N. Scott Momaday Explained

N. Scott Momaday
Occupation:Writer
Nationality:, American
Birth Name:Novarro Scotte Mammedaty[1]
Birth Date:27 February 1934
Birth Place:Lawton, Oklahoma, U.S.
Death Place:Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.
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 (né Mammedaty [the ''t'' was a typographical error and should not be cited in derivative sources<ref>The Kiowa cousin of N. Scott Momaday, Kathy M. Dickerson, whom I (CM) met at Cahokia Mounds, Illinois, told me on 20 February 2020 that the T is silent and should not be there: “Momaday is how we say it.” Carl Masthay, St. Louis, 17 Feb. 2024.</ref>]; February 27, 1934 – January 24, 2024) was an 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."[2]

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,[3] and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Background

Navarre Scotte Momaday was born on February 27, 1934, in Lawton, Oklahoma.[4] He was delivered in the Kiowa and Comanche Indian Hospital, registered as having seven-eighths Indian blood.[5] N. Scott Momaday's mother was Mayme 'Natachee' Scott Momaday (1913–1996), who Momaday claimed to be of English, Irish, French, and "some degree of Cherokee" descent,[6] [7] [8] born in Fairview, Kentucky,[9] while his father was Alfred Morris Momaday, who was a full-blooded Kiowa.[10] 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.[11]

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 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.[12] 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..."[13]

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".[14] Momaday's doctoral dissertation was on Tuckerman.[1]

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.[1]

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.[15] [16] His follow-up work The Way to Rainy Mountain blended folklore with memoir.[17]

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."[18] The Gourd Dancer, which was finished while Momaday taught in the USSR, was released in 1976.[19]

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."[20]

Academic career

Momaday was tenured at Stanford University, the University of Arizona, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of California-Santa Barbara.[21] 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.[22] 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. [23]

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. [24]

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.[25]

Awards and recognition

In 1969, Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel House Made of Dawn.[26]

In 1992, Momaday received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.[27]

In 1993, Momaday received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[28] [29] [30] [31]

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.[32]

In 2000, Momaday received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates.[33] [34]

In July 2007, Momaday was honored as the Oklahoma Centennial Poet Laureate[35] Later that year, in November, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush.[36]

Momaday received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Illinois at Chicago on May 9, 2010.[37]

In 2018, Momaday won a Lifetime Achievement Award[38] from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards,[39] 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.[40]

In 2019, Momaday was awarded the Ken Burns American Heritage Prize.[41]

In 2019 Momaday received the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.[42]

Momaday appeared in the 2023 Ken Burns documentary The American Buffalo.[43]

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.[44]

Momaday was the founder of the Rainy Mountain Foundation[45] and Buffalo Trust, a nonprofit organization working to preserve Native American cultures.[46] Momaday, a known watercolor painter, designed and illustrated the book, In the Bear's House.[47]

Death

He died on January 24, 2024, at the age of 89 at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[48] [49]

Selected bibliography

Nonfiction[50]
Long Fiction[50]
Poetry[50]
Drama[50]
Children's literature[50]
Miscellaneous[50]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Macdonald, Gina. December 1, 2016. Critical Survey of American Literature. Ipswich, MA. Salem Press. 2069–2079.
  2. 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/
  3. Web site: CalArts honorary-degree-recipients . January 29, 2024 . January 30, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240130130641/https://calarts.edu/about/institute/history/honorary-degree-recipients . live .
  4. Web site: N. Scott Momaday Biography and Interview. achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement. April 3, 2019. January 29, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240129195913/https://achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/#interview. live.
  5. Web site: N. Scott Momaday Biography - eNotes.com. eNotes. November 18, 2016. November 19, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161119184320/https://www.enotes.com/topics/n-scott-momaday. live.
  6. Web site: N. Scott Momaday . . August 10, 2023 . January 29, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240129200032/https://voicesofoklahoma.com/interviews/momaday-n-scott/ . live.
  7. Jim Charles, Reading, Learning, Teaching N. Scott Momaday (Peter Lang, 2007), p. 29.
  8. 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.
  9. Nagin . Emily . Irredeemable Stories? Native American Children's Literature and the Radical Potential of Commercial Literary Forms . Studies in American Indian Literatures . Winter 2016 . 28 . 4 . 1–24 . Momaday's mother was born in 1913 in Fairview, Kentucky, and her given name was Mayme Natachee Scott .... 10.5250/studamerindilite.28.4.0001 . 10.5250/studamerindilite.28.4.0001 . 164607101.
  10. News: Momaday, N. Scott - Voices of Oklahoma. Voices of Oklahoma. en-US. November 18, 2016. January 29, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240129195924/https://voicesofoklahoma.com/interviews/momaday-n-scott/. live.
  11. Carl Masthay, St. Louis, 17 Feb. 2024.
  12. Web site: Oklahoma Art: Artists of Oklahoma: The Work & Legacy of Famous OK Poets . John . Erling . January 17, 2023 . Voices of Oklahoma . Oklahoma Historical Society . May 18, 2024.
  13. "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/
  14. Web site: The Complete Poems of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman by N. Scott Momaday on Ken Sanders Rare Books . https://web.archive.org/web/20210918115959/https://www.kensandersbooks.com/pages/books/47072/n-scott-momaday/the-complete-poems-of-frederick-goddard-tuckerman . September 18, 2021 .
  15. Book: Velie . Alan R. (Ed.) . Lee . A. Robert (Ed.) . 2014 . The Native American Renaissance: Literary Imagination and Achievement . Norman, OK . Oklahoma University Press . 3 .
  16. News: N. Scott Momaday remembered for inspiring Native Americans to 'write our own stories' . The Oklahoman . Brandy McDonnell .
  17. https://www.firstnations.org/news/first-nations-remembers-former-board-member-n-scott-momaday/ First Nations Remembers Former Board Member N. Scott Momaday
  18. Finlay. John. N. Scott Momaday's Angle of Geese. The Southern Review. July 1975. 11. 3. 658. .
  19. News: N. Scott Momaday, The Art of Poetry No. 112 . David S. Wallace . 242 . The Paris Review.
  20. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/momaday-n-scott Momaday, N. Scott
  21. Web site: PBS – The West – N. Scott Momaday. pbs.org. November 19, 2016. September 28, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110928055303/http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/producers/momaday.htm. live.
  22. Web site: N. Scott Momaday . Encyclopedia.com . January 29, 2024 . January 29, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240129204819/https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/n-scott-momaday . live .
  23. News: 2024-01-29 . N. Scott Momaday, first Native American to win Pulitzer Prize, dies at 89 . 2024-08-10 . Washington Post . en-US . 0190-8286.
  24. https://poets.org/poet/n-scott-momaday
  25. https://news.unm.edu/news/momaday-to-teach-in-unm-english-department Momaday to teach in UNM English Department
  26. News: N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer-Winning Native American Novelist, Dies at 89. John. Motyka. The New York Times . January 29, 2024. NYTimes.com. January 30, 2024. January 30, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240130073623/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/books/n-scott-momaday-dead.html. live.
  27. http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/awards/lifetime.html List of NWCA Lifetime Achievement Awards
  28. Web site: Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement. www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement. June 17, 2019. December 12, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171212193048/http://www.achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/. live.
  29. Web site: Warren . Ellen . June 14, 2004 . A meeting of the minds, Hollywood A-listers, Nobel Prize winners, Mayor Daley and myriad other geniuses rub elbows at International Achievement Summit . Chicago Tribune . December 4, 2020 . September 5, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210905052554/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chicago-Tribune-June-14-2004.pdf . live.
  30. Web site: 2005 . 2005 Summit Highlights Photo . Academy members: Pulitzer Prize-winning author N. Scott Momaday and Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize recipient. . December 4, 2020 . January 19, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210119062513/https://achievement.org/summit/2005/ . live.
  31. Web site: 2007 . Suzan-Lori Parks Biography Photo . 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. . December 4, 2020 . January 29, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240129200025/https://achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/ . live.
  32. 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
  33. Web site: Website of St. Louis Literary Award . July 25, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160823003924/http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html . August 23, 2016 . dead.
  34. Web site: Recipients of the St. Louis Literary Award . Saint Louis University Library Associates . July 25, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160731082313/http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award . July 31, 2016 . dead.
  35. Van Deventer, M. J. "Bush adding to poet's honors." Daily Oklahoman. November 15, 2007 (retrieved December 14, 2009)
  36. Web site: President Bush Announces 2007 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Recipients . September 5, 2017 . October 25, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171025052603/https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071114-7.html . live.
  37. Web site: Honorary Degrees. University of Illinois Chicago. January 31, 2024. June 5, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210605184305/https://commencement.uic.edu/about/history/honorary-degrees/. live.
  38. Web site: House Made of Dawn . May 18, 2018 . May 19, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180519051528/http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/books/house-made-of-dawn/?sortby=year . live.
  39. Web site: Home . May 18, 2018 . December 12, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191212131455/http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/ . live.
  40. Web site: National Native American Hall of Fame names first twelve historic inductees . Indian Country Today . Newsmaven.io . October 22, 2018 . October 22, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181022184208/https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/national-native-american-hall-of-fame-names-first-twelve-historic-inductees-e-Uu9NZBh0K9TPrv992tyQ/ . live.
  41. Web site: Oklahoma-born writer N. Scott Momaday to receive 2019 Ken Burns American Heritage Prize. Brandy. McDonnell. The Oklahoman. January 30, 2024. January 31, 2024. 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/. live.
  42. Web site: Native American author honored with peace prize . WCPO . July 22, 2019 . Dan . Sewell . Associated Press . July 22, 2019 . January 29, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240129200029/https://www.wcpo.com/entertainment/native-american-author-honored-with-peace-prize . live.
  43. Web site: About the Filmmakers . . October 24, 2023 . January 29, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240129195911/https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-american-buffalo/about-the-filmmakers . live.
  44. Book: Holliday. Shawn. The Oklahoma Poets Laureate. 2015. Mongrel Empire Press. Norman, OK. 978-0-9903204-3-2. 251. 1st.
  45. http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organizations/santa_fe_nm_87505.asp "Santa Fe NM 87505 - Tax Exempt Organizations."
  46. Staff, January 2009, "N. Scott Momaday", Smithsonian Q&A, Vol. 39, Issue 10, 25 pgs., Retrieved April 25, 2009
  47. Web site: Momaday, giant of Native American and world literature, dies at 89. Phaedra. Haywood. January 29, 2024. Santa Fe New Mexican. January 31, 2024. January 30, 2024. 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. live.
  48. News: N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer Prize winner and giant of Native American literature, dead at 89 . January 29, 2024 . Associated Press News . January 29, 2024 . January 29, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240129163401/https://apnews.com/article/native-writer-scott-momaday-dead-1b6690dfa0bb11eda12f3c219cee77e8 . live.
  49. Web site: Oklahoma author and Pulitzer winner N. Scott Momaday dies. See his life in photos. The Oklahoman. January 30, 2024. January 31, 2024. 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/. live.
  50. Book: Macdonald, Gina. December 1, 2016. Critical Survey of American Literature. Ipswich, MA. Salem Press. 2078.
  51. Web site: Syracuse Stage 1993–94 . January 8, 2008 . September 28, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070928093724/http://www.syracusestage.org/ . live.

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