In Leslie Marmon Silko’s “The Man to Send Rain Clouds,” the Laguna Native American tribe finds itself in a spiritual quandary against the Roman Catholic Church. Some members of the local Native American tribe, Ken and Leon, are challenged when their grandfather, Teofilo, passes away. They come to a moral crossroads in the burial process, as to whether or not carry out their traditional tribal rituals, given they interfered with the new belief system that was being taught to them by the Catholic Church. They ultimately choose both burial strategies, but particular elements of a feather, a blanket, colors, and corn meal/pollen are used during the Native American burial process, and holy water was used for the Catholic Church process. It is clear that these elements hold symbolic value in the Laguna/Pueblo Native …show more content…
First, the color white traditionally is identified with purity, safety, and cleanliness. To Laguna people, white could also symbolize the snow on top of mountains and the color of clouds; it can also represent a successful beginning (Parker), and is commonly associated with an angel. It represents his figurative birth into becoming a spirit. The placement of the white paint is important as well; having the paint on his face shows the gods his purity and other traits as he arrives into the spirit world. Secondly, slightly lower on the cheekbones of Teofilo, they drew a streak of blue paint. Blue is used to portray elements such as wisdom, confidence, and truth (Parker); these are “drawn” on Teofilo’s face to signify the old man’s successful and virtuous time on this temporary earth, as clearly he was a man of utmost respect as he was revered and loved by all the townspeople. But more specifically, blue usually is used to represent heaven, which in the text, is demonstrated on multiple occasions when blue mountains are looked upon and analyzed (Silko, 34). They are looking