Silko
SilkoWhite people will be the death of the world. Leslie Marmon
Silko’s short story “Long time ago” explores this belief of the Laguna
Pueblos the will be brought to an end by white people. She also
touches on a more underlying theme which is a commentary on the topic
of people trying to outdo each other and the destruction that can be
caused by such actions. In “Long time ago,” the Indian witches do not
realize until it is too late that they are helping to feed the
creation of the white people. Once they realize that their
competition is going to have ill effects for them, it is too late,
because the creation has already begun.
The story states that there was a time when white people did
not exist and that the world may have stayed that way had it not been
for witches. All the witches decide to get together for a contest to
see who can do the worst dark and evil things. When all but one witch
has done his best, that witch steps up and says that he will tell a
story that will be “set in motion” (135) as he speaks. After he tells
his story, the rest of the witches tell him that he has won and asks
him to recall the story and take back what he had said, but he says
that it is too late to call it back. The story that he told was of
the creation of the white people, and it is irreversible.
Leslie Marmon Silko tries to convey the belief of the Laguna
Indians that the white man is going to destroy the world. This is
evident in the belief that the “world was already complete even
without white people” (133) They feel that the world would have been
fine without white people. The only evil in the world would have been
the Indian witches. After the white people were created, there was no
stopping the inevitable, because the end of the world was “already
coming” (138).
According to “Long time ago,” the white people “grow away from
the earth, … the sun, … [and] the plants and animals,” and “they
see no life” (135). The white people do not respect the earth and its
creatures. The white people use that which the earth has to offer but
do not try to put anything back. “They will kill … all the
animals,” “poison the water” and “bring terrible diseases” which will
cause “entire tribes [to] die out” (136-137). White people, who were
created by Indian witches, “fear the world … [and] themselves” and
“they destroy what they fear” (136). The white people, as this story
appears to convey that the Laguna Pueblo believe, will destroy
everything on the earth, including themselves, the white people, and
those things off of which the Laguna Pueblo survive.
The second theme in Silko’s “Long time ago” is one of the bad
things that can come about from people competing against each other
and trying to outdo everybody else. This type of actions are evident
in the witches. Each witch that competes feels that he needs to do
something better than the rest of the witches. After the first witch
“jump[s] into [the] animal’s skin” (134), the competition begins and
the witches start bringing out their contrivances to try to do
something better than the rest. They bring out “skin bundles” and
“cinders from burned hogans” (134), all of which would be gruesome
enough to impress even his fellow witches. Then the final witch comes
forth and presents the thing that will beat the creations of the rest
of the witches by a long shot. He unfolds a tale of the destruction
of the world. What the witches did not at first realize, was that by
holding this trial of abilities, they had sealed the fate of the
world. The world is doomed to be destroyed by the white people, which
was created through their own mischievous actions.
Leslie Marmon Silko conveys the Laguna Pueblo belief that
white people were created by Indian witches and that the world will be
brought to an end by the white people. “Long time ago” is more than a
story though, it is a lesson. It aims to teach Indian youths the bad
side of people competing to outdo one another and can also be used as
a model for other cultures, despite the differences between cultures,
to teach their youths about the negative side of competition. “Long
time ago” also teaches the youth that blaming their problems on
others, as many Native Americans blame their oppression on white
people, my be the wrong thing to do. Problems that people blame on
others are often caused by themselves, but they fail to realize that
fact. Likewise, many cultures, including the Laguna Pueblo, as can be
seen from “Long time ago,” blame others for their problems and
oppression without realizing that they may have caused these problems
themselves.