Actually it describes how people is becoming less happy, how their smiles are being removed from their faces, in the perception of the writer the city was amazing just as American people think the country, it is represented by the feeling of victory that the author names the triumph felt. As in the representation of the boy who is looked in a room, it can be said that we nowadays have as well things that prefer to ignore or visit vaguely to see how defective we are in deep. He can be also a representation of happiness, and how we have killed or hidden it in order to have a bright and supposedly happy life, but if we made all these fears or dreams come out they could end our comfort.
Answer: In The Way to Rainy Mountain, the most important insight Momaday gained about his heritage during his pilgrimage was how much the cultural identity of the Kiowas had declined over the span of his grandmother's life.