Read this foundational essay, Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Perspective.”  It is available at:

www.unm.edu/~joglesby/Silko%20Essay.pdf

In many ways this essay is a statement of the terms of difference.  The identity Silko claims for her people is rigorously and memorably defined here.  This makes writing the definition empowering for Silko and her people.  For us, the essay can be powerful as a trail: we don’t know where it leads, but we can appreciate the landscape.  It challenges us to do something with these differences.  Silko tells us of language uses that are outside our experience, but which are a daily part of Pueblo experience.