Ceremony

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do you know about Indigenous American history pre-contact with Europeans? What about post-contact? Do you know more about one era versus the other? Why might that be?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may have a hard time giving facts, dates, names, etc. relating to Indigenous history. You might ask students to write down their ideas (or speculations) in bullet-point fashion to be more easily shareable in class discussion; such points can then be compiled collectively. Generally speaking, students are likely to know more about post-contact Indigenous history (the Trail of Tears, Navajo Code Talkers, etc.). The lack of pre-contact knowledge and the generally patchwork understanding non-Indigenous people may have of Indigenous history is a fruitful site for class discussion. Highlighting the gaps in students’ knowledge can prime them to consider the US government’s role in erasing Indigenous history.

• “How the US Stole Thousands of Native American Children” – This Vox video offers firsthand accounts of the policies the United States has used to assimilate and erase Indigenous peoples. Many of the people featured in this video would have been adolescents/young adults when Silko wrote Ceremony, highlighting how contemporary these policy practices are.
• “Erasing Indigenous History, Then and Now” – This Origins article presents an in-depth overview of the erasure of Indigenous history in the United States.

2. How did World War II affect the mental health of veterans? What aspects of modern war might be particularly difficult for veterans to cope with? What factors might make a veteran more or less likely to experience mental health conditions after service?

Teaching Suggestion: One well-known aspect of WWII is the US’s deployment of nuclear weapons; as uranium mining and the idea of the atom bomb feature prominently in Ceremony, nudging students to consider the effects of nuclear warfare on veterans may be productive. As before, however, students may not be able to offer comprehensive viewpoints on this topic. Identifying these gaps in collective class understanding will prime students to see the need to explore the topic to understand Tayo’s hardships.

• “How PTSD Went from ‘Shell-Shock’ to a Recognized Medical Diagnosis” – This National Geographic article discusses the history of PTSD diagnosis and war trauma over the centuries. This article includes relevant statistics for Tayo’s story: Roughly 40% of all WWII discharges were for “battle fatigue,” for example.
• “The Impact of Historical Trauma on American Indian Health Equity” – This Medical News Today article offers a comprehensive overview of how colonialism impacts the mental health of Indigenous peoples. These factors are vital in discussing how mental health conditions would affect an Indigenous war veteran like Tayo.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

1. Has a story ever helped you understand something better than more formalized learning? What did the nature of storytelling offer to you that a textbook or classroom lesson couldn’t?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt asks students to begin considering The Power of Storytelling. It may be beneficial to provide your students with personal examples before asking them to write about their own experiences. This will allow students to anchor themselves before engaging in abstract meta-reflection on learning that they may not have practiced before. Students who do not wish to share personal information can explore the second question of the prompt in a more generalized way, analyzing which elements of storytelling, in their opinion, can be more effective in transmitting knowledge than nonfiction.