r times I want to leave to see other things, to meet people, to die elsewhere," (106-107). James Welch uses the concept of self-identity, or in this case the lack thereof, to illustrate Jim's lonely and forlorn state.N. Scott Momaday uses the notion of identity in a very different way. His is more the offering of hope in finding a sense of self. He believes strongly in self-identity, so strongly that it caused him to make a pilgrimage to find his true identity, which he found in his past, or rather his family's past. He had an idea of self before he identified with his heritage, but it was not a complete sense of self. His journey for his identity ended in the complete knowledge of who he was, where as Loney died alone. Lucy Tapahonso uses the idea of individual self in yet another way. Here identity lies within relationships in a group. In the first two examples, both subjects were raised with little to no knowledge of their past, not raised in their true Native American culture. In What I Am, the story of Kinlichii'nii Bitsi progresses through several generations, but the different protagonists of each generation are identified as Kinlichii'nii Bitsi's granddaughter, and so on. The granddaughter and the great-granddaughter of Kinlichii'nii Bitsi are both raised within a Native American community, surrounded by their heritage. At the end of the story, the great granddaughter realizes that even if she leaves her land and her heritage, it never leaves her. She will all ways be how she is: connected with her family who will always protect her, no matter how far from home she is. Her identity is in her past.Identity can be defined in yet another way, as the relation established by a psychological identification. In other words, Native Americans identify with each other and to their past because psychologically they feel they are nothing without it. As a group it is important for Native Americans to have a sense of identity bec...
