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Tayo
The
protagonist of the novel. Tayo struggles with a sense of belonging
in his family throughout his childhood and of belonging in his community
after his return from World War II. Educated in white schools, Tayo
has always maintained a belief in the Native American traditions.
Painfully aware of the social realities surrounding Native American
life on and off the reservation—and Native American participation
in World War II—Tayo is able to make use of his double consciousness
(of white and Native American life) to cure himself and his community.
Read an
in-depth analysis of Tayo.
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Betonie
The
medicine man who guides Tayo through his ceremony. Betonie lives
on the edge of the Navajo reservation, on a cliff overlooking the
white town of Gallup. Feared and mistrusted by many for his eccentricities
and for his contact with whites, Betonie comes from a long line
of medicine men and women who struggle to create a new ceremony
that will answer to the needs of the contemporary world. His wisdom
is a key element in Tayo's cure.
Read an
in-depth analysis of Betonie.
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Auntie
Tayo's
aunt. As the eldest daughter in her family, Auntie is in charge
of running the household and caring for the family. Although she
performs her duties diligently, Auntie is a proud and spiteful woman.
She is largely responsible for Tayo's sense of exclusion from his
family. In addition to following the old Native American traditions
almost blindly, Auntie is a devout Christian who thrives on martyrdom.
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in-depth analysis of Auntie.
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Josiah
Tayo's
uncle. Josiah is the person who teaches Tayo the Native American
traditions and makes him feel most at home in the family. Although
he adheres strongly to tradition, Josiah is not afraid of change,
falling in love with the Mexican Night Swan and following her advice to
undertake raising a herd of Mexican cattle crossbred with Herefords.
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Harley
Tayo's
childhood friend. Harley returns from fighting in World War II apparently
less troubled than Tayo but with a severe alcohol addiction. Harley
tries to be a good friend to Tayo but is impeded by his alcoholism.
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Rocky
Tayo's
cousin and adoptive brother. He represents for Tayo and his family
the perfect success of a Native American to integrate white society.
Much to everyone's dismay, Rocky dies in the Philippines during World
War II.
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Grandma
Tayo's grandmother and the matriarch of the family. Already
old and wise when Tayo is just a child, Grandma intervenes at key
moments in Tayo's life to bring him to the medicine men or to provide
tidbits of advice in the form of seemingly random comments.
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Night Swan
Josiah's
girlfriend. Night Swan is a strong, smart, sexy, self-aware woman.
She is the first of two Mexican women who appear in the novel to
represent an aspect of the contact between white and Native American cultures.
A former cantina dancer, she also seduces Tayo in order to teach
him his first lesson about miscegenation and change.
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Old Ku'oosh
The Laguna medicine man. A very traditional medicine
man, Ku'oosh does not have the wherewithal to invent the new ceremonies
needed to treat the new diseases. He does, however, possess the
wisdom to send Tayo to see someone else and to embrace Tayo when
he returns with the completed new ceremony.
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Emo
A childhood
acquaintance of Tayo's. Emo has always been critical of Tayo for
his mixed race and been full of an undirected rage which only increases
as a result of his fighting in World War II. Like the other war veterans,
he is unable to find a place for himself on his return, and spends
his time drinking and reliving idealized memories of his army days.
When Tayo criticizes Emo's idealization of his army days, Emo's rage
becomes directed at Tayo.
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Robert
Auntie's
husband. Robert is a mild-mannered quiet man who has little power
in the family. He generally minds his own business, adhering to
the old traditions. Robert shows his deep caring for Tayo as he
welcomes him home from the war and as he warns him of Emo's impending
attack.
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the woman
A sacred figure in Laguna cosmology incarnated as Ts'eh
to help Tayo in his ceremony. Ts'eh appears at three moments in
Tayo's journey to help him with the cattle and to teach him about
wild herbs, love, and evading his pursuers.
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Descheeny
Betonie's
grandfather. Along with the Mexican woman, Descheeny, a medicine
man, began the creation of the new ceremony that would be able to cure
the world of the destruction of the whites. He was the first of
his people to recognize the need for collaboration between Native
Americans and Mexicans.
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Mexican girl
Betonie's grandmother. As a Mexican woman, like Night
Swan, she represents the miscegenation of white and native American
cultures. Wise even as a young girl, she begins the new ceremony
along with Descheeny. She raises Betonie and ensures that he gains the
tools he will need to continue the ceremony.
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a
hunter
An animal spirit sacred to
the Native Americans. He appears to Tayo in both his animal and
his human forms to help him catch Josiah's cattle.
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Leroy
A
childhood friend of Tayo's. Harley's drinking buddy who fought in
the war with him, Leroy is Harley's sidekick.
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Pinkie
A
childhood friend of Tayo's. Emo's drinking buddy and sidekick. Pinkie
is eventually betrayed and killed by Emo.
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Laura
Tayo's mother. Unable to negotiate the conflicting lessons
she learned at home and at school, Laura became a victim of the
contact between white and Native American cultures. Consumed by
alcoholism, she conceived Tayo with an anonymous white man and,
by the time Tayo was four years old, she was completely unable to
care for him.
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Helen Jean
A
woman Harley and Leroy pick up in a bar. Helen Jean represents all
of the young Native American women who went to the white towns looking
for a good job and end up being dragged into prostitution and alcoholism.
