Author's opinion of his grandmother?

Momaday loved his grandmother, and he held her in great regard. He loved the telling of the beautiful stories she shared, as well as her relationship to nature. In her honor, he decides to embark on a similar journey to his ancestor's great migration. He starts at Yellowstone and begins walking south and east. The land becomes flat and less forested. He rediscovers why his ancestors worshiped the sun, because it's so beautiful and un-ignorable each day in the plains without trees to obscure its light. He passes Devil's Tower and recounts the legend of a bear scratching the trunk of a divine tree.

Momaday also tells us that his grandmother actually did end up converting to Christianity later in her life, but that never changed her cultural relationship to her past. The final Sun Dance was broken up by white men who viewed the native religions as barbaric and violent, so they were no longer allowed to openly celebrate their religion, and their culture slowly began to decay. He remembers the sparky personality of his wonderful grandmother, and he mourns the silence of her absence. She is buried within sight of Rainy Mountain according to Kiowa customs.