Leslie Marmon Silko

Background

Silko, of Laguna Pueblo, Plains Indian, Mexican, and Anglo-American descent, was born on March 5, 1948 in Albuquerque and raised on the Laguna Pueblo Reservation in northern New Mexico.

Education

As a child she attended schools administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and also learned about Laguna legends and traditions from her great-grandmother and other members of her extended family. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Mexico in 1969 and briefly attended law school before deciding to pursue a writing career.

Career

While working on her fiction, Silko has taught at several universities and colleges throughout the southwest. She is also the single parent of two sons. Silko's first novel, Ceremony (1977), is a nonchronological work that interweaves free verse poetry and narrative prose. The story is set primarily in the years following World War II and revolves around Tayo, a veteran of mixed white and Laguna heritage who returns to the reservation shattered by his war experiences. He ultimately finds healing, however, with the help of Betonie, an elderly man who, like Tayo, is an outcast from Laguna society due to his white heritage, and T'seh Montano, a medicine woman who embodies the feminine, life-giving aspects of the earth. Through them, Tayo learns that his community's ancient ceremonies are not merely rituals, but a means of achieving one's proper place within the universe. To underscore this concept, Silko incorporates Laguna myths and historical incidents, reflecting the Pueblo's abiding connection to the natural world which counteracts the despair and alienation engendered by white society. Critics applauded Ceremony, echoing Frank McShane's estimation that the novel "is one of the most realized works of fiction devoted to Indian life that has been written in this country, and it is a splendid achievement. " Silko's next work, Storyteller (1981), is comprised of poems from her earlier collection Laguna Woman (1974) as well as short stories, anecdotes, folktales, historical and autobiographical notes, and photographs. According to Bernard A. Hirsch, "this multigeneric work lovingly maps the fertile storytelling ground from which [Silko's] art evolves and to which it is here returned-an offering to the oral tradition which nurtured it. " Several of the pieces from this work have been accorded significant attention. One such story, "Yellow Woman, " is based on traditional abduction tales in which a kachina, or mountain spirit, kidnaps and seduces a young woman on her way to draw water. In Silko's version, a contemporary Pueblo woman realizes that her liaison with a cattle rustler is in fact a reenactment of the "yellow woman" legend. The boundary between her experience and the myth slowly dissolves as she becomes aware of her active role in the traditions of her community. Upon returning to her family, she hopes that the story of her affair will be passed on as a new episode in the visionary drama kept alive by the oral tradition. In Almanac of the Dead (1991) Silko presents an apocalyptic vision of North America in which Native Americans reclaim their ancestral lands after whites, lacking the spiritual and moral force of the Indian world, succumb to crime, perversion, drug addiction, and environmental degradation. Some critics have objected to what they perceived as Silko's exaggeration of corruption in Anglo-American society. Malcolm Jones, Jr. , observed that "in [Silko's] cosmology, there are good people and there are white people. " However, most have praised her vivid characterizations and inventive plotting, contending that while The Almanac of the Dead may perturb some white readers, it is a compelling portrait of a society founded upon the eradication of Native Americans and their cultures. Leslie Marmon Silko has earned acclaim for her writings about American Indians. She first received substantial critical attention in 1977 with her novel Ceremony, which tells of a half-breed war veteran's struggle for sanity after returning home from World War II. The veteran, Tayo, has difficulties adjusting to civilian life on a New Mexico Indian reservation. He is haunted by his violent actions during the war and by the memory of his brother's death in the same conflict. Deranged and withdrawn, Tayo initially wastes away on the reservation while his fellow Indian veterans drink excessively and rail against racism, After futilely exploring Navajo rituals in an attempt to discover some sense of identity, Tayo befriends a wise old half-breed, Betonie, who counsels him on the value of ceremony. Betonie teaches Tayo that ceremony is not merely formal ritual but a means of conducting one's life. With the old man's guidance, Tayo learns that humanity and the cosmos are aspects of one vast entity, and that ceremony is the means to harmony within that entity. With its depiction of life on the Indian reservation and its exploration of philosophical issues, Ceremony established Silko as an important artist from the American Indian community. Charles R. Larson, writing in Washington Post Book World, called Ceremony a novel "powerfully conceived" and attributed much of the book's success to Silko's incorporation of Indian elements. "Tayo's experiences may suggest that Ceremony falls nicely within the realm of American fiction about World War II, " Larson wrote. "Yet Silko's novel is also strongly rooted within the author's own tribal background and that is what I find especially valuable here. " Similarly, Frank MacShane wrote in the New York Times Book Review that Silko skillfully incorporates aspects of Indian storytelling techniques into Ceremony. "She has used animal stories and legends to give a fabulous dimension to her novel, " he declared. MacShane added that Silko was "without question . .. the most accomplished Indian writer of her generation. " Some critics considered Ceremony a powerful confirmation of cosmic order. Elaine Jahner, who reviewed the novel for Prairie Schooner Review, wrote that the book "is about the power of timeless, primal forms of seeing and knowing and relating to all of life. " She observed that the Indian custom of communal storytelling provided the novel with both theme and structure and added that Tayo eventually "perceives something of his responsibilities in shaping the story of what human beings mean to each other. " And Peter G. Beidler focused on the importance of storytelling in Ceremony by writing in American Indian Quarterly that the novel is both "the story of a life [and] the life of a story. " Beidler called Ceremony "a magnificent novel" that "brings life to human beings and makes readers care about them. " After the publication of Ceremony in 1977, Silko received greater recognition for her earlier short stories. Among her most noteworthy stories were "Lullaby, " "Yellow Woman, " and "Tony's Story. " "Lullaby" is an old woman's recollection of how her children were once taken away for education and how they returned to a culture that no longer seemed familiar or comfortable. Writing in the Southwest Review, Edith Blicksilver called "Lullaby" Silko's "version of the Native American's present-day reality. " "Yellow Woman" concerns a Navajo woman who is abducted by a cattle ranger whom she suspects to be the embodiment of a spirit. In MELUS A. LaVonne Ruoff wrote that "'Yellow Woman' is based on traditional abduction tales, [but] it is more than a modernized version. " Ruoff attributed the difference to Silko's emphasis on "the character's confusion about what is real and what is not. " "Tony's Story" is about an Indian who kills a vicious policeman. In MELUS, Ruoff noted Silko's ability to equate the murder with the Pueblo exorcism ritual. "Tony's Story, " Ruoff declared, "deals with the return to Indian ritual as a means of coping with external forces. " Some of Silko's stories were included in the anthology The Man to Send Rainclouds, which derives its title from Silko's humorous tale of conflict between a Catholic priest and Pueblo Indians during an Indian funeral. Silko also included some of her early stories in her 1981 collection Storyteller, which features her poetry as well. In the New York Times Book Review, N. Scott Momaday called Storyteller "a rich, many-faceted book. " Momaday acknowledged Silko's interests in ritual and the Indian storytelling tradition and her ability to portray characters and situations. "At her best, " Momaday contended, "Leslie Silko is very good indeed. She has a sharp sense of the way in which the profound and the mundane often run together. " James Polk gave similar praise in Saturday Review when he wrote that Silko's "perceptions are accurate, and her style reflects the breadth, the texture, the mortality of her subjects. " Silko's other writings include Laguna Woman, a 1974 poetry collection, and The Delicacy and Strength of Lace, a collection of correspondence between Silko and poet James Wright, who died of cancer in 1980. In addition, Silko has been honored with a Pushcart Prize and an award from the prestigious MacArthur Foundation. The latter award-$176, 000-was particularly appreciated by Silko, who produced most of her writings while also working as an English professor. Acknowledging her cash prize, she told Time that she was now "a little less beholden to the everyday world. "

Achievements

• Throughout her career as a writer and teacher, she has remained grounded in the history-filled landscape of the Laguna Pueblo. Her experiences in the culture have fueled an interest to preserve cultural traditions and understand the impact of the past on contemporary life. A well-known novelist and poet, Silko's career has been characterized by making people aware of ingrained racism and white cultural imperialism, and a commitment to support women's issues. Her novels have many characters who attempt what some perceive a simple yet uneasy return to balance Native American traditions survivalism with the violence of modern America.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Storyteller

    (Now back in print—a classic work of Native American liter...)

  • Ceremony: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

    (Thirty years since its original publication, Ceremony rem...)

  • Almanac of the Dead

    (“To read this book is to hear the voices of the ancestors...)

  • Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit

    (Bold and impassioned, sharp and defiant, Leslie Marmon Si...)

  • The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir

    (Profound reflections on family and the natural world-from...)

  • The Delicacy and Strength of Lace

Connections

In 1965, she married Richard Chapman, and together, they had a son, Robert Chapman, before divorcing in 1969. In 1971, she and John Silko were married. They had a son, Casimir Silko. This marriage also ended in divorce.

Father:

Leland Howard Marmon

Mother:

Mary Virginia Leslie

Son:

Casimir Silko

Son:

Robert Chapman

husband:

John Silko

husband:

Richard Chapman

References

• The Delicacy and Strength of Lace: Letters Between Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright
• Leslie Marmon Silko's Storyteller: New Perspectives