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In the myths preceding, the twin brothers in myth 9 were once one, then were split (transformed) into two. In the second paragraph of the text, Momaday also states that there is an alternate version of the myth where one of the twins transforms his body into “medicine” for the Kiowas.

In myth 11, the brother that ate the strange meat is transformed into a water beast.

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Before the Kiowas had horses, they had dogs, when dogs could talk. A lone man faces dangerous animal enemies at his camp, and has no way to defend himself. A dog comes up to him and warns him of other adversaries incoming. The dog promises to guide the man away from danger if he promises to take care of the dog’s puppies. The man does, and he is taken to safety.

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The twin brothers kill a great snake that enters their tipi. Their spider grandmother weeps upon hearing the news, for the great snake was their grandfather. The spider grandmother dies soon after and the twin brothers bury her. The twin brothers live on and are honored by the Kiowa years later.

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It is winter, so food is scarce for two Kiowa brothers. One of the brothers finds meat for them to eat, but the other says to leave the strange meat alone. The brother ignores him and eats the meat by himself anyway. As a result, he transforms into a water beast and leaves to live in the water. The still-human brother visits him at the water’s edge sometimes to inform him of Kiowa happenings.

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In myths 3 and 9, animals serve to help Kiowa humans. In myth 3, it’s the dog leading the man to safety, and in myth 9, it’s the spider grandmother that takes care of the sun’s child(ren).

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In the third, ninth, and eleventh myth of N. Scott Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain, the audience is painted a clear picture of how closely the identity of the Kiowas is tied to the land in which they live. Hertha D. Wong’s piece on Nature in Native American Literature defines the typical Native American perception of nature versus that of the West in clear terms: while Westerners think of nature as separate from or lesser than themselves even in the language they use to describe it, Indigenous people see themselves as part of it. This comes as no surprise when reading Momaday’s records of his tribe’s myths; even outside of myths three, nine, and eleven, nature plays a prevalent role in the overwhelming majority of the stories. The Kiowa myths teach a respect and a reverence for the land, for they live in tandem with it despite its great force. In William Marling’s Native American Literature, he lays out a set of principles by which Indigenous “Emergence myths”—a category the Kiowa creation myth falls under—follow. One of the principles states that nature is more powerful than man but not feared, because power is available to all, compounding on the idea of the fluidity and interconnection of man and nature. In the “Prologue” of The Way to Rainy Mountain, Momaday himself puts it in simple terms: “And the journey is an evocation of three things in particular: a landscape that is incomparable, a time that is gone forever, and the human spirit, which endures.” Bleak and barren lands with vital elements of nature gone is what triggered the Kiowas’ perilous journey—the land is responsible for the beginning of the Kiowas entirely.

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The position of animals as family denotes a similar, if not identical, meaning to the position of animals as helpers in the myths. The animals in these myths are not better or less than the humans in the story; they are on equal ground. They speak to and act with humans as if there is no difference between them, demonstrating how the Kiowas’ egalitarian view of the relationship between themselves and nature.

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Similar to the previous motif, in all three myths, animals serve as family—or some semblance of family—in one way or another. In myth 3, the puppies and dog aren’t the man’s family, but he does promise to take care of them. The twins in myth 9 have a redbird father, a snake grandfather, and a spider grandmother. In myth 11, the water beast brother is still his brother’s brother, despite his current form.

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The purpose of each of these myths is to demonstrate the Kiowas view of nature. In contrast to western views of nature, the Kiowas think of their relationship with the land as inclusive -- they are one with the land, not separate from it.

In myth 3, there’s a clear relationship between the dog and the lone man it helps, again compounding on Momaday’s description in the introduction about the Kiowas and how their culture was shaped by the animals and landscapes around them. In myth 9, the boundaries between human and nature are blurred, as the human twin brothers have a spider grandmother and a snake grandfather. In myth 11, again these lines are blurred, as the human brother is transformed into an animal-like water beast. In this same myth, the transformed brother continues to carry a relationship with his brother and people despite his form.

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Myth III

Lone man: A Kiowa man that lives on his own at a camp.

Dog: A helper figure, who leads the man to safety after he promises to take care of its puppies.

Myth IX

Twin brothers: Once the sole child of the sun, split into two by a ring (the one which killed his mother). The spider grandmother takes care of them. Through her, they are also the snake’s grandchildren.

Spider grandmother: On earth, the sun’s child encounters a spider that is “called a grandmother”. The spider grandmother catches the boy despite his numerous previous escapes and takes care of him as if he were her own child.

Snake grandfather: Not much is known about the snake grandfather besides the fact that the spider grandfather says he is the twins’ grandfather.

Myth XI

Two brothers: It is winter in the myth, so food is scarce. One of the brothers finds meat outside to eat, but the other brother calls it strange and warns him away. The brother that found the meat calls him foolish and eats the meat anyway, then transforms into a “water beast”. The water beast goes to live in the water, and his human brother visits him from time-to-time.

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In each memoir of these myths, Momaday connects to the stories using an anecdote of the past in relation to his family. The memoirs place him in his father’s shoes, in his grandfather’s, and in his own, all in retrospect. While these stories may seem purely mythical or “fictional” to non-Kiowa readers, Momaday’s memoirs remind the audience that “real” or not, these stories have held true to the Kiowas for generations.

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Transformation, specifically between human and non-human, is used to show the fluidity between human and non-human (which, in most cases throughout the book, is nature; animal to be specific to the myths chosen here). The lines separating the two are blurred, if they even exist for the Kiowas. In the myths chosen, transformation also typically occurs as a result of interaction with the land (eating meat; the lake; the ring/wheel “given” by the sun), again showing how intertwined the land and its inhabitants, the Kiowa, are.