“Language is story, story is language” – that dialectic unity of Pueblo weltanschauung  determines the structure and content of their stories and the essay devoted to them in  particular.

The basis of any nation’s, ethnicity’s mentality lies in their cosmogonic and theogonic  myths, which constitute their collective unconscious, the latter predetermines the style of  thinking, living, and interacting of a certain nation. The Pueblo Indians are not an exception  here, and the author introduces the “Creation story” for us to understand the peculiarities of  Pueblo perception of the universe.

The story is significant both for its parallels and discrepancies with the Biblical creation  story; moreover, the latter are more numerous and are worth being mentioned first. The  world was created by Thought Woman – Tseitsinako – “thinking of her sisters and, together  with her sisters”, she “thought of everything that is” – and there appeared the world. Thus,  everything that is immanent in our world is a part of the whole; every element, every  constituent of the reality belongs to this whole. The humans are also an inseparable  element of the universe and belong to this universal entity. Contrary to the Bible where the  world emerges as a result of God’s word, or Logos (Genesis 1, 3; John 1, 1-3), the universe  appeared through the thought of the goddess and her sisters, the tight link of humans to the  nature are also more apparent in Pueblo Creation story. In the Bible, people are created  and let in the Garden of Eden directly by God, in the Pueblo tradition they come into the  world due to the hard efforts of the animals – Antelope and Badger.

Such a world outlook determines the monistic perception of the reality, it influences both the  language and the storytelling of the Pueblo people. Stories are the part of their everyday  life, they are multidimensional, web-like, organized in a complex structure that stretches far  beyond chronological or formal logical framework. There are many repetitions,  characteristic of the oral speech, digressions, stories-within-stories etc that make their  stories a multilayer texture. There are no separate stories in Pueblo folklore – each story is  a part of some more general or fundamental story, and the latter in turn constitutes larger  stories, so that the whole Pueblo traditional and even modern everyday discourse is one big  story with a huge number of smaller and infinitesimal subdivisions.

“The stories are always bringing us together, keeping this whole together, keeping this  family together, keeping this clan together” tells us Leslie Silko. The destination of story is  thus to preserve the wholeness of the universe. The author gives us three illustrations,  three stories that are still being told and re-told until nowadays.

The first one relates about a young man who lost his new Volkswagen and “felt very bad  about it”. The structure of the story may be defined as the threefold one: 1) the guy earns  money, purchases the car and drives it; then 2) it falls into the ravine and is broken to  pieces; 3) there come his friends and relatives trying to offer him consolation. What do they  do in particular? They tell stories about the people who also lost their cars in the ravine,  moreover, many of them lost their children and parents when their cars were going down  into the arroyo. The third part of the story is an essential element of Pueblo storytelling.  Those stories join the guy’s life experience to those of the other people, and when put into  that context, his loss is (or seems) not so great, he turns out to be relatively lucky, because  he shunned the danger of losing his own and his relatives lives.


“ Language is story , story is language ” – that dialectic unity of Pueblo weltanschauung determines the structure and content of their stories and the essay devoted to them in particular . The basis of any nation ’s , ethnicity ’s mentality lies in their cosmogonic and theogonic myths , which constitute their collective unconscious , the latter predetermines the style of thinking , living , and interacting of a certain nation . The Pueblo Indians are not an exception here , and the author introduces the “ Creation story ” for us to understand the peculiarities of Pueblo perception of the universe . The story is significant both for its parallels and discrepancies with the Biblical creation story ; moreover , the latter are more numerous and are worth being mentioned first . The world was created by Thought Woman – Tseitsinako – “ thinking of her sisters and , together with her sisters ” , she “ thought of everything that is ” – and there appeared the world . Thus , everything that is immanent in our world is a part of the whole ; every element , every constituent of the reality belongs to this whole . The humans are also an inseparable element of the universe and belong to this universal entity . Contrary to the Bible where the world emerges as a result of God ’s word , or Logos ( Genesis 1 , 3 ; John 1 , 1 - 3 ) , the universe appeared through the thought of the goddess and her sisters , the tight link of humans to the nature are also more apparent in Pueblo Creation story . In the Bible , people are created and let in the Garden of Eden directly by God , in the Pueblo tradition they come into the world due to the hard efforts of the animals – Antelope and Badger . Such a world outlook determines the monistic perception of the reality , it influences both the language and the storytelling of the Pueblo people . Stories are the part of their everyday life , they are multidimensional , web - like , organized in a complex structure that stretches far beyond chronological or formal logical framework . There are many repetitions , characteristic of the oral speech , digressions , stories - within - stories etc that make their stories a multilayer texture . There are no separate stories in Pueblo folklore – each story is a part of some more general or fundamental story , and the latter in turn constitutes larger stories , so that the whole Pueblo traditional and even modern everyday discourse is one big story with a huge number of smaller and infinitesimal subdivisions . “ The stories are always bringing us together , keeping this whole together , keeping this family together , keeping this clan together ” tells us Leslie Silko . The destination of story is thus to preserve the wholeness of the universe . The author gives us three illustrations , three stories that are still being told and re - told until nowadays . The first one relates about a young man who lost his new Volkswagen and “ felt very bad about it ” . The structure of the story may be defined as the threefold one : 1 ) the guy earns money , purchases the car and drives it ; then 2 ) it falls into the ravine and is broken to pieces ; 3 ) there come his friends and relatives trying to offer him consolation . What do they do in particular ? They tell stories about the people who also lost their cars in the ravine , moreover , many of them lost their children and parents when their cars were going down into the arroyo . The third part of the story is an essential element of Pueblo storytelling . Those stories join the guy ’s life experience to those of the other people , and when put into that context , his loss is ( or seems ) not so great , he turns out to be relatively lucky , because he shunned the danger of losing his own and his relatives lives .