Understanding Native American Indian literature requires that scholars and teachers respect the cultural matrix within which the literature is written. The "ceremonial motion" of time--or "Indian time"--is a critical concept in Native American texts. When the dominant culture's time construct, linear or chronological time, superimposes on Indian characters in fiction, those characters exhibit patterns of illness and dislocation; conversely, when mythical or communal time perceptions dominate, characters regain health and harmony. Chronological marking of time leads to destruction through the development of technology that is out of synchronization with the mythological context of time. Leslie Marmon Silko's novel "Ceremony" provides an initial study in the relationship between time and technology in Native American Indian literature. Teachers of Native American Indian literature need to understand that the works unfold in several layers, and that one of the keystones to understanding the subtleties of the literature is to understand the concept of "Indian time." An appendix listing differences between technological peoples and native peoples is attached. (Author/RS)