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CliffsNotes on Momaday's House Made of Dawn

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I almost wish I had remained unaware of the existence of Cliffs Notes on this masterpiece of American letters. House Made of Dawn not only won Scott Momaday the Pulitzer Prize for fiction but also brought American Indian Literature into the "canon." The availability of Cliffs Notes on this novel is certainly a strong indication of its importance to the college curriculum. Though Jaskoski's treatment will aid the student somewhat in navigating the fragmented time scheme and shifting points of view in Momaday's writing, I am troubled by the many explanations which are riddled with confusions, omissions, and inaccuracies.

Trouble, as far as I am concerned, begins as early as the first chapter, which intends to review the life and background of the novel's author. For example, for Jaskoski to summarize Scott Momaday's personal journey, which was supposed to retrace the Kiowa's mythic migration, as traveling north from Oklahoma to South Dakota (Cliffs Notes p. 7) is confusing to the reader, who later learns in Tosamah's sermon that the autobiographical journey actually started by following the course of the Yellowstone River, and continued south (not north!) by crossing the Big Horn River to reach Devil's Tower, all places in Montana and Wyoming, not South Dakota (House Made of Dawn p. 130).

Confusion continues in the introduction to the novel with regard to Abel's stabbing of the albino, an event which does not take place in a cornfield (Cliffs Notes p. 9) but across the highway from Paco's Bar among the dunes near a telegraph pole (House Made of Dawn p. 82). The presence of the telegraph pole is especially salient because it evokes an actual murder near San Ysidro, New Mexico, to which Momaday has referred in letters quoted by Mathias Schubnell (N. Scott Momaday: The Cultural and Literary Background p. 102). Also in the introduction, Jaskoski obfuscates rather than clarifies when she does not bother to explain what a "49" party is (Cliff Notes pp. 10, 52). Since Momaday does not use this term in his novel, Jaskoski unnecessarily introduces jargon accessible only to a small segment of readers familiar with pan-Indian culture.

The "critical essay" on witchcraft makes available only an incomplete explanation of Abel's motivation for killing the albino (Cliffs Notes p.70). To simply dismiss the witchcraft that Abel attributes to the albino as enigmatic fails to take into consideration clear textual clues which Jaskoski herself points outs (Cliffs Notes p. 32). Francisco was aware of the hidden presence of the albino, who was watching him work in his cornfield (House Made of Dawn p. p.67), a behavior traditionally identified with witches attempting to curse someone's crops and harvests. Staring, even from afar, peering into windows, or otherwise fixing your gaze on individuals of any age, is considered malicious in Native belief systems (See Clyde Kluckhohn's Navajo Witchcraft and Elsie Parson's The Pueblo of Jemez).

The suggested genealogies are also less than satisfactory. For instance, Abel's chart (Cliffs Notes p. 44) has a glaring omission in failing to list Fray Nicolás as Francisco's possible father. Both the novel (House Made of Dawn p. 205) and Jaskoski herself (Cliffs Notes p. 63) suggest that possibility. Furthermore, Jaskoski's listing of Porcingula Pecos as "possibly" Abel's grandmother (Cliff Notes p. 44) becomes illogical when she later acknowledges, as the novel reveals, that Francisco turned away from Porcingula after their child was stillborn (Cliff Notes p. 63). Following the genealogies, the pertinent maps are somewhat helpful; however, in the accompanying explanatory text to the enlargement of the greater Albuquerque area, Jaskoski erroneously suggests that Abel would likely have taken old Route 66 "on his way from California to Jemez" (Cliffs Notes p. 46). Yet, the novel is unambiguous in Abel's making the return trip to the Southwest by train, the more common mode of long-distance transportation in the early 1950s, and Jaskoski herself describes the events in those terms in the section covering February 20 (Cliffs Notes p. 51).

The most glaring errors emerge in the glossaries, which, one would think, are supposed to be one of the more helpful aids in accessing the esoteric meanings in the novel. For example, the entry for "pueblo" (Cliffs Notes p. 17) defines these Native settlements as "city states," an incorrect characterization of this kind of society because it implies an urban context with a central authority and a substantial population. Though politically autonomous, pueblo communities have decentralized tribal kinship structures with low populations. Before European contact, puebloans had essentially Neolithic cultures. The entry for "Tanoan" shows confusion regarding linguistic classifications (Cliffs Notes p. 23). Tewa and Towa are not language "groups" in the same sense that Tanoan is; instead, they are simply languages which are members of the Tanoan group. In the same glossary (Cliffs Notes p. 23), Jaskoski defines "Pecos" insufficiently as a river in Texas to the south and east of Jemez. While the Pecos River does empty into the Rio Grande in Texas, the major part of its course runs through New Mexico. Furthermore, the name "Pecos" is used by Momaday to refer primarily to the abandoned historic pueblo, situated near the headwaters of the river by the same name. Pecos is also a surname at Jemez Pueblo. The entry for "Torreon" as a city in Mexico (Cliffs Notes p. 32) is true enough but completely irrelevant regarding this novel. The Torreón which Momaday mentions (House Made of Dawn p. 59) is a small settlement of mostly Navajos in northern New Mexico. The definition for "Tsegihi" is incomplete (Cliffs Notes p. 58). In Navajo it simply means "place among the rocks" with implications of sacred ground (See Scott Momaday's The Names p. 70). The sacred place invoked in the House Made of Dawn prayer is certainly not located along the northern Rio Grande, as Jaskoski loosely suggests, but in the San Juan River basin (See Susan Scarberry-Garcia's Landmarks of Healing p. 7). The claim that "ketoh" is a type of tobacco (Cliffs Notes p. 59) is completely off the mark. The object by that name in the novel is a wristlet made of silver. The explanation for "Yeí bichai" as Holy People (Cliff Notes pp. 60, 70) is inaccurate. The term for Holy People is simply "Yeí"; however, the full term "Yeí bichai" refers to Talking God or Grandfather of Gods and may also be applied to the nine-day Nightway ceremonial, during which various dancers impersonate twelve gods or "Yeí". Finally, Jaskoski's pseudo-translation of the Jemez phrase "kethá ahme" as "I'm a little bit of something" (Cliffs Notes p. 64) appears to be entirely fabricated since Momaday, in his essay "On Indian-White Relations: A Point if View," gives the meaning of the same phrase as "home" (The Man Made of Words p. 51).

Whatever assistance Cliffs Notes, though generally a respected and trusted resource, attempt to offer the student of this novel is undermined by the errors of someone who clearly does not know the novel sufficiently. Inaccuracies lead to distortions, and distortions are a danger to the role literature plays in such processes as identity formation and personal growth. House Made of Dawn is a crucial work for American Indian communities, and thus it deserves a more careful treatment.