Page 3
 
more "historical" account of the origin of the Kiowa's name. Said Momaday, "They called
themselves Kwuda and later Tepda, both of which mean 'coming out'....'Kiowa' is thought
to derive from the softened Comanche form of Gaigwu."(p. 17) More often than not,
however, the historical accounts correlate to each other; woven together, they serve as a
separate narrative. While Momaday does include anthropological studies and artist's
observations to broaden and confirm the Kiowa impressions of their own cultural history, he
strays from this pattern by including such accounts as the Kiowa's surrender to U.S.
authorities at Fort Sill in 1879, (an event that marked the end of the tribe's autonomy).
Ultimately, the historical accounts provide another perspective from which to view the
Kiowa experience, as well as an opportunity to speculate on the significance of that
experience in a greater scope.
  Finally, Momaday presented a personal "vision" relying largely on his memory and on
his imagination. Many of his memories are of his grandparents and of his playful life as a
child. Most of his images, however, are of the environment itself: the land, the wildlife and
the weather. The reasons for Momaday's "personal" recollections are again speculative.
However, near the end of the book, Momaday revealed at least one of his intentions (again,
by means of a metaphor). Said Momaday,
  Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his  
  mind upon the remembered earth....He ought to give  
  himself up to a particular landscape in his  
  experience, to look at it from as many angles as he  
  can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it.(p. 83)  
Collectively, Momaday accomplished what he sought to achieve by looking at the cultural
history of the Kiowa from as many angles as he could. In so doing, what he imparted was a
rather multi-dimensional picture of where the Kiowa came from, how they developed as a
culture, and how they exist today in one man's memory and imagination.