Written in 1967 and published two years later in the New Mexico Quarterly, "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" established Silko as a brilliant new Native American writer. The story brought her wide recognition as well as a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The story is based on an incident Silko had heard about in her hometown of Laguna, New Mexico: an old man had been found dead in a sheep camp and had been given a traditional Indian burial. The local Catholic priest resented the fact that he had not been called in to officiate at the service. Silko's story explores the Indians' blending of Catholic rituals with traditional Indian rituals during a funeral ceremony. The tension of maintaining traditional Pueblo practices and the co-opting of outside influences—in this case, the Catholic church—is a recurring interest of Silko's and appears in several of her stories.

As a story about Native Americans, "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" describes the quality of contemporary Laguna Pueblo life. The story is admired for Silko's masterful portrayal of the Indians' quiet acceptance of death and for its highly controlled narrative.