Introduction


N. Scott Momaday
N. Scott Momaday’s novel House Made of Dawn was the first Native American book to break into mainstream American literature. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1969. Momaday began his life on a Kiowa reservation and was additionally exposed to the cultures of the Navajo, Apache, and Pueblo Indians because his parents were teachers on various reservations. After writing his first novel, he began teaching at the University of California at Berkeley and designed a graduate program in American Indian studies. He went on to write several collections of stories and poems as well as a play. His later books feature his own illustrations. All of his work focuses on Native American literature and mythology.

Essential Facts

  1. For his doctoral dissertation, Momaday edited and annotated the complete works of American poet Frederick Goddard Tuckerman. Momaday had always been interested in poetry, and this was a continuation of that interest.
  2. In 1969, Momaday was asked to join the Gourd Dance Society, an ancient Kiowa organization.
  3. Momaday has been featured in several documentary films, including Ken Burns’s The West, Last Stand at Little Big Horn, and Remembered Earth: New Mexico’s High Desert.
  4. Momaday is the Poet Laureate of Oklahoma and was awarded the 2007 National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush.
  5. Momaday’s grandfather fought at the battle of Little Big Horn and said, “Custer looked whiter than ever!”