American Indian Culture and Research Journal

A nondescript rock shelter in Texas provides unexpected evidence for shamanism in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony. There, archaeologists found clearly identifiable images of antlered human figures and entheogenic plant substances, including datura (jimson weed), peyote, and ephedra (Indian or Mormon tea), items associated with shamanistic practices. From a more recent site in Bandolier, New Mexico, datura seeds “in perfect condition” were found in the community house, occupied from 1383 to 1466. These could be interpreted as evidence of shamanism in the Southwest, long before Silko makes use of some of the same animal and plant elements. Motifs of antlered animals and ceremonial medicine plants occur throughout the novel. Ceremony has a dualistic plot structure, which alternates between the embedded traditional verse and the prose narrative. Additional strands of meaning are woven throughout these structures, including the language of animal and medicine plants. A deer is one of the central animals associated with Tayo, as well as the hybrid spotted cattle. Plants are present in a deliberate order, corresponding to the book’s four ceremonies. These entheogenic plants—Indian tea (ephedra), tobacco, morning glory, and datura—effect healing changes in Tayo’s consciousness. Most important is the ancient plant datura, the final ceremonial medicine and the one associated with Tayo himself. Four healers, each associated with the plants, conduct the book’s ceremonies: the traditional Laguna medicine man Ku’oosh; the nonorthodox mixed-blood Diné (Navajo) healer Betonie; the mystical spirit-woman Ts’eh, whose name resembles the Keres Pueblo word for Mount Taylor; and finally Tayo himself. By the end of the novel, Tayo learns the stories, the songs, the plants, and the ritual actions of a healer. Betonie sets Tayo on the path to become an active participant in healing by telling Tayo that he must find autumn stars, the spotted cattle, the mountain, and the woman Ts’eh (152). After Tayo experiences these, under the tutelage of Ts’eh, he finds a cliff drawing of an elk (230). This deer-like animal also signifies Tayo’s assumption of the role of ceremonial leader, or cheani.