Yellow Woman and a Beauty of Spirit

Leslie Marmon Silko narrates this collection of essays, which are told from the first-person point of view. She is the central character in many of these essays, and her personal experiences take up much of the narrative space. Silko was born into a Pueblo community at Laguna and is of mixed-race heritage, as many of the people in her family either married white settlers or were half-white themselves. She describes herself as having “yellow skin, brown hair, and green eyes” (71) and finds commonality with Yellow Woman, who she believes to have looked like her. As a child, she knew that her mixed-race identity caused anxiety for other Pueblo individuals within her community; however, it was not until a white tourist asked her to leave a photograph of Native American children that she began to feel confused about her identity. Although she finds solace in the love and acceptance of characters like Grandma A’mooh, she uses many of these essays to interrogate her own notions of identity.

Silko uses these essays as a kind of self-exploration of many of her ideas. Through these essays, she queries the influence of the US government, accusing tribal councils of being puppets of US policy.