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James Welch's Winter in the Blood: Thawing the Fragments of Misconception in Native American Fiction Mario A Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 1996 James Welch's Winter in the Blood: Thawing the Fragments of Misconception in Native American Fiction Mario A. Leto II Eastern Illinois University This research is a product of the graduate program in English at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Leto, Mario A. II, "James Welch's Winter in the Blood: Thawing the Fragments of Misconception in Native American Fiction" (1996). Masters Theses. 1903. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/1903 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THESIS REPRODUCTION CERTIFICATE TO: Graduate Degree Candidates (who have written formal theses) SUBJECT: Permission to Reproduce Theses The University Library is rece1v1ng a number of requests from other institutions asking permission to reproduce dissertations for inclusion in their library holdings. Although no copyright laws are involved, we feel that professional courtesy demands that permission be obtained from the author before we allow theses to be copied. PLEASE SIGN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS: Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University has my permission to lend my thesis to a reputable college or university for the purpose of copying it for inclusion in that institution's library or research holdings. ~rJate I respectfully request Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University not allow my thesis to be reproduced because: Author Date James Welch's Winter in the Blood: Thawing the Fragments of Misconception in Native American Fiction (TITLE) BY Mario A. Leto II THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF English IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON. ILLl~OIS 1996 YEAR I HEREBY RECOMMEND THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE ).e C{",,.;( /Jv,- ~ 19ft:. DATE /2 -1-rc DATE i ABSTRACT The conventional scholarly view of Native American literature asserts that Native authors often portray their characters as alienated and despairing individuals that are incapable of attaining the means for dispelling those negative feelings. As a result, the characters are presumably destined to forever wander the barren reservation, unable to grasp their fleeting cultural traditions or the modern Euroamerican way oflife. James Welch, with his novel Winter in the Blood, challenges that stereotypical scenario by allowing his nameless protagonist to discover a previously unknown link to his traditional Blackfeet heritage. Through the knowledge of his ancestors and the unconscious cycle of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey, the protagonist breaks the constricting bonds of western literary critics by finding hope for the future of Native Americans through a fusion of traditional and modern mythologies: a spiritual journey grounded in tradition and focused on the individual as the savior of a vanishing culture. ii DEDICATION Ironically enough, I would like to dedicate this thesis to Mary Rowlandson who so ethnocentrically passed judgment on her Wampanoag captors and therefore opened my own ears to the suppressed voices of our Native American brothers and sisters. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to acknowledge Dr. Michael Loudon for the time and patience he gave in helping me complete this vast undertaking, and for being the only person in the whole Charleston area ready and willing to discuss the topic of Native American literature, a subject I hold close to my heart. I also wish to acknowledge Dr. P. Ann Boswell and Dr. John David Moore, who introduced me to James Welch, for serving as my readers. iv CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................... i Dedication . ii Acknowledgments ........................................................................................... iii Contents . iv Preface ............................................................................................................. 1 Introduction . 2 Confronting the Conventional Scholarly View . 4 Historical Remnants of Native American Cultural Destruction in the Late-Twentieth Century . 10 Cultural Destruction and Welch's Protagonist .................................................. 17 The Protagonist's Alienation as Expressed through Modernism . 22 The Hero's Journey as an Unconscious Solution . .. 31 Conclusion . 49 Works Cited . .. 56 Works Consulted . 59 1 PREFACE Since Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative started me thinking about the Native American point of view in history and text, I thought it pertinent to fashion this thesis in a way that allowed the larger Native American community to speak for itself. In certain sections it became increasingly important to me to allow Native Voices to carry the truth of the past, present and future, an aspect of Native American literary criticism that is so frequently overlooked by contemporary western critics. Where literature and scholarly interpretation are discussed as entities unto themselves, I allow the voices of various Euroamerican critics to be heard; but where the text asks for a discussion of literature in reference to Native American sensibilities, I single out those writers and critics with Native American cultural backgrounds. Some of those very people are Paula Gunn Allen, Vine Deloria, James Welch, Patty Harjo, Ward Churchill, Old Lady Horse and N. Scott Momaday. My intentions in doing this are simple: a voice of the people by the people. It only seems fair. 2 INTRODUCTION James Welch's debut novel, Winter in the Blood (1974), exemplifies the contemporary Native American on a Montana Indian reservation. The nameless protagonist symbolizes the deprivation that sweeps his poor, distant Blackfeet community. In reality, Euroamerican pioneers have left the Native American communities estranged and alienated from the modern, white world around them. With the destruction of sacred land, animals and traditional rituals came the inevitable destruction of the Native individual and, consequently, the Native community. It is no wonder that, in the late-twentieth century, a novel about a Native American on the reservation, amid a modern world of industry and technology, will depict the protagonist as despairing and alienated, caught in a no-man's-land of drinking binges, one-night stands and unconfronted memories of a barely conceivable past. But Welch's novel signifies more than that; it exhibits the potential of empowerment for the individual on the reservation to break those self-destructive bonds; and where others have left off at uncertainty and confusion, Welch picks up and offers hope and relief for the reservation Indian. Contrary to the assumptions made by popular western critics, Welch's protagonist makes a transformation from the start of the novel to the end, finding a way, through what Joseph Campbell calls "the hero's journey," to mediate his feelings of alienation and despair. In a sense, the protagonist creates his own mythology, one that centers itself deep within the individual, making redemption for the whole community possible through the lone hero. 3 Welch is not the only Native American to notice the movement toward redemption in contemporary Native American life. Other writers of the time follow a similar pattern of redemption for their characters to arrive at the same hopeful outlook. The only individuals that don't recognize the onset of self-empowerment in contemporary Native Americans are the critics; but the presumption of inevitable, permanent despair is understandable because modem western critics have yet to understand the mythological viewpoint of the Native cultures ofNorth America. For the critics, alienation and despair are ends in themselves, part of what is called modernism: an inability of science and reason and world-wide religions to provide moral, philosophical, scientific, religious or social truths. But for the Native American, that same alienation and despair is a signal for the individual to begin an unconscious mythological adventure called the hero's journey. Where the modem western world views alienation solely as an end, the Native American sees it merely as a beginning, the start of a death and a rebirth into a new consciousness--a passage, a rite, a transformation enabling the individual to dive deep within the self to alleviate those feelings of emptiness. James Welch effectively portrays this cycle of redemption in his novel Winter in the Blood. 4 CONFRONTING THE CONVENTIONAL SCHOLARLY VIEW A conventional scholarly view of fiction written by Native Americans asserts that late-twentieth century reservation Indians are in a hopeless situation: Euroamericans have taken away vital Native American resources--foremost animals and land, subsequently, customs, spirit, pride and courage--that render traditional mythologies useless in attempting to sustain cultural values. How is it possible, then, for native cultures to find spiritual meaning in an overwhelmingly white modem world? The unchallenged critical view holds that they haven't, and that they can't, and thus we accept unconsciously the image of the drunk, despairing Indian on the barren reservation. John Scheckter, in his article "James Welch: Settling up on the Reservation," asserts that Welch writes of the American present. He does
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