Apprising Native Indian Female Identity: A Study of Pueblo Writer Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storyteller

Abstract

This paper explores the literary contributions of Leslie Marmon Silko in redefining Native Indian female identity through her seminal work, Storyteller. Silko’s stories challenge Euro-American literary norms and reclaim traditional Native American storytelling as a valid and effective way of expressing culture, specifically, the Laguna Pueblo oral tradition. The study focuses on how Storyteller goes against linear and genre-based forms by using a multi-voiced, polyphonic framework that combines poetry, prose, autobiography, myth, and photography to show Native ways. Silko shows women as cultural protectors, resistors, and spiritual strongholds, especially in the stories “Yellow Woman” and “Lullaby.” Silko’s heroines break colonial gender stereotypes by claiming their own power, reconnecting with ancestral tales, and showing how language, land, and identity are all deeply connected. Her portrayal of Native women goes beyond Western boundaries and shows the matrilineal and egalitarian ideals that are part of Pueblo mythology. The study places Silko within both feminist and indigenous literary traditions by looking at her narrative tactics, themes, and how critics have received her work. Her writing is not just a sort of resistance literature, but also an important way for cultures to stay alive and change. Silko’s Storyteller shows how powerful indigenous storytelling can be in challenging colonial histories, changing identity, and keeping culture alive even when it is endangered.