House Made of Dawn 787mistake. On the battlefield, he feels more out of
place and lost than ever, the horror and violence
a complete reversal of all he has ever known. In
fact, “everything in advance of his going—he could
remember whole and in detail. It was the recent
past, the intervention of days and years without
meaning, of awful calm and collision, time always
immediate and confused, that he could not put
together in his mind.” His memory completely
erased, Abel has even less of a sense of self than he
did in the Pueblo community.
Finding neither himself nor his place in the
white world, Abel returns home silenced. When he
tries to sing or even speak, nothing comes out, and
he realizes “[h]ad he been able to say it, anything of
his own language—even the commonplace formula
of greeting ‘Where are you going’—which had no
being beyond sound, no visible substance, would
once again have shown him whole to himself.” His
experiences have stripped away what little sense of
identity he had, disconnecting him from his own
culture and traditions. Isolated, he transfers his
anger onto the Native American albino. Represent-
ing the white world that has undermined Abel’s
sense of self, the albino is the “enemy” that must be
eradicated.
His relocation to Los Angeles after his release
from prison does little to rectify his identity prob-
lems. To make matters worse, the relocation depart-
ment sends a barrage of useless questionnaires
probing generalized, surface-level identity markers,
such as age, sex, and even whether he prefers watch-
ing tennis or bullfighting. Abel quickly finds that
he “had lost his place. He had been long ago at the
center, had known where he was, had lost his way,
had wandered to the end of the earth, was even
now reeling on the edge of the void.” This sense of
loss is compounded with the way white words and
language continue to silence him, as if he has no
identity or existence whatsoever. Even at his trial,
he is unable to speak, and “[w]ord by word by word
these men [white] were disposing of him in lan-
guage, their language, and they were making a bad
job of it.” Viewing the albino as an evil entity, Abel
is stripped of words; what he can communicate in
his own defense is something the white courtroom
can never understand. Silencing Abel, their language
transforms him into a passive object rather than an
active human being.
Words and language play a significant role in all
Native American identity. First, there are the white
words, words that silence, barring Native Ameri-
cans from communicating. As Benally says, “[t]hey
[whites] have a lot of words, and you know they
mean something, but you don’t know what, and your
own words are no good because they’re not the same;
they’re different, and they’re the only words you’ve
got.” As the dominant culture, the whites do not
understand the words and stories Native Americans
speak and tell. Instead, as with Abel’s trial, they see
Native Americans as “primitive” peoples who have
nothing relevant to say, which also diminishes their
sense of self. Furthermore, Native Americans can-
not understand the spiritually denuded words of the
whites. Speaking of the Gospel of John, Tosamah
preaches that “the white man deals in words, and
he deals easily, with grace and sleight of hand. . . .
He has diluted and multiplied the Word, and. . . .
his regard for language—for the Word itself—as an
instrument of creation has diminished nearly to the
point of no return.” White words are not creative
but destructive and deceitful. They strip away at
truths, denouncing those, such as Native Americans,
who use them to find truth. In this way, they belittle
and discredit the very words that constitutes Native
American identity.
However, words become a powerful way of
reclaiming identity. As many of the characters note,
Native American words, language, and stories bring
about a wholeness and understanding, something so
easily lost in the modern world. In fact, words, in
conjunction with tradition, help Abel reestablish his
own sense of self. Unsure and lost, it is only when
he begins the dawn run that his voice finally returns.
The song that bursts out confirms that he finally
knows and is happy with who he is.
Lisa Wengertradition in House Made of Dawn
Tradition as a way of retaining history and heritage
as well as reaffirming Native American identity is
crucial in House Made of Dawn. As the old ways
of life die, ceremonial and oral tradition preserve
Native American history and heritage. In turn, these