Character Analysis
When Tayo first comes back from the war and is feeling too sick to get out of bad, Grandma calls old man Ku'oosh, the local medicine man in Laguna. Ku'oosh is an expert in Laguna Pueblo traditions and ceremonies. You can think of him as representing the Laguna people's "old" way of thinking. Even his way of speaking is old: his dialect is full of words and sentences that explain their own origins, emphasizing the fact that nothing in this world is new; everything has been said before. So much for originality.
Old man Ku'oosh is worried, because his way of performing the ceremonies isn't working anymore. He is unable to heal the men who have come back from the "white people's war," and he understands that it's super important to the community that they get better. Even though old man Ku'oosh is super traditional, he's able to realize the shortcomings of his way of doing things and recommend that Tayo go see someone who's a little more innovative.
After Tayo has completely recovered, he goes back to see old man Ku'oosh and the elders of the Laguna community in order to tell them what he's learned. When old man Ku'oosh gives Tayo instructions not to eat or leave the sacred community space, we get the feeling that Tayo is undergoing some sort of initiation—or maybe Ku'oosh is trying to politely hint that Tayo should try to shed a few pounds. Old man Ku'oosh is the figure in the novel who represents the welcoming of new ideas and stories into a very traditional culture.