House Made of Dawn

The story of Tai-me—appearing here in the January 26 portion of "The Priest of the Sun"—figures not only in House Made of Dawn, but also in Momaday's other works, such as The Names: A Memoir and The Way to Rainy Mountain. Tai-me, a sun dance doll, is for the Kiowa an essential part of their sun dance culture and their most sacred object. To John Big Bluff Tosamah, who tells this story in part of his first sermon in the novel, Tai-me represents the richness and importance of a culture that expresses itself through hundreds of years by word of mouth. Whereas white American culture has inundated itself with words, diluting their worth, power, and meaning, Native American oral traditions such as that of Tai-me are valued and cherished because their oral nature makes them always only one generation away from extinction.

This passage, from "The Dawn Runner," February 27, is important in that it reveals the historical reasons behind Abel's run in the prologue and in the end of the novel. Told to Abel by his grandfather Francisco, who is nearing death, the story is one of the most memorable tales from Francisco's and Abel's youth. In the valley a bit north of the town, a race of the dead takes place once a year at dawn—the same race Abel runs in at the end of the novel and in the prologue. In this symbolic act, Abel reconnects himself to his life in Walatowa and accepts the responsibility and heritage passed down to him from the previous generations.

Ben Benally sings the song "House Made of Dawn" to Abel on a hill in Los Angeles in this passage from "The Night Chanter," February 20. The song is one of the songs of their ancestors, and represents the "old ways" to the two characters. Both Ben and Abel make a pact to sing the song together sometime in the future, but we do not see this occur in the course of the novel. However, another instance of the song occurs at the end of the novel. After Francisco dies and Abel runs in the valley—the same course where the race of the dead is run—Abel sings this song to himself under his breath. The song encapsulates a number of Native American ceremonial practices, and is what Momaday uses to begin his novel, both in the prologue and of course, the title of his novel itself.