s that it is an inferior culture, and from the doctor's dominant culture perspective, a culture with no merit or knowledge of real medicine or how the human body works. This, of course, is one of Silko's major points in the novel. European colonizers and later Americans devalued Native American culture, and treated them like lesser human beings.
Silko shows how the Veterans Administration doctors are wrong both in their attitude and their treatment. "American" medicine does not cure Tayo; it just makes matters worse. He retreats from life and even consciousness. "For a long time he had been white smoke. He did not realize that until he left the hospital, because white smoke had no consciousness of itself. It faded into the white worldà ." (14). But Tayo wants to be invisible; it is his way of dealing with his illness. The author, however, does not share this view; Silko wants to bring Tayo out of his white smoke-like state to find the means to re-establish his identity.
The Army doctors admit, that to them, "the cause of battle fatigue was a mystery" (31). But Tayo's old grandma understands the situation, and tells Tayo, "Those white docto
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