In the Bear's House, and: The Indolent Boys (review)

The stuffed "Golden Bear" displayed in the University of California at Berkeley food court is a lamentable requiem for a spirit animal. The bear, which appears to have been a female, has been cast by a taxidermist in a position of perpetual aggression. Imprisoned in relentless ferocity, the bear's lips are curled, her teeth and claws are prominently displayed, and she stands at her full height. The bear's eyes are dull glass, her coat is moth-eaten and dusty, her lips are glued into a perpetual snarl, her teeth are yellow, and just the other day a light fixture fell onto her head. I always wonder why this poor bear is forced to spend eternity guarding chili fries and diet colas. I wish that she could have been one of N. Scott Momaday's bears, a true spirit Bear.

Momaday understands spirit animals, bears above all, as two of his recent accomplishments move Bear's spirit into new dimensions. Momaday and Urset, his spirit Bear, approach maturity with wit, wisdom, and grace in In the Bear's House. Momaday also carries the spirit of the Bear into the past, as he moves the discussion of American Indian boarding schools and the Kiowa boarding school at Anadarko, Oklahoma Territory, into the theater with his play The Indolent Boys. ¹

In In the Bear's House, Urset, Momaday, and Yahweh engage in a series of "Bear-God Dialogues" that address creation, berries, prayer, dreams, story, evolution, thought, and time. The Yahweh of Urset's elder years is not a demanding Old Testament deity, but a Creator who enjoys His creations. Yahweh and Urset meet in a variety of places. They sit slouched in chairs under a streetlight or "across a small table from each other," relax on a patch of grass, or meet for coffee. Creator and Creation, they discuss evolution, backed by a Grecian statue, and contemplate time while seated at a table, enjoying a "tea service... and dainty cups." The settings of the Bear-God dialogues delight the imagination, giving me hope for the "Golden Bear" in her glass tomb.

The Old Bear and Creator address language and the power of words, providing Yahweh and Urset a foundation for their continued dialogues. For Momaday, Creator, and Urset, "in the beginning was the word." Momaday incorporates the power and beauty of words as music, poetry, oral tradition and the sounds of the wind, sun, oceans, and deserts into Creator's dialogue. A Creator made of words and Urset, a being of "flesh and blood, bone and hair," rely on dialogue as Momaday and his spirit Bear merge in a creation of words.

Urset and Yahweh address mortality, the failure of flesh and bones, and the natural progression of age in a setting that exalts "being." The immortal Creator and the mortal Bear feast on huckleberries. They relish "purple lips and tongues [and] juice that [drips] into our beards" as a sacrament, enjoyed with "reckless abandon, with irresistible intent, in fury and frenzy." The Bear acknowledges that with age he is sometimes crotchety, and he understands that with time those who are born will die. Words will remain. Creator and Creation agree to continue the dialogue, discussing prayer, silence, and laughter over tea and more berries. They understand that laughter, and berries, transcend time.

Yahweh and Urset speak of dreams while seated in the grass, like two comfortable old men. They agree that dreams are the sights of the mind's eye and the soul's perceptions of the world. The Pisces-loving Bear and his epicurean Creator dine on freshly caught fish that they have prepared à la mint and pine nuts. "We ate fourteen, I think." When they meet again, Creator sits at a small table, drinking coffee while Urset picks fleas from the Immortal's hair...