ACT Reading Practice Test 109: HUMANITIES

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Traditional stories include myths, legends, and
folktales rooted in the oral storytelling traditions of a
given people. Through story, people pass their religious
beliefs, customs, history, lifestyle, language, values,
5 and the places they hold sacred from one generation to
the next. As such, stories and their telling are more than
simple entertainment. They matter-in significant
ways-to the well-being of the communities from
which they originate. Acclaimed Laguna Pueblo writer
10 Leslie Marmon Silko writes that the oral narrative, or
story, was the medium by which the Pueblo people
transmitted "an entire culture, a worldview complete
with proven strategies for survival." In her discussion of
hunting stories, she says:

15 These accounts contained information of criti-
cal importance about the behavior and migra-
tion patterns of mule deer. Hunting stories
carefully described key landmarks and loca-
tions of fresh water. Thus, a deer-hunt story
20 might also serve as a map. Lost travelers and
lost pinon-nut gatherers have been saved by
sighting a rock formation they recognize only
because they once heard a hunting story
describing this rock formation.

25 Similarly, children's book author Joseph Bruchac
writes,

. . . rather than being 'mere myths,' with
'myth' being used in the pejorative sense of
'untruth,' those ancient traditional tales were a
30 distillation of the deep knowledge held by the
many Native American nations about the work-
ings of the world around them.

Thus, storytelling is a means of passing along
information, but it does not mean there is only one cor-
35 rect version of any given story. During a telling, listen-
ers can speak up if they feel an important fact or detail
was omitted, or want to offer a different version of the
story. In this way, the people seek or arrive at a commu-
nal truth rather than an absolute truth. A storyteller may
40 revise a story according to his or her own interpretation,
or according to the knowledge of the audience, but in
order for it to be acceptable to the group from which
the story originated, it should remain true to the spirit
and content of the original.

45 Traditional stories originate from a specific
people, and we expect them to accurately reflect those
people, but do they? As a Pueblo Indian woman, I
wonder, what do our stories look like when they are
retold outside our communities, in picture book format,
50 and marketed as "Native American folktales" for chil-
dren? Are our religious, cultural, and social values pre-
sented accurately? Are children who read these
folktales learning anything useful about us?

Much of what I bring to bear・ on my research
55 emanates from my cultural lens and identity as a Pueblo
Indian woman from Nambe Pueblo. I was born at the
Indian hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and raised on
our reservation. As a Pueblo Indian child, I was given a
Tewa (our language) name and taugl;lt to dance. I went
60 to religious ceremonies and gatherings, and I learned
how to do a range of things that we do as Pueblo
people. This childhood provided ine with ".cultural intuition."
Cultural intuition is. that body of knowledge
anyone acquires based upon. their lived expeijences ip a
65 specific place. As a scholar m Amencan Indian studies,
I know there are great distinctions between and across
American Indian tribal nations. For instance, my home
pueblo is very different from the other pueblos in New .
Mexico, among which there are several different lan-
70 guage groups.

I draw upon both my cultural intuition and knowledge
when reading a book about Pueblo Indians. For
example, when I read Gerald McDermott's Arrow to the
Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale (1974), I wondered what
75 Pueblo the book is about. There are 19 different Pueb-
los in New Mexico, and more in Arizona. In which
Pueblo did this story originate? That information is not
included anywhere in the book, and there are other
problems as well. In the climax of the story, the boy
80 must prove himself by passing through "the Kiva of
Lions, the Kiva of Serpents, the Kiva of Bees, and the
Kiva of Lightning" where he fights those elements.
McDermott's kivas are frightening places of trial and
battle, but I know kivas .are safe places of worship and
85 instruction .

Depictions that are culturally acceptable at one
Pueblo are not necessarily acceptable at a different
Pueblo. As such, elders at one Pueblo would say the
book could be used with their children, while elders at
90 another Pueblo would disagree. This is not a question
of cultural authenticity; it is one of appropriateness in
teaching, given a specific audience.