Ts'eh

Character Analysis

Ts'eh, the woman of old Betonie's vision, plays an important part in Tayo's journey of healing. We know immediately that she's going to be important, because her appearance is marked by several significant details: she's wearing yellow, she has ocher eyes, her house is at the base of Mount Taylor, and she points out the constellation of stars that Betonie told Tayo to watch out for. (You can check out the section on "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory" for a deeper analysis of several these.) We instantly like this woman, and Tayo does too—he spends the night with her and feels happier than he has in years. Hmm…we wonder why (wink wink, nudge nudge).

Tayo's love for Ts'eh comes to replace the pain and guilt he felt at losing Rocky and Josiah. "The breaking and crushing were gone" when Tayo falls for Ts'eh, "and the love pushed inside his chest." Tayo no longer cries with sadness, but with happiness because Ts'eh loves him so much. (XXV.116) Ts'eh teaches Tayo that love doesn't have to stop just because somebody dies. Death, after all, isn't that far away.

Ts'eh is much more than just a lover to Tayo; she's also a teacher and spiritual guide. Ts'eh teaches Tayo about the importance of feelings and the dangers of numbness. She also teaches him more practical and everyday sorts of things, like the uses of plants and the location of special cliff paintings. But all of Ts'eh's teachings have a spiritual significance. She's teaching Tayo how to be connected to the natural world, just as Josiah did.

We get several hints that Ts'eh has mystical powers, from her storm-patterned blanket that seems to control the weather to the plants she collects in order to bring the rain to valleys suffering from drought. Ts'eh foresees Emo's evil plotting and helps Tayo plan his escape. Tayo comes to realize that she has visions and hears voices, just like old Betonie. (XXV.150)

One of Ts'eh's strongest qualities is her connection to the earth, a characteristic that is evident in the places she tends to appear. Notice how Tayo meets her at the base of a mountain? How she drags Tayo up to the top of a mesa before telling him her name? And how she's always staring off at Pa'to'ch, a smallish mesa near Tayo's family ranch? When she looks off at that particular hill, Tayo gets the feeling he knows "where she had come from" and "where she would always be" (XXV.140).

Ts'eh also seems to be connected to A'moo'ooh, the she-elk, whose painting she shows Tayo. At the end of the novel, the elders of Laguna celebrate Tayo's relationship with Ts'eh, calling her "A'moo'ooh," and seeing this as a sign that they will be blessed again (XXVIII).

While she's a strong character in her own right, Ts'eh is constantly reminding us of other characters and stories in the novel. Her unusually colored eyes, spiritual intuition, and connection to mountaintops remind us of the Night Swan and Betonie's green-eyed grandmother. When Ts'eh says: "Out there . . . things are always moving, always shifting. I hear them sometimes at night," we get the feeling that we've heard someone say that before. And we have—old Betonie's grandmother once said something eerily similar. (XIX.25) Ts'eh's character really emphasizes the idea that, even when things change, life is full of repetitions of events and stories that happened before. Reading about Ts'eh makes us feel like old Grandma when she says: "It seems like I already heard these stories before . . . only thing is, the names sound different" (XXIX.17). We definitely get the feeling we've heard this all before.