N. Scott Momaday

{{Short description|Native American author and academic (1934–2024)}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = N. Scott Momaday

| image = N Scott Momaday George W Bush.jpg

| caption = Momaday receiving the National Medal of Arts from George W. Bush, 2007

| occupation = Writer

| birth_name = Novarro Scotte Mammedaty{{cite book |last=Macdonald|first=Gina|author-link= |date= December 1, 2016|title= Critical Survey of American Literature|url= |location= Ipswich, MA|publisher=Salem Press|pages= 2069–2079|isbn=}}

| birth_date = {{birth date|1934|02|27}}

| birth_place = Lawton, Oklahoma, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2024|1|24|1934|2|27}}

| death_place = Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.

| nationality = Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, American

| education = University of New Mexico (BA)
Stanford University (MA, PhD)

| movement = Native American Renaissance

| genre = Fiction

| notableworks = House Made of Dawn (1968)

}}

Navarre Scotte Momaday (February 27, 1934–January 24, 2024) was a Kiowa and American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His novel House Made of Dawn was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969, and is considered the first major work of the Native American Renaissance.

In a tribute published upon his death, Joy Harjo (Mvskoke), 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, noted that in House Made of Dawn, "Momaday found a way to move eloquently between oral storytelling forms and the written English novel form. The trajectory of the book moves from sunrise to sunrise, making a circle–a story structure recognizable in Indigenous oral history, yet following traditional American literary shape and expectations of a novel. The title is drawn directly from the traditional literature of the Diné people."Harjo, Joy. "Remembering the Man Made of Words. The Washington Post. February 5, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/05/joy-harjo-n-scott-momaday/

Momaday received the National Medal of Arts in 2007 for his work's celebration and preservation of Indigenous oral and art tradition. He held 20 honorary degrees from colleges and universities, the last of which was from the California Institute of the Arts in 2023,{{Cite web |title=CalArts honorary-degree-recipients |url=https://calarts.edu/about/institute/history/honorary-degree-recipients |access-date=January 29, 2024 |archive-date=January 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240130130641/https://calarts.edu/about/institute/history/honorary-degree-recipients |url-status=live }} and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Background

Navarre Scotte Momaday, also written Novarro Scotte Mammedaty.{{cite web |last1=Steed |first1=Patricia L. |title=Momaday, Navarre Scott (1934–2024) |url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=MO007 |website=The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture |publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society |access-date=24 November 2024}} was born on February 27, 1934, in Lawton, Oklahoma.{{cite web|title=N. Scott Momaday Biography and Interview|website=achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url=https://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/#interview|access-date=April 3, 2019|archive-date=January 29, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129195913/https://achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/#interview|url-status=live}} He was delivered in the Kiowa and Comanche Indian Hospital, registered as having seven-eighths Indian blood.{{Cite web|url=http://www.enotes.com/topics/n-scott-momaday|title=N. Scott Momaday Biography - eNotes.com|website=eNotes|access-date=November 18, 2016|archive-date=November 19, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119184320/https://www.enotes.com/topics/n-scott-momaday|url-status=live}} N. Scott Momaday's mother was Mayme 'Natachee' Scott Momaday (1913–1996), who Momaday stated was to be of English, Irish, French, and "some degree of Cherokee" descent,{{cite web |url=https://voicesofoklahoma.com/interviews/momaday-n-scott/ |title=N. Scott Momaday |publisher=Voices of Oklahoma |accessdate=August 10, 2023 |archive-date=January 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129200032/https://voicesofoklahoma.com/interviews/momaday-n-scott/ |url-status=live}}Jim Charles, Reading, Learning, Teaching N. Scott Momaday (Peter Lang, 2007), p. 29.See Kay Bonetti, "N. Scott Momaday: An Interview," in Conversations with N. Scott Momaday, edited by Matthias Schubnell (University Press of Mississippi, 1997), p. 133. born in Fairview, Kentucky,{{cite journal |last1=Nagin |first1=Emily |title=Irredeemable Stories? Native American Children's Literature and the Radical Potential of Commercial Literary Forms |journal=Studies in American Indian Literatures |date=Winter 2016 |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=1–24 |quote=Momaday's mother was born in 1913 in Fairview, Kentucky, and her given name was Mayme Natachee Scott ...|jstor=10.5250/studamerindilite.28.4.0001 |doi=10.5250/studamerindilite.28.4.0001 |s2cid=164607101}} while his father was Alfred Morris Momaday, who was a full-blooded Kiowa.{{Cite news|url=http://www.voicesofoklahoma.com/interview/momaday-n-scott/|title=Momaday, N. Scott - Voices of Oklahoma|newspaper=Voices of Oklahoma|language=en-US|access-date=November 18, 2016|archive-date=January 29, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129195924/https://voicesofoklahoma.com/interviews/momaday-n-scott/|url-status=live}} His mother was a writer and his father a painter. His grandfather John spelled the name Mammeday. In addition, the etymology of Momaday appears in John Peabody Harringon’s Vocabulary of the Kiowa language, Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1928, as an unambiguous entry on page 121: mῌm-dei ‘up, upper; roof’. Harrington used a small-capital Greek eta H to represent the sound of “ǎ” in land /lænd/ and iotacized it (subscript iota, as a right-turning curl) to represent that nasalized vowel: [æ˜], thus [mæ˜m-dei], corresponding to “original” Mammeday and then Momaday.Carl Masthay, St. Louis, 17 Feb. 2024.

As an infant, Momaday was taken to Devils Tower and given the Kiowa name Tsoai-talee (Rock-Tree Boy). In 1935, when N. Scott Momaday was one year old, his family moved to Arizona, where both his father and mother became teachers on {{clarify|text=a reservation.|reason=Which one?|date=February 2024}} In 1946, a 12-year-old Momaday moved to Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, living there with his parents until his senior year of high school. Growing up in Arizona and New Mexico allowed Momaday to experience not only his father's Kiowa traditions but also those of other Southwest Native Americans including the Navajo, Apache, and Pueblo traditions.

To challenge himself, Momaday spent his final year of high school at the Augusta Military Academy in Virginia. He then enrolled at the University of Virginia, where he met William Faulkner and John Dos Passos.{{cite web |url=https://voicesofoklahoma.com/learning-center/famous-oklahoma-poets/ |title=Oklahoma Art: Artists of Oklahoma: The Work & Legacy of Famous OK Poets |first=John |last=Erling |date=January 17, 2023 |website=Voices of Oklahoma |publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society |access-date=May 18, 2024}} Momaday subsequently transferred to the University of New Mexico, graduating in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. He continued his education at Stanford University where, in 1963, he earned a Ph.D. in English Literature.

In a 2022 interview for the PBS show American Masters, the director Jeff Palmer asked Momaday what knowledge would he want to pass on to younger generations. He responded: "I would want them to be mindful of that fact that at the beginning of the 20th Century say, I was born in a house in Oklahoma, which had no electricity, no plumbing. We would be considered at the very bottom of the scale in terms of land and poverty. I came from that by the virtue of good luck and perseverance into a kind of existence that has been visible.

"I have achieved a kind of reputation and I think the legacy has to do with what is possible. It is possible to overcome great disadvantage. You know the Indian people, at the turn of the 20th Century, were terribly defeated. They had a sense of defeat. They had been conquered and put down and held down. And it was terribly hard for them to come out of that, to survive that kind of poverty of the morale, let’s say. But they have done it to a large extent. There’s still a ways to go. I want my legacy to be the example of how one can survive against those odds. I think it gets easier all the time...""7 Questions for N. Scott Momaday on writing, sovereignty and storytelling" December 12, 2022. PBS American Masters. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/n-scott-momaday-on-writing-sovereignty-and-storytelling/24102/

Literary career

After receiving his Ph.D. in 1963 from Stanford University, Momaday's first book publication was The Complete Poems of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, which he edited and wrote the "Introduction".{{cite web| url=https://www.kensandersbooks.com/pages/books/47072/n-scott-momaday/the-complete-poems-of-frederick-goddard-tuckerman | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918115959/https://www.kensandersbooks.com/pages/books/47072/n-scott-momaday/the-complete-poems-of-frederick-goddard-tuckerman | archive-date=September 18, 2021 | title=The Complete Poems of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman by N. Scott Momaday on Ken Sanders Rare Books }} Momaday's doctoral dissertation was on Tuckerman.

His novel House Made of Dawn led to the breakthrough of Native American literature into the American mainstream after the novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969.

House Made of Dawn was the first novel of the Native American Renaissance, a term coined by literary critic Kenneth Lincoln in the Native American Renaissance. The novel is a seminal work of contemporary Native American literature.{{cite book |last1=Velie |first1=Alan R. (Ed.) |last2=Lee |first2=A. Robert (Ed.) |date=2014 |title=The Native American Renaissance: Literary Imagination and Achievement |location=Norman, OK |publisher=Oklahoma University Press |isbn= |page=3 |quote=}}{{cite news |title=N. Scott Momaday remembered for inspiring Native Americans to 'write our own stories' |newspaper=The Oklahoman |author=Brandy McDonnell |url=https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2024/01/29/scott-momaday-native-american-pulitzer-winner-dies-house-made-of-dawn/72399585007/}} His follow-up work The Way to Rainy Mountain blended folklore with memoir.[https://www.firstnations.org/news/first-nations-remembers-former-board-member-n-scott-momaday/ First Nations Remembers Former Board Member N. Scott Momaday], First Nations Development Institute

As other Indigenous American writers began to gain recognition, Momaday turned to poetry, releasing a small collection called Angle of Geese. Writing for The Southern Review, John Finlay described it as Momaday's best work, and that it should "earn him a permanent place in our literature."{{cite journal|last1=Finlay|first1=John|title=N. Scott Momaday's Angle of Geese|journal=The Southern Review|date=July 1975|volume=11|issue=3|page=658|id={{ProQuest|1291572481}}}} The Gourd Dancer, which was finished while Momaday taught in the USSR, was released in 1976.{{cite news |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7957/the-art-of-poetry-no-112-n-scott-momaday |title=N. Scott Momaday, The Art of Poetry No. 112 |author=David S. Wallace |issue=242 |work=The Paris Review}}

According to Matthias Schubnell, Momaday's memoir The Names "is best described as an extension of The Way to Rainy Mountain: while the earlier work conveys the mythic and historical precedents to Momaday's personal experiences in story fragments within an associative structure, The Names is a chronological account of his childhood and adolescence."[https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/momaday-n-scott Momaday, N. Scott], encyclopedia.com

Academic career

Momaday was tenured at Stanford University, the University of Arizona, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of California-Santa Barbara.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/producers/momaday.htm|title=PBS – The West – N. Scott Momaday|website=pbs.org|access-date=November 19, 2016|archive-date=September 28, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928055303/http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/producers/momaday.htm|url-status=live}} Momaday was a visiting professor at places such as Columbia and Princeton, while also being the first professor to teach American Literature in Moscow, Russia at Moscow State University.

In 1963, Momaday began teaching at the University of California–Santa Barbara as an assistant professor of English. From 1966 to 1967, he focused primarily on literary research, leading him to pursue the Guggenheim Fellowship at Harvard University.{{Cite web |title=N. Scott Momaday |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/n-scott-momaday |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=January 29, 2024 |archive-date=January 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129204819/https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/n-scott-momaday |url-status=live }} Two years later, in 1969, Momaday was named professor of English at the University of California-Berkeley. Momaday taught creative writing, and produced a new curriculum based on American Indian literature and mythology. In 1981, he settled at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he retired in 2005. {{Cite news |date=2024-01-29 |title=N. Scott Momaday, first Native American to win Pulitzer Prize, dies at 89 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/01/29/scott-momaday-native-american-pulitzer-dead/ |access-date=2024-08-10 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}

During the 35-plus years of Momaday's academic career, he built up a reputation specializing in American Indian oral history and sacred concepts of the culture itself. Momaday's contributions to the field resulted in 21 honorary degrees from universities including Yale, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Wisconsin, Dartmouth and Oklahoma City University. {{cite web | url=https://poets.org/poet/n-scott-momaday | title=N. Scott Momaday }}

Momaday was a visiting professor at the University of New Mexico during the 2014–15 academic year to teach in the Creative Writing and American Literary Studies Programs in the Department of English. Specializing in poetry and the Native oral tradition, he taught The Native American Oral Tradition.[https://news.unm.edu/news/momaday-to-teach-in-unm-english-department Momaday to teach in UNM English Department], UNM Newsroom

Awards and recognition

In 1969, Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel House Made of Dawn.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/books/n-scott-momaday-dead.html|title=N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer-Winning Native American Novelist, Dies at 89|first=John|last=Motyka|work=The New York Times |date=January 29, 2024|via=NYTimes.com|access-date=January 30, 2024|archive-date=January 30, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240130073623/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/books/n-scott-momaday-dead.html|url-status=live}}

In 1992, Momaday received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.[http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/awards/lifetime.html List of NWCA Lifetime Achievement Awards] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161219223831/http://hanksville.org/storytellers/awards/lifetime.html |date=December 19, 2016}}, accessed August 6, 2010.

In 1993, Momaday received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.{{cite web|title=Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement|website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url=https://www.achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/|access-date=June 17, 2019|archive-date=December 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171212193048/http://www.achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/|url-status=live}}{{cite web |last=Warren |first=Ellen |date=June 14, 2004 |title=A meeting of the minds, Hollywood A-listers, Nobel Prize winners, Mayor Daley and myriad other geniuses rub elbows at International Achievement Summit |url=https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chicago-Tribune-June-14-2004.pdf |work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=December 4, 2020 |archive-date=September 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905052554/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chicago-Tribune-June-14-2004.pdf |url-status=live}}{{cite web |date=2005 |title=2005 Summit Highlights Photo |url=https://achievement.org/summit/2005/ |quote=Academy members: Pulitzer Prize-winning author N. Scott Momaday and Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize recipient. |access-date=December 4, 2020 |archive-date=January 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119062513/https://achievement.org/summit/2005/ |url-status=live}}{{cite web |date=2007 |title=Suzan-Lori Parks Biography Photo |url=https://achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/ |quote=Suzan-Lori Parks receives the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award from the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and novelist N. Scott Momaday at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. |access-date=December 4, 2020 |archive-date=January 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129200025/https://achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/ |url-status=live}}

Momaday was featured in the Ken Burns and Stephen Ives documentary, The West (1996). He was also featured in PBS documentaries concerning boarding schools, Billy the Kid, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.[https://www.pugetsound.edu/news/n-scott-momaday-native-american-writer-and-advocate-oral-tradition N. Scott Momaday, Native American Writer and Advocate of the Oral Tradition], University of Puget Sound

In 2000, Momaday received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates.{{Cite web |url=http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html |title=Website of St. Louis Literary Award |access-date=July 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823003924/http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html |archive-date=August 23, 2016 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award |title=Recipients of the St. Louis Literary Award |author=Saint Louis University Library Associates |access-date=July 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731082313/http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award |archive-date=July 31, 2016 |url-status=dead}}

In July 2007, Momaday was honored as the Oklahoma Centennial Poet LaureateVan Deventer, M. J. [http://newsok.com/article/3169308/1195127217 "Bush adding to poet's honors."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231644/http://newsok.com/article/3169308/1195127217 |date=March 3, 2016}} Daily Oklahoman. November 15, 2007 (retrieved December 14, 2009) Later that year, in November, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush.{{Cite web |url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071114-7.html |title=President Bush Announces 2007 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Recipients |access-date=September 5, 2017 |archive-date=October 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025052603/https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071114-7.html |url-status=live}}

Momaday received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Illinois at Chicago on May 9, 2010.{{Cite web|url=https://commencement.uic.edu/about/history/honorary-degrees/|title=Honorary Degrees|website=University of Illinois Chicago|access-date=January 31, 2024|archive-date=June 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605184305/https://commencement.uic.edu/about/history/honorary-degrees/|url-status=live}}

In 2018, Momaday won a Lifetime Achievement Award{{Cite web|title=House Made of Dawn |url=http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/books/house-made-of-dawn/?sortby=year |access-date=May 18, 2018 |archive-date=May 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519051528/http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/books/house-made-of-dawn/?sortby=year |url-status=live}} from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards,{{Cite web|title=Home |url=http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/ |access-date=May 18, 2018 |archive-date=December 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212131455/http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/ |url-status=live}} the only juried prize to honor the best books addressing racism and questions of equity and diversity. The same year, Momaday became one of the inductees in the first induction ceremony held by the National Native American Hall of Fame.{{cite web |url=https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/national-native-american-hall-of-fame-names-first-twelve-historic-inductees-e-Uu9NZBh0K9TPrv992tyQ/ |title=National Native American Hall of Fame names first twelve historic inductees |work=Indian Country Today |publisher=Newsmaven.io |access-date=October 22, 2018 |archive-date=October 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022184208/https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/national-native-american-hall-of-fame-names-first-twelve-historic-inductees-e-Uu9NZBh0K9TPrv992tyQ/ |url-status=live}}

In 2019, Momaday was awarded the Ken Burns American Heritage Prize.{{Cite web|url=https://www.oklahoman.com/story/entertainment/columns/brandy-mcdonnell/2019/01/08/oklahoma-born-writer-n-scott-momaday-to-receive-2019-ken-burns-american-heritage-prize/60479113007/|title=Oklahoma-born writer N. Scott Momaday to receive 2019 Ken Burns American Heritage Prize|first=Brandy|last=McDonnell|website=The Oklahoman|access-date=January 30, 2024|archive-date=January 31, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131012850/https://www.oklahoman.com/story/entertainment/columns/brandy-mcdonnell/2019/01/08/oklahoma-born-writer-n-scott-momaday-to-receive-2019-ken-burns-american-heritage-prize/60479113007/|url-status=live}}

In 2019 Momaday received the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.{{cite web |url=https://www.wcpo.com/entertainment/native-american-author-honored-with-peace-prize |title=Native American author honored with peace prize |work=WCPO |date=July 22, 2019 |first=Dan |last=Sewell |agency=Associated Press |access-date=July 22, 2019 |archive-date=January 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129200029/https://www.wcpo.com/entertainment/native-american-author-honored-with-peace-prize |url-status=live}}

Momaday appeared in the 2023 Ken Burns documentary The American Buffalo.{{cite web|title=About the Filmmakers |url=https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-american-buffalo/about-the-filmmakers |website=PBS |access-date=October 24, 2023 |archive-date=January 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129195911/https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-american-buffalo/about-the-filmmakers |url-status=live}}

Later activities

In 2007, Momaday returned to live in Oklahoma for the first time since his childhood. Though initially he moved back to Oklahoma for his wife's cancer treatment, Momaday's relocation coincided with the state's centennial, and Governor Brad Henry appointed him as the 16th Oklahoma Poet Laureate, succeeding Nimrod International Journal editor Francine Leffler Ringold. Momaday held the position for two years.{{cite book|last1=Holliday|first1=Shawn|title=The Oklahoma Poets Laureate|date=2015|publisher=Mongrel Empire Press|location=Norman, OK|isbn=978-0-9903204-3-2|page=251|edition=1st}}

Momaday was the founder of the Rainy Mountain Foundation[http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organizations/santa_fe_nm_87505.asp "Santa Fe NM 87505 - Tax Exempt Organizations."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111124115604/http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organizations/santa_fe_nm_87505.asp |date=November 24, 2011}} Tax Exempt World. (retrieved December 14, 2009) and Buffalo Trust, a nonprofit organization working to preserve Native American cultures.Staff, January 2009, "N. Scott Momaday", Smithsonian Q&A, Vol. 39, Issue 10, 25 pgs., Retrieved April 25, 2009 Momaday, a known watercolor painter, designed and illustrated the book, In the Bear's House.{{Cite web|url=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/momaday-giant-of-native-american-and-world-literature-dies-at-89/article_5b503621-ba8b-55e5-9364-238ed61756ca.html|title=Momaday, giant of Native American and world literature, dies at 89|first=Phaedra|last=Haywood|date=January 29, 2024|website=Santa Fe New Mexican|access-date=January 31, 2024|archive-date=January 30, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240130112054/https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/momaday-giant-of-native-american-and-world-literature-dies-at-89/article_5b503621-ba8b-55e5-9364-238ed61756ca.html|url-status=live}}

Death

He died on January 24, 2024, at the age of 89 at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.{{cite news |title=N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer Prize winner and giant of Native American literature, dead at 89 |url=https://apnews.com/article/native-writer-scott-momaday-dead-1b6690dfa0bb11eda12f3c219cee77e8 |access-date=January 29, 2024 |publisher=Associated Press News |date=January 29, 2024 |archive-date=January 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129163401/https://apnews.com/article/native-writer-scott-momaday-dead-1b6690dfa0bb11eda12f3c219cee77e8 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.oklahoman.com/picture-gallery/news/2024/01/29/scott-momaday-dies-oklahoma-author-pulitzer-winner-photos/72399953007/|title=Oklahoma author and Pulitzer winner N. Scott Momaday dies. See his life in photos|website=The Oklahoman|access-date=January 30, 2024|archive-date=January 31, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131055521/https://www.oklahoman.com/picture-gallery/news/2024/01/29/scott-momaday-dies-oklahoma-author-pulitzer-winner-photos/72399953007/|url-status=live}}

Selected bibliography

= Nonfiction =

Source:{{cite book |last=Macdonald|first=Gina|author-link= |date= December 1, 2016|title= Critical Survey of American Literature|url= |location= Ipswich, MA|publisher=Salem Press|page= 2078|isbn=}}

The Journey of Tai-me (1967), folklore & memoir, {{ISBN|9780826348210}}, {{OL|23935855M}} revised and published as The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969) (illustrated by his father, Alfred Momaday), folklore & memoir; {{ISBN|9780826304360}}
The Names: A Memoir (1976), memoir

= Long Fiction =

Source:

House Made of Dawn (1968), novel
The Ancient Child (1989), novel

= Poetry =

Source:

Angle of Geese (1974), poetry chapbook
The Gourd Dancer (1976), poetry
Again the Far Morning: New and Selected Poems (2011), poetry{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}
The Death of Sitting Bear (2020), poetry{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}
Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land (2020), poetry{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}
[https://books.google.com/books?id=YUU7EAAAQBAJ Dream Drawings: Configurations of a Timeless Kind] (2022), poetry, {{ISBN|9780063218123}}, {{OL|35857827M}}

= Drama =

Source:

The Indolent Boys (Play) Premiered on the Syracuse Stage during the 1993–94 season.{{Cite web |url=http://www.syracusestage.org/ |title=Syracuse Stage 1993–94 |access-date=January 8, 2008 |archive-date=September 28, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928093724/http://www.syracusestage.org/ |url-status=live}}
Three Plays: The Indolent Boys, Children of the Sun, and The Moon in Two Windows (2007), plays

= Children's literature =

Source:

Circle of Wonder: A Native American Christmas Story (1994), children's book
Four Arrows & Magpie: A Kiowa Story (2006), children's book

= Miscellaneous =

Source:

In the Presence of the Sun (1992), stories and poetry
The Native Americans: Indian County (1993)
The Man Made of Words: Essays, Stories, Passages (1997), stories and essays
In the Bear's House (1999), mixed media

Notes

External links

[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/n-scott-momaday-words-from-a-bearabout-the-film/12052/ N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear, 2019 PBS documentary]
[http://westernamericanliterature.com/n-scott-momaday/ Western American Literature Journal: N. Scott Momaday]
[http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/momaday/momaday.htm N. Scott Momaday from the Modern American Poetry site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116054230/http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/momaday/momaday.htm |date=January 16, 2009}}
[http://www.buffalotrust.org/ The Buffalo Trust – Momaday's non-profit charitable foundation]
[http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap10/momaday.html Perspectives in American Literature – Momaday Bibliography]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070207015925/http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/momaday/interview.htm Interview with Momaday] at modernamericanpoetry.org
[http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070713_1_A11_hNSco46701 Article about Momaday's selection as Poet Laureate of Oklahoma] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008115251/http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070713_1_A11_hNSco46701 |date=October 8, 2012}}
[https://archive.today/20121214142032/http://digital.boisestate.edu/u?/western,44 "N. Scott Momaday"] by Martha Scott Trimble in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303172645/http://library.boisestate.edu/westernwriters/ Western Writers Series Digital Editions]
[http://www.voicesofoklahoma.com/interview/momaday-n-scott/ Voices of Oklahoma interview with N. Scott Momaday.] First person interview conducted on December 21, 2010, with N. Scott Momaday.
[http://cdm16028.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/95115/rec/1 Native paths: American Indian art from the collection of Charles and Valerie Diker], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains an essay by N. Scott Momaday (see table of contents)
N. Scott Momaday Papers .Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.