesnakes liked to lay there in the early spring, when the days were still cool and the sun warmed the black lava rock first; the snakes went there to restore life themselves. The old man gestured to the northeast, and Tayo turned his head that way and remembered the wide round hole, so deep that even lying on his belly beside Rocky, he had never been able to see the bottom." These flashbacks Tayo gets of the good times is what keeps him going at times and allows him to get away from all the darkness thats filled his head. This quote from the book also gives a sense of storytelling and a glimpse of how important storytelling is for Tayo and the Laguna Pueblo people in general. Ku'oosh is an important man in this section of the book because he's constantly being referenced. Ku'oosh acknowledges Tayo's absent white father and the white peoples war. This was is not a Laguna Pueblo war and Ku'oosh emphasizes that with Tayo saying this war was the white mans war. With Ku'oosh Tayo does a lot of blaming himself and we see that Tayo is struggling greatly with his past and we see the PTS at times. Tayo blames himself for the wrong doings at war and in order for the world to heal the world has to heal.

What a potential Laguna Pueblo medicine man could look like(Ku'oosh).

Ku'oosh explaining that this was a white mans war not a Laguna Pueblo war.

         Later on in the reading theres some racism but against white people. Just like the white people are always treating the Native Americans as less in the book Ku'oosh returns the favor. " There are some things we can't cure like we used to, not since the white people came." The blame for everything that has happened goes both ways. The Native Americans blame the white people and the white people blame the Native americans. Later in the reading there is more struggle for Tayo with PTS and alcohol. " Liquor was medicine for the anger that made them hurt, for the pain of the loss, medicine for tight bellies and choked-up throats. He was beginning to feel a comfortable place inside himself, close to his own beating heart, near his own warm belly; he crawled inside and watched the storm swirling on the outside and he was safe there; the winds of rage could not reach him."Most of the time when Tayo is drunk he begins telling stories and the other men enjoy listening to his stories but the stories and the combination of alcohol are only hurting Tayo. Tayo uses alcohol to get his mind away from the past and this was common for most Native americans returning from war. Another important part of this reading is the affect the Army uniform had on Tayo. " The first day in Oakland he and Rocky walked down the street together and a big Chrysler stopped in the street and an old white woman rolled down the window and said, "God bless you, God bless you," but it was the uniform, not them, she blessed." The uniform brought Tayo respect from the white people but it was the uniform not Tayo. As soon as that uniform was off the white people labeled Tayo as Indian and savage all over again. The Uniform even brought Tayo success with white woman but that went away too when the Uniform was gone. Tayo struggles to fit in and refers to himself as "half-breed". Him being from a white father didn't help in the Laguna Pueblo nation and him being Laguna Pueblo didn't help in white america's idea of society. This struggle to fit in really haunts Tayo. 

U.S Army WWII uniform.

Most soldiers struggled with alcohol and drug abuse when they returned home.