74 pages • 2 hours read
Leslie Marmon SilkoCeremony
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1977A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Background
Historical Context: WWII, PTSD, and Indigenous American Veterans
Over a million soldiers were left with “battle fatigue”—what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD—after World War II (“The Mental Toll.” The Perilous Fight: America’s WWII in Color. KCTS, 2003). PTSD is characterized by repeatedly reliving aspects of a horrific, life-threatening episode, such as wartime violence. Stimuli that recall the event/experience can trigger a PTSD flashback. For example, a loud noise might remind a war veteran with PTSD of a grenade or explosion and set off a traumatic response. Tayo’s collapse, triggered by the sight of Japanese women and the sound of Japanese, is a result of his PTSD.
In WWII, over one third of discharges of military personnel were due to psychological conditions, while battle fatigue on the front lines cost tens of thousands of lives (“The Mental Toll”). Many veterans with PTSD turned to alcohol after the war, in part because alcohol was frequently distributed on the front line to keep exhausted and demoralized soldiers fighting. Upon returning to civilian life, many veterans therefore already had addictions to alcohol.
Systemic racism compounded the effects of Alienation and Isolation in Post-WWII America for Indigenous American veterans, whose experience of the war was unique. Indigenous American men fought alongside white men in World War II, unlike African American and Asian American men, who were segregated in their own units and battalions. Indigenous participation in the war effort was very high, with anywhere from 5-10% of the entire Indigenous population enlisted for service during World War II (“World War II.” National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian Institute, 2020). This overrepresentation made Indigenous Americans symbols of American national identity (for example, the Navajo Code Talkers) during a period of heightened patriotism.
However, if Indigenous Americans were on somewhat equal footing with their white counterparts while serving, the promise of equality did not carry over after the war. Upon returning home, Indigenous Americans were subjected to the same discriminatory treatment they had experienced before World War II. Anti-Indigenous sentiment in fact intensified as the United States became a global superpower, resulting in a federal legislative stance now called the Indian Termination Policy.
Sociocultural Context: Indigenous Reservations and Sovereignty
Pre-World War II, relations between the United States and tribal nations were defined by the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. This act clarified that Indigenous Americans were citizens of the United States and thus had every right that white Americans had, while still remaining citizens of their sovereign tribal nations. Prior to this, Indigenous people were considered to be citizens only of their tribal nations and thus were ineligible for US citizenship, voting, social safety nets, etc. Indigenous participation in World War I is credited with sparking this change in government policy, which was closely followed by the Indian New Deal of 1934. This act aimed to restore land rights to previously assimilated tribes and allow them to exist without the constant oversight of the United States; it reversed decades of assimilationist and genocidal policy. The policy was proposed and overseen by John Collier, the commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
By the time Collier retired in 1945, attitudes were shifting once again. In the early Cold War era, Collier’s efforts to maintain tribal sovereignty and (by extension) the often communal lifestyle of the reservations became associated with socialism. Assimilating Indigenous Americans into United States culture became the goal of a collection of laws and programs called the Indian Termination Policy. “Termination” here means the ending of Indigenous sovereignty and the removal of federal protection for tribal nations. For example, in 1968 the Yselta del Sur Pueblo were handed over to the state of Texas for jurisdiction: The United States no longer recognized them as a federally protected tribe, and they became fully subject to Texas law, with no say in legal matters within the reservation grounds.
The assimilationist policies of the Termination period worsened economic conditions on reservations that previous United States policies had caused. After World War II, Indigenous men made roughly 20% of what the average American man made (Bernstein, Alison R. Walking in Two Worlds: American Indians and World War Two. Columbia University, 1986). These men had few economic prospects; what little the Indian New Deal had afforded to tribes was rapidly stripped away. Indigenous men who were treated like war heroes while deployed in World War II returned to a hostile government, revoked sovereignty, increased anti-Indigenous biases, and few prospects of making money to sustain their families. This is the backdrop against which Ceremony unfolds, illuminating why the entire reservation—not only Tayo—requires healing.
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