N. Scott Momaday (Navarre Scott
Momaday), 1934–2024, American writer whose works are reflective of
his Kiowa culture, b. Lawton, Okla., B.A. Univ. of New Mexico, 1958, Ph.D.
Stanford, 1963. The son of a Kiowa father and a Cherokee mother, both of
whom were teachers, he began his career writing poetry but is best known for
his celebrated first novel, House Made of Dawn (1968,
Pulitzer Prize), which uses many viewpoints and narrative techniques to
explore the conflicts between Kiowa tradition and modern American life felt
by a young Native American man returning home after serving in the army. His
second novel, The Ancient Child (1989), is based in part on
the Kiowa story of a boy transformed into a bear. The Way to Rainy
Mountain (1969) combines Kiowa folk traditions with history and
personal memories. Momaday's poetry, often on Native American themes, is
collected Angle of Geese (1974), The Gourd
Dancer (1976), Again the Far Morning (2011),
and other volumes. Other works include In the Presence of the Sun:
Stories and Poems, 1961–1991 (1992), The Man
Made of Words: Essays, Stories, Passages (1997), and In
the Bear's House (1999). Momaday, who is also a playwright and
painter, has taught at Stanford, the Univ. of California (Santa Barbara and
Berkeley), and the Univ. of Arizona.
See his The Names: A Memoir (1976); M. Schubnell, ed., Conversations with N. Scott Momaday (1997); P. S. Morgan, N. Scott Momaday: Remembering Ancestors, Earth, and Traditions, An Annotated Bio-bibliography (2010); studies by M. Schubnell (1986), S. Scarberry-Garcia (1990), and N. Rao (2013); J. S. Momaday (his daughter), dir., Return to Rainy Mountain (documentary, 2017).
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