Leslie Marmon Silko
Encyclopedia
Leslie Marmon Silko is a Native American
writer of the Laguna Pueblo
tribe, and one of the key figures in the second wave of what Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance
. She was one of the original recipients of the MacArthur Foundation Grant
later known as the "Genius Grant" in 1981 and the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas
Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994.
Native American (a Keres
speaking tribe), the rest of her ancestry being Anglo American and Mexican American
. Her father is Lee Marmon
, a noted photographer. As such, she grew up on the edge of pueblo
society both literally – her family’s house was at the edge of the reservation – and figuratively, not being allowed to participate in various rituals or joi
and aunts in the traditional stories
of the Laguna people, and as a result always identified most strongly with the native part of her ancestry
, saying in an interview with Alan Velie that "I am of mixed-breed ancestry, but what I know is Laguna".
She was educated at a Catholic school
in Albuquerque, and went on to receive a BA
from the University of New Mexico
in 1969. She briefly attended law school
before leaving to pursue her literary career.
In 1966, she married Richard C. Chapman, and together, they had a son, Robert Chapman, before divorcing in 1969. A subsequent marriage to John Silko in 1971 also ended in divorce.
written by Silko while still at school, "The Man To Send Rain Clouds", was published and quickly garnered a great deal of praise, winning its author a National Endowment for the Humanities
Discovery Grant. The story is still frequently anthologised today. During the period 1968-1974, Silko wrote and published more short stories and many poems, most of which were later collected in her book Laguna Woman.
Ceremony was first published in 1977 to rave reviews. It remains the Native American novel which most often appears on college and university syllabi
, and one of the few individual works by any Native author to have received book-length critical assessments.
The novel tells the story of Tayo, a veteran
of mixed ancestry returning from fighting against Japan
in World War II
. Returning to the poverty-stricken reservation at Laguna after a stint at the Los Angeles VA hospital, Tayo is recovering from "battle fatigue" (shell-shock), and is haunted by memories of his cousin, who died in the conflict when the two soldiers were forced to take part in the Bataan Death March
of 1942. Seeking an escape from his pain, Tayo initially takes refuge in alcoholism
. Gradually, helped by the mixed-blood shaman Betonie, he comes to a greater understanding of the world and his own place within it.
Ceremony has been called a Grail fiction, in that the hero overcomes a series of challenges to reach a specified goal; but this point of view has been criticized as Eurocentric, since it involves a Native American contextualizing backdrop, and not one based on European-American myths. The skill of the writer is evident in the way that it is also a book deeply rooted in traditional stories (for instance, there are several retellings of old stories). Fellow Pueblo poet Paula Gunn Allen
criticized the book on this account, saying that Silko was divulging tribal secrets that she did not have the right to reveal.
In an America full of damaged Vietnam
veterans, the book's message of healing and reconciliation between races and people made it both an immediate and a long-term success. It was largely on the strength of this work that critic Alan Velie named Silko one of his Four Native American Literary Masters, along with N. Scott Momaday
, Gerald Vizenor
and James Welch
.
, an interlinked collection of poems and short stories, and in 1986 she published Delicacy and Strength of Lace, a collected volume of her correspondence with her friend James Wright
.
In the spring of 1981 she won John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant
for $33,600 for each of five years. She quit her job teaching to write a sweeping 1,200-page novel about the American Indian set in the contemporary Southwest. During this period she struggled to complete the work, losing custody of her then 12-year old son to her ex-husband, while focusing on making films and writing.
It would take Silko 10 years to produce Almanac of the Dead
, a massive volume published in 1991. This ambitious work received mixed reviews. The vision of the book stretched over both American continents and included Chiapas
revolutionaries the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
as just a small part of a mammoth cast of characters. Again taking the theme of conflict between white and Native as her theme, Silko substitutes what comes close to advocacy of violent revolution for her earlier works' stories of healing and forgiveness. Critiqued for its attitude towards homosexuality
(several of the major villains are gay), and for a clumsy rendering of the Popol Vuh
, Almanac of the Dead has not achieved the same mainstream success as its predecessor.
A subsequent novel, Gardens in the Dunes (1999), weaves themes of women’s history, slavery, conquest and gardening.
Her two most famous essays are outspoken attacks on fellow writers. In "An Old-Fashioned Indian Attack in Two Parts", first published in Geary Hobson’s collection The Remembered Earth (1978), Silko accused Gary Snyder
of profiting from Indian culture, particularly in his collection Turtle Island
, the name and theme of which was taken from Pueblo mythology. In 1986, in a review of Anishinaabe
writer Louise Erdrich
's novel The Beet Queen entitled "Here’s an Odd Artifact for the Fairy-Tale Shelf", Silko claimed that the novelist had abandoned writing about the Native struggle for sovereignty
in exchange for writing "self-referential", postmodern
fiction.
In 2010, Silko released The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir. Written using distinctive prose and overall structure influenced by Native American storytelling traditions, the book is a broad-ranging exploration not only of her Laguna Pueblo, Cherokee, Mexican and European family history but also of the natural world, suffering, insight, environmentalism and the sacred. The desert southwest setting is prominent. Although non-fiction, the stylized presentation is reminiscent of creative fiction.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
writer of the Laguna Pueblo
Laguna Pueblo
Laguna is a Native American tribe of the Pueblo people in west-central New Mexico, USA. The name, Laguna, is Spanish and derives from the lake located on their reservation. The real Keresan name of the tribe is Kawaik. The population of the tribe exceeds 7,000 , making it the largest Keresan...
tribe, and one of the key figures in the second wave of what Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance
Native American Renaissance
The Native American Renaissance was a term originally coined by critic Kenneth Lincoln in his 1983 book of the same title. Lincoln’s goal was to explore the explosion in production of literary works by Native Americans in the decade and a half after N. Scott Momaday had won the Pulitzer Prize in...
. She was one of the original recipients of the MacArthur Foundation Grant
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
later known as the "Genius Grant" in 1981 and the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas
Native Writers' Circle of the Americas
The Native Writers' Circle of the Americas is an organization of Native American writers, most notable for its literary awards, presented annually to Native American writers in three categories: First Book of Poetry, First Book of Prose, and Lifetime Achievement...
Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994.
Early life
Silko is 1/4 Laguna PuebloLaguna Pueblo
Laguna is a Native American tribe of the Pueblo people in west-central New Mexico, USA. The name, Laguna, is Spanish and derives from the lake located on their reservation. The real Keresan name of the tribe is Kawaik. The population of the tribe exceeds 7,000 , making it the largest Keresan...
Native American (a Keres
Keresan languages
Keresan , also Keres , is a group of seven related languages spoken by Keres Pueblo peoples in New Mexico, U.S.A.. Each is mutually intelligible with its closest neighbors...
speaking tribe), the rest of her ancestry being Anglo American and Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
. Her father is Lee Marmon
Lee Marmon
Lee H. Marmon is an acclaimed Native American photographer and author. Born of mixed blood in New Mexico's Laguna Pueblo, he has become globally recognized for his prolific and distinguished black-and-white portraits of his tribal elders, who collectively comprised the tribe's last generation to...
, a noted photographer. As such, she grew up on the edge of pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
society both literally – her family’s house was at the edge of the reservation – and figuratively, not being allowed to participate in various rituals or joi
and aunts in the traditional stories
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
of the Laguna people, and as a result always identified most strongly with the native part of her ancestry
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
, saying in an interview with Alan Velie that "I am of mixed-breed ancestry, but what I know is Laguna".
She was educated at a Catholic school
Catholic school
Catholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...
in Albuquerque, and went on to receive a BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from the University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
in 1969. She briefly attended law school
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
before leaving to pursue her literary career.
In 1966, she married Richard C. Chapman, and together, they had a son, Robert Chapman, before divorcing in 1969. A subsequent marriage to John Silko in 1971 also ended in divorce.
Early literary work
A short storyShort story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
written by Silko while still at school, "The Man To Send Rain Clouds", was published and quickly garnered a great deal of praise, winning its author a National Endowment for the Humanities
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
Discovery Grant. The story is still frequently anthologised today. During the period 1968-1974, Silko wrote and published more short stories and many poems, most of which were later collected in her book Laguna Woman.
Ceremony
Leslie Marmon Silko's novelNovel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
Ceremony was first published in 1977 to rave reviews. It remains the Native American novel which most often appears on college and university syllabi
Syllabus
A syllabus , is an outline and summary of topics to be covered in an education or training course. It is descriptive...
, and one of the few individual works by any Native author to have received book-length critical assessments.
The novel tells the story of Tayo, a veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
of mixed ancestry returning from fighting against Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Returning to the poverty-stricken reservation at Laguna after a stint at the Los Angeles VA hospital, Tayo is recovering from "battle fatigue" (shell-shock), and is haunted by memories of his cousin, who died in the conflict when the two soldiers were forced to take part in the Bataan Death March
Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer, by the Imperial Japanese Army, of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of prisoners.The march was characterized by...
of 1942. Seeking an escape from his pain, Tayo initially takes refuge in alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. Gradually, helped by the mixed-blood shaman Betonie, he comes to a greater understanding of the world and his own place within it.
Ceremony has been called a Grail fiction, in that the hero overcomes a series of challenges to reach a specified goal; but this point of view has been criticized as Eurocentric, since it involves a Native American contextualizing backdrop, and not one based on European-American myths. The skill of the writer is evident in the way that it is also a book deeply rooted in traditional stories (for instance, there are several retellings of old stories). Fellow Pueblo poet Paula Gunn Allen
Paula Gunn Allen
Paula Gunn Allen was a Native American poet, literary critic, lesbian activist, and novelist.Born Paula Marie Francis in Albuquerque, Allen grew up in Cubero, New Mexico, a Spanish-Mexican land grant village bordering the Laguna Pueblo reservation...
criticized the book on this account, saying that Silko was divulging tribal secrets that she did not have the right to reveal.
In an America full of damaged Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veterans, the book's message of healing and reconciliation between races and people made it both an immediate and a long-term success. It was largely on the strength of this work that critic Alan Velie named Silko one of his Four Native American Literary Masters, along with N. Scott Momaday
N. Scott Momaday
Navarre Scott Momaday is a Kiowa-Cherokee Pulitzer Prize-winning writer from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona.-Background:...
, Gerald Vizenor
Gerald Vizenor
Gerald Robert Vizenor is a Native American writer, and an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation. One of the most prolific Native American writers, with over 30 books to his name, Vizenor also taught for many years at the University of California, Berkeley, where...
and James Welch
James Welch (poet)
James Welch , was an award-winning U.S. author and poet. He received national literary awards for Fools Crow. In addition, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas in 1997....
.
Other works
Silko was not to publish another full-length novel for over a decade. In 1981, she brought out StorytellerStoryteller (book)
Storyteller is a hybrid collection of poetry, short stories and family photographs compiled by Laguna author Leslie Marmon Silko and published in 1981. The collection contains fictional stories, stories about her family and stories crafted from tribal traditions. Storyteller contains three of...
, an interlinked collection of poems and short stories, and in 1986 she published Delicacy and Strength of Lace, a collected volume of her correspondence with her friend James Wright
James Wright (poet)
James Arlington Wright was an American poet.Wright first emerged on the literary scene in 1956 with The Green Wall, a collection of formalist verse that was awarded the prestigious Yale Younger Poets Prize. But by the early 1960s, Wright, increasingly influenced by the Spanish language...
.
In the spring of 1981 she won John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
for $33,600 for each of five years. She quit her job teaching to write a sweeping 1,200-page novel about the American Indian set in the contemporary Southwest. During this period she struggled to complete the work, losing custody of her then 12-year old son to her ex-husband, while focusing on making films and writing.
It would take Silko 10 years to produce Almanac of the Dead
Almanac of the Dead
Almanac of the Dead is a novel by Leslie Marmon Silko, first published in 1991.- Plot introduction :Almanac of the Dead takes place against the backdrop of the American Southwest and Central America. It follows the stories of dozens of major characters in a somewhat non-linear narrative format...
, a massive volume published in 1991. This ambitious work received mixed reviews. The vision of the book stretched over both American continents and included Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
revolutionaries the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....
as just a small part of a mammoth cast of characters. Again taking the theme of conflict between white and Native as her theme, Silko substitutes what comes close to advocacy of violent revolution for her earlier works' stories of healing and forgiveness. Critiqued for its attitude towards homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
(several of the major villains are gay), and for a clumsy rendering of the Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh is a corpus of mytho-historical narratives of the Post Classic Quiché kingdom in Guatemala's western highlands. The title translates as "Book of the Community," "Book of Counsel," or more literally as "Book of the People."...
, Almanac of the Dead has not achieved the same mainstream success as its predecessor.
A subsequent novel, Gardens in the Dunes (1999), weaves themes of women’s history, slavery, conquest and gardening.
Non-fictional work
Long a commentator on Native American affairs, Silko has published many non-fictional articles on Native American affairs and literature.Her two most famous essays are outspoken attacks on fellow writers. In "An Old-Fashioned Indian Attack in Two Parts", first published in Geary Hobson’s collection The Remembered Earth (1978), Silko accused Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
of profiting from Indian culture, particularly in his collection Turtle Island
Turtle Island (poetry book)
Turtle Island is a book of poetry written by Gary Snyder in 1974. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1975. The work is titled after an English translation of many Native American tribes' terms for North America: Turtle Island....
, the name and theme of which was taken from Pueblo mythology. In 1986, in a review of Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...
writer Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich
Karen Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
's novel The Beet Queen entitled "Here’s an Odd Artifact for the Fairy-Tale Shelf", Silko claimed that the novelist had abandoned writing about the Native struggle for sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
in exchange for writing "self-referential", postmodern
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
fiction.
In 2010, Silko released The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir. Written using distinctive prose and overall structure influenced by Native American storytelling traditions, the book is a broad-ranging exploration not only of her Laguna Pueblo, Cherokee, Mexican and European family history but also of the natural world, suffering, insight, environmentalism and the sacred. The desert southwest setting is prominent. Although non-fiction, the stylized presentation is reminiscent of creative fiction.
Novels
- Almanac of the DeadAlmanac of the DeadAlmanac of the Dead is a novel by Leslie Marmon Silko, first published in 1991.- Plot introduction :Almanac of the Dead takes place against the backdrop of the American Southwest and Central America. It follows the stories of dozens of major characters in a somewhat non-linear narrative format...
(1991)
Poetry & Short Story Collections
- Love poem and Slim Canyon (1996)
- Rain (1996)
- StorytellerStoryteller (book)Storyteller is a hybrid collection of poetry, short stories and family photographs compiled by Laguna author Leslie Marmon Silko and published in 1981. The collection contains fictional stories, stories about her family and stories crafted from tribal traditions. Storyteller contains three of...
(1981) - Western Stories (1980)
- Laguna Women: Poems (1974)
Other
- The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir (2010)
- Delicacy And Strength of Lace Letters (1986)
- INDIAN SONG:SURVIVAL
See also
- List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
- Native American StudiesNative American StudiesNative American Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that examines the history, culture, politics, issues and contemporary experience of Native peoples in North America, or, taking a hemispheric approach, the Americas...
External links
- Biography
- Voices from the Gaps biography
- "Leslie Marmon Silko" by Per Seyersted in the Western Writers Series Digital Editions at Boise State University