Don's Lesson From The Guardian Spirit Analysis

Don’s Lesson from the Guardian Spirit
The Hopi, an Amerindian tribe, have a rich history. As one of the oldest living cultures in history, the Hopi people live in the Grand Canyon area, setting up villages along their mesas. For 2000 years, the Hopi have continued to persist teach their children their traditions against the forced assimilation of the white man. Sun Chief, an autobiography of Don Talayesva, captures the life of Don, recounting stories from his childhood and his experiences at school and beyond. During his time at school, Don catches a severe case of pneumonia which leads to his temporary death. While he is in between life and death, his Guardian Spirit comes to take him on a journey and teach him a lesson. Through this journey,

Don learns that being Hopi means to love family and to be a Hopi.
Throughout the first chapters of Sun Chief, Don recounts tales from his childhood. Soon, the reader realizes that in every situation, Don is taught another lesson about Hopi traditions. For example, Don notes that “learning to work was like play,” because as “children [they] tagged,” along with their elders and “grew up doing things,” such as harvesting plants with their mother figures, or herding animals with their father figures (51-52). Ever since the Hopi children can walk, they begin to help out with everyday life, and thus begin their responsibilities as Hopi adults. At a young age, the children are shown, and mimic what the Hopi do as adults, so that when the children grow old, they know how to act and model for future generations of Hopi.
Along with learning how to behave as adults, the children are disciplined to ensure proper behavior. As a child, Don was a rowdy boy, and was disciplined quite often. As a child, he was given “a spanking daily,” and when he caused a massive amount of trouble, his head was “held under a blanket” in a cloud of smoke (70-71). His punishments were given to him by any member of his family including extended members. This teaches Don two things. The first thing this teaches Don is that some things that may not appear to be naughty are. One of the acts Don commits as a child is accidently killing a fowl for which his head is held in the cloud of smoke. As an accident, it may have appeared dismissible in Don’s eyes, but in Hopi tradition, it was not. Situations like these taught Don the morals of the Hopi while also reinforcing what he was taught. The second lesson this teaches Don is that extended family, such as clan mothers, hold the same right to punish him as his actual mother does. This teaches Don that familial bonds are close in Hopi tradition.Throughout his childhood, Don also witnesses several religious events.
Even before birth, Don is immediately exposed to religion and rituals.

During the pregnancy, both mother and father “took care,” to ensure the babies protection, either by making sure to not “injure an animal,” or “not look at the water serpents,” (1). This rituals that his parents followed were to ensure that Don would not have any birth defects. After his birth, Don was kept nearby his mother for twenty days to protect his life, and from then on, Don would witness several religious events(28-29). For example, Don witnesses Katcina dances and is taught that the “Katcinas are gods,” and that “gifts come from them,” (75). This is reinforced by his family through tales of Katcinas eating naughty children to Katcinas giving the good children gifts. He grows up watching their dances and even participating in one of them. Don is taught about the Spider Mother, and Massau’u and the Skeleton House. All of these gods/demons represent a part of Hopi culture and teaches them how to live their life. Don is a quick learner and soon knows many traditions and rules about Hopi life. Unfortunately, while at school, Don soon forgets his origins and starts to forget his Hopi

past.
Don and his family are “frendlies,” which means that they are okay with interacting with the white man, and because of this, Don starts school. He was “willing to try it,” but one of the acts the school performs to start assimilation is burning their clothes, so Don wears the “Navajo blanket,” the “one [his] grandfather had given [him],” (89). This is the first instance where the reader can see that Don trades a part of his old self in order to become more assimilated. As the years pass, Don enjoys school more and more. At first, he attended a day school, but soon he transfers over to a boarding school where he stays all year long. Being this isolated from his family and tribe, Don forgets more of Hopi culture and starts to enjoy school life more. After a few years at the boarding school, Don is transferred to a school far away from the tribe. At this point, Don has learned many things that contrast with his teachings at home. For instance, one year, he and his family are vaccinated. The missionaries tell them that it will help them against small pox, but the elders “said that the vaccinations were nonsense, but…harmless,” and in reality, the “spirits…banish[ed] the disease,” after listening to “their prayers,” (91). Another major clash occurs over the topic of sexuality. As a child, Don is exposed to masturbation and intercourse, and is even encouraged to practice with certain animals. This is deemed as acceptable by Hopi moral standards. Through school, he learns it is considered sinful to masturbate, and is definitely unacceptable. He witnesses both boys and girls being punished for their sexual behavior. In Christian standards, this is unacceptable. This is another major clash between Hopi and Christian values. At school, Don forgets who he is.
One year, Don comes down with a severe case of pneumonia and dies.

He is stuck in between life and death when his Spirit Guardian comes and takes him on a journey. The point of the journey is to remind Don what his roots are, and to teach him what being a Hopi is. Don goes home to “eat some good Hopi food,” but his mother and father seem to have forgotten him, and Don notices that “they don’t care,” (122). This symbolizes that Don has forgotten about his family. He rarely spends time with them and was always at school. Even during the summer, he spends time working there. Although Don had learned that family is close in Hopi tribes, he seemed to have left his family in the past, so that he could have an educated future. Later on the journey, Don meets a group of people who tell him that “lots of people love him,” and that he was “being punished,” so that he “would understand,” that he had forgotten what it meant to be a Hopi (127). The second lesson Don learns is about tradition. The same group mentioned above tells him that he has “been careless,” and does not “believe in the Skeleton House anymore,” which was one the major religious symbols in his childhood (125). They want “to teach him a lesson on life,” because he had forgotten the ways of the Hopi (125). They show him the life cycle of the Two Hearts results in a beetle, and the give him the chance to run away from Massau’u to live again (126). They wanted him to “return to them (his family),” because throughout his

life, he had been a devoted Hopi and he deserved a second chance (127). This journey taught Don to go back to his roots.
The lesson Don received from his Guardian Spirit showed him the negative side of his education. He had to relearn what it meant to be Hopi. This was crucial to his culture’s survival as forced assimilation was forcing his people to forget who they were, and if this continued to happen, the Hopi culture would have been erased. There would have been no one left to continue their traditions and keep their spirit alive. By writing Sun Chief, Don helped keep his culture alive by creating an accurate account of Hopi life in the late 1800s to mid 1900s. Future Hopi generations will be able to look back on this book, and other ethnographies to continue keeping the Hopi spirit and culture alive.