"We Were Through as Keepers of It": The "Missing Pipe Narrative" and Gros Ventre Cultural Identity

A detailed narrative performed by a Gros Ventre elder is analyzed/or its significance in the construction of cultural identity. In the context of these analyses, it is argued that narrative performance can be central to the active construction of cultural identity for individuals engaged in social interaction. In the present instance, certain performative features of the narrative involve a discursive identification by the narrator with the narrative protagonist that affords a personal resolution of a cultural crisis‐in‐meaning. Finally, this discursive identification by the narrator results in the re‐creation of narrative events that involve the audience as participants in ways that powerfully impact the cultural identities they too will construct.