In this excerpt from "The Way to Rainy Mountain" by N. Scott Momaday, the tone that is conveyed by the language is a sense of respect for Aho. Aho is the narrator's grandmother who has just died. The narrator travels to "Rainy Mountain" to see her grave. He remembers her telling the Kiowa's history, and he is willing to see it for himself. The oral tradition is very powerful, and it is transmitted by means of language, a language that nobody has been able to clasify. Aho has told him stories about the Kiowas journey from Montana down to the southern plains, stories that are very vivid in his memory. Aho was a living history, this is very important because of how powerful language and oral tradition are for the Kiowa's culture.
