Momaday
The protagonist who is a Native American by birth, but who lived after the decline of native cultures in the early 1900's. He describes his relationship to the tribe through the person of his grandmother and what she taught him about his culture.
Aho
Momaday's grandmother, a sparky woman with a big personality who taught Momaday everything he knows about his Kiowa roots. The story is incited by her death.
The white men.
Invadors and brutally authoritarian against the Kiowa people. They forbade the Kiowas to worship their sun god in dance, and killed the spirit of the tribe.
The gods.
There is a sun god in the pantheon of the Kiowas whom they worship foremost, but there is also a story of two divine girls chased by their divine brother (a bear) up into a tree. Momaday believes the gods are manifestations of their relationship to the land.
