American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony is, among other things, a story of one people’s relationship to a particular geography and the resulting alienation when this sacred relationship is breached. Laguna critic Paula Gunn Allen reminds readers of what must always lie at the heart of any reading of Ceremony: “We are the land, and the land is mother to us all. The land is not really a place, separate from ourselves, where we act out the drama of our isolate destinies; the witchery makes us believe that false idea.” Witchery is the name for the force that separates people from the land, as well as friends, families, and traditions. Silko physically locates the climax of the novel—a witches’ ceremony—at Cañoncito, southeast of the Jackpile Uranium Mine, and so metaphorically correlates this site with witchery. The novel is ultimately Tayo’s story of how he must restore harmony between the land and his people. The story in Ceremony is arresting because it is based on fact and because the horrors at Jackpile have become an enduring toxic legacy for the Laguna people, a modern version of witchcraft. In this article, I want to reflect on the climax of the book—the torture and mutilation of Harley by Emo, Pinky, and LeRoy—and how Silko situates this horror at the Jackpile Mine. This scene could only have taken place at the mine, the place of ultimate desecration of Laguna land. It represents a site where, as Terry Tempest Williams reflects, a contract between human beings and the land was broken. After listening to the stories of Jackpile Mine told by Laguna people, I want to pass on their stories for teachers to use when teaching Ceremony and to reflect on the message for all of us as we try to comprehend the enormity of what occurred at the mine. In a 1985 interview with Laura Coltelli, Silko comments on the importance of listening to stories for what they mean now, and for the future. Silko was only twenty-three when she began writing the book, but part of the power of Ceremony comes from her knowing the community’s stories, as she lived in close proximity to Jackpile Mine. Other writers comment more fully on nuclear energy development as seen in Native literature. This study collects stories from Laguna residents and aligns them with parallel events in Silko’s novel.