By: Tenra Adams
Leslie Marmon Silko
Leslie Marmon Silko, often referred to as “the premier Native American writer of her generation,” was born on March 5, 1948, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Due to her mixed Laguna Pueblo, Caucasian, and Mexican ancestry, Silko’s work explores the tensions between Native and White cultures. Growing up on the Laguna Pueblo reservation in New Mexico, she was immersed in Laguna traditions, myths, and the art of storytelling, which she learned from her grandmother and great-grandmother.
Her most notable works include Ceremony, Almanac of the Dead, Gardens in the Dunes, and Laguna Woman (“Leslie Marmon Silko). These writings reflect her personal experiences, cultural identity, and a commitment emphasizing Native American struggles, culture, and legacy. Her most celebrated work, Ceremony (1977), recounts the story of Tayo, a mixed Laguna Pueblo and Anglo man and World War II veteran. Battling severe post-traumatic stress disorder following the war, he goes back to his reservation and pursues healing through traditional Native American ceremonies led by the medicine man, Betonie. The novel focuses on the themes of mixed heritage, white colonialism, and the enduring effects of these on Native Americans.
The publication of Ceremony coincided with an important era of Native American activism in the 1970’s, marked by the Red Power Movement. This national movement aimed to challenge the government control over Native lands and restore tribal rights. Protests such as “The Longest Walk” in July 1978 represented the forced removal of Native peoples from their homelands and symbolized ongoing issues within their communities. Native American activism extended beyond protests, with tribes increasingly turning to federal and state courts to reclaim land, protect treaty rights, and defend their water resources – particularly in the dry southwest, where water was limited. By the end of the decade, Native groups in the eastern United States had successfully reclaimed lands taken from them illegally (“Native American Activism in the 1960’s and 1970’s”).
Ceremony addresses these historical and ongoing struggles, most specifically white colonialism’s persistent belief in entitlement to Native American land. The book’s profound themes and Silko’s narrative have earned critical acclaim and inspired new generations of Native writers. For example, this year, novelist Tommy Orange describes Ceremony as “sacred,” stating its combination of old and new stories, prayer, spell, poem, and song. He praises its “its singular devotion to knowing and gorgeously describing the land it depicts” and its ability to help people find new paths to healing from trauma in a war-torn world (Orange).
Silko herself has shared that Ceremony reflects her homesickness for New Mexico, as well as her desire to shed light on the enduring issues faced by Native American communities (“Leslie Marmon Silko”). These include lack of access to ancestral lands and vital resources such as clean water – all challenges that persist to this day. Due to this, Silko’s work continues to resonate with readers today as a powerful tribute to Native resilience and activism.
The Development of the Atomic Bomb
The creation and testing of the atomic bomb had intense impacts on indigenous communities, particularly in the American southwest. The bomb’s development began during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret US government imitative to design and deploy the first nuclear weapons before Nazi Germany could achieve the same goal.
The Manhattan Project, headquartered in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and supported by facilities in Hanford, Washington, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was a massive undertaking involving thousands of workers, including civilians, military personnel, women, and people of various ethnicities, including Native Americans. To make the project possible, the federal government used eminent domain and displaced farming communities, homesteaders, and indigenous tribes without even noticing nor compensating them (“The Manhattan Project”). This resulted in the loss of access to traditional homelands and subsistence areas.
On July 16th, 1945, The Trinity Test was the world’s first successful detonation of a nuclear device which marked the beginning of the nuclear age (“Trinity Site – World’s First Nuclear Explosion”). The uranium bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, followed by the plutonium bomb “Fat Man” on Nagasaki three days later. These bombings killed over 200,000 people by the end of 1945 and left survivors to suffer from long-term radiation effects, including leukemia and cancers (“The Manhattan Project”).
J. Robert Oppenheimer and Ethical Considerations
J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory and known as “father of the atomic bomb” because his leadership brought the Manhattan Project to fruition in under three years. However, he later became a vocal advocate for arms control and expressed regret over the bomb’s devastating consequences and the role that he played in its creation.
His political opposition to the hydrogen bomb and ties to past Communist sympathies led to his security clearance being revoked during the Second Red Scare, stripping him of his influence (“J. Robert Oppenheimer”).
Impact on Indigenous Lands and Communities
The Manhattan Project and nuclear testing caused widespread harm to indigenous lands and communities. Radioactive fallout from nuclear tests contaminated water, land, plants, and livestock, disproportionately affecting indigenous populations. For example:
- Shoshone Nation: Experienced 620 kilotons of nuclear fallout between 1951 and 1992, more than twice the radiation exposure of the Chernobyl disaster. According to Shoshone leader Ian Zabarte, members of his community face a radiation exposure risk 15 times greater than other Americans.
- Cherokee Nation: Radioactive waste from the Sequoyah Plant in Oklahoma spread across Cherokee territories (“‘Downwind” Tells the Story of Nuclear Testing in Native Communities”).
- Navajo and Hopi Nations: The Navajo and Hopi reservations were deeply affected by decades of uranium mining and nuclear testing. From 1944 onward, the U.S. government extracted nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore from over 500 mines on Navajo lands. These operations left more than 1,000 abandoned open-pit and underground uranium mines, as well as 600 radioactive dwellings (Signer). Many Navajo workers received no protection against radioactivity and experienced disproportionately high rates of cancer and birth defects in their communities (“‘Downwind” Tells the Story of Nuclear Testing in Native Communities”).
This video talks about the harmful effects of uranium mining and nuclear testing on tribal lands, specifically the restricted access to clean water in indigenous communities. It includes a firsthand account from a woman of an affected tribe and shows the struggles that her community faced, including displacement from their homes, increased disease rates, and loss of traditional ways of life. Additionally, she references the novel Ceremony as meaningful way to understand these issues.
The 1979 Church Rock disaster, the largest civilian nuclear accident in U.S. history, released over 1,000 tons of radioactive waste and 360 million liters of toxic wastewater into the Puerco River. Navajo residents were not informed for days and continue to face long-term health and environmental challenges (Signer).
Ongoing Struggles and Limited Compensation
The U.S. government has made some efforts to address these impacts, including the Radioactive Exposure Compensation Act, which offers $50,000 to affected individuals. However, there is very little compensation, and many indigenous communities lack enough health tracking or adequate environmental cleanup. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency only began evaluations and cleanups of abandoned mines on Navajo lands in 2019! Additionally, one-third of Navajo people still lack access to running water, and younger generations are leaving reservations due to lack of opportunities for them (Signer).
Legacy of the Manhattan Project
The ethical and environmental consequences of the Manhattan Project continue to affect indigenous communities. While the project does not have any military objectives anymore, it still came at a great cost to indigenous populations, who lost land, health, and cultural stability while it was active. Efforts to acknowledge and remediate these harms remain slow and insufficient, and many communities still grapple with the long-lasting impacts of the nuclear age.
The Atomic Bomb in Ceremony
From the jungles of his dreaming he recognized why the Japanese voices had merged with Laguna voices, with Josiah’s voice and Rocky’s voice; the lines of cultures and worlds were drawn in flat dark lines on fine light sand, converging in the middle of witchery’s final ceremonial sand painting. From that time on, human beings were one clan again, united by the fate the destroyers planned for all of them, for all living things; united by a circle of death that devoured people in cities twelve thousand miles away, victims who had never known these mesas, who had never seen the delicate colors of the rocks which boiled up their slaughter” (Silko 228).
Tayo comes to understand that the atomic bomb, which is linked to the cave he’s in through uranium (a key ingredient for the bomb), connects all of humanity. This is because the fate of everyone is tied to the potential destruction an atomic war could bring. The novel shows the atomic bomb as the ultimate example of humanity’s worst traits, such as our drive for power and complete disregard for life. The bomb’s massive destructive power wipes out everything in its path, showing no distinction or mercy. In a world with atomic weapons, this means that one bomb would likely lead to more being used, resulting in widespread devastation. While Tayo recognizes the danger and horror of this, he also understands and wishfully hopes that the fear of a destruction like this could bring people together and break down divisions.
“He walked into the mine shaft slowly, and the feeling became overwhelming: the pattern of the ceremony was completed there. He knelt and found an ore rock. The gray stone was streaked with powdery yellow uranium, bright and alive as pollen; veins of sooty black formed lines with the yellow, making mountain ranges and rivers across the stone. But they had taken these beautiful rocks from deep within earth and they had laid them in a monstrous design, realizing destruction on a scale only they could have dreamed” (Silko 228-229).
Silko criticizes colonial systems for exploiting Indigenous lands and taking resources without considering the consequences. This exploitation is symbolized by the creation of the atomic bomb and represents a metaphor in the novel for the lasting damage done to both the environment and Indigenous communities that is still present today.
In Ceremony, the atomic bomb and uranium mining are closely tied to the concept of “witchery,” which represents the destructive forces of greed, division, and imbalance in the world. Witchery, as described by Leslie Marmon Silko, is not just supernatural but also a metaphor for the white culture that engage in exploitation and destruction and create suffering. To create the bomb, they take uranium from Indigenous lands which is exactly what witchery’s main goal is: to destroy life and the natural world by turning its beauty into tools of devastation. However, Tayo’s journey in the novel reveals that witchery’s power is not absolute. By performing the ceremony, he learns to see more than just the destruction and begins to understand there is always a way to restore balance in the world. The ceremony becomes a way to heal the world by reconnecting it to the land, honoring its sacredness, and breaking down the divisions that witchery relies on to create destruction.
Works Cited
“‘Downwind’ Tells the Story of Nuclear Testing in Native Communities.” Tribal Health, 30 Jan. 2023, tribalhealth.com/downwind-tells-the-story-of-nuclear-testing-in-native-communities/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024
“J. Robert Oppenheimer.” Nuclear Museum, Atomic Heritage Foundation, ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/j-robert-oppenheimer/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.
“Leslie Marmon Silko.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 23 Oct. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/Leslie-Marmon-Silko. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024
“Manhattan Project.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/mapr/learn/manhattan-project.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.
“Native American Activism in the 1960s and 1970s.” Newsela, tea4avcastro.tea.state.tx.us/thl/ENG1.W6.L3andL4.native-american-activism-1960s-1970s.pdf. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.
Signer, David. “Radioactive Contamination on Navajo Land: Why Has No One Been Interested in Our Fate for Decades?” NZZ, 1 Dec. 2022, www.nzz.ch/english/the-radioactive-legacy-of-mining-and-atomic-tests-on-navajo-land-ld.1714632. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024
“Trinity Site – World’s First Nuclear Explosion.” US Department of Energy, www.energy.gov/lm/trinity-site-worlds-first-nuclear-explosion. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.
Orange, Tommy. “A Rare Sacred Novel: Tommy Orange on the Genius of Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony.” Literary Hub, 13 Mar. 2024, lithub.com/a-rare-sacred-novel-tommy-orange-on-the-genius-of-leslie-marmon-silkos-ceremony/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/leslie-marmon-silko-saw-it-coming
https://veterans.nv.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/hiroshima-bombing-article-about-atomic-bomb.jpg
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534116/ceremony-by-leslie-marmon-silko
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/14-project-management-insights-from-oppenheimers-manhattan-kumar
https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/science-technology/oppenheimer-philippe-halsman