Navarre Scott Momaday Overview

If the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream could be attributed to one work it would undoubtedly be N. Scott Momaday's revolutionary novel "House Made of Dawn", which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. Unlike many contemporary Native... [more]

If the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream could be attributed to one work it would undoubtedly be N. Scott Momaday's revolutionary novel "House Made of Dawn", which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. Unlike many contemporary Native American writers whose primary concern revolves around identity politics, Momaday has achieved a solidified sense of self through his writing. Nonetheless, Momaday hasn't ignored the existential difficulty of growing up in a culturally divisive world. Momaday explains, "I am an Indian and I believe I'm fortunate to have the heritage I have..."I grew up in two worlds and straddle both those worlds even now. It has made for confusion and a richness in my life. I've been able to deal with it reasonably well, I think, and I value it." Momaday was born in 1934 and spent his childhood on the Navajo, Apache and Pueblo reservations of the Southwest. After surviving the depression, the family settled in New Mexico, where Momaday's parents, both teachers, taught for 25 years in a two-teacher Indian day school. Momaday's father was also a painter and his mother a writer. Thus, contributing to Momaday's artistic education and undoubtedly encouraging his journey into the world of literature and well as inspiring his quest to preserve the stories of his culture. In considering the influence of his family and his heritage, he recalls: "My father was a great storyteller and he knew many stories from the Kiowa oral tradition. He told me many of these stories over and over because I loved them. But it was only after I became an adult that I understood how fragile they are, because they exist only by word of mouth, always just one generation away from extinction. That's when I began to write down the tales my father and others had told me." Consequently, Momaday has devoted much of his life to safeguarding oral tradition and other aspects of Indian culture. [show less]