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N. Scott Momaday
February 27, 1934- January 24, 2024
Navarre Scotte Momaday was a Kiowa (tribe located in the Great Plains) and American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His work, House Made of Dawn, is considered as the first significant work that would become part of the Native American Renaissance canon. From an early age, the arts had a particular place in Momaday's life, as his father Al Momaday was a painter and mother, Natachee Scott Momaday, was a writer (“N. Scott Momaday”). Momaday's parents were also an deeply involved in their respective native traditions. Al was a member of the Kiowa nation, while Natachee was of English and Cherokee descent- placing Momaday at even-eighths Indian blood (with the remaining one-eighth attributable to pioneer ancestry) per the blood quantum native laws (“N. Scott Momaday Biography”). Both of Momaday's parents taught on Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico when he was growing up, exposing him to the Navajo, Apache, and Pueblo Indian cultures of the Southwest, thus allowing for a unique blend of cross-cultural traditions and influences.
Alongside the notable influences of his parents, their native traditions, and their love of languages, Momaday was also inspired by William Faulkner, whom he met during his time in Virginia, where he attended the University of Virginia for about a year (“Artists of Oklahoma”). After his time in Virginia, Momaday attended the University of New Mexico, where he received a degree in political science. Momaday was then accepted into Stanford University, where he completed his Master's and his Ph.D. in English. Eventually, Momaday was recognized for his contribution to literature as he became the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize when his first novel, House Made of Dawn in 1969 (Ziemba), paving the way for other authors and poets, such as Joy Harjo, to follow in the decades to come.
Momaday passed away in 2024, and in the aftermath of his death, former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo thanked Momaday in her tribute in The Washington Post, “for making a door that wasn’t there in the generations that preceded him. It took bravery, imagination, listening to what isn’t always heard and, most of all, a great love of the word and how it can and will remake us.”
The Man Made of Words
The Momaday excerpt is from A Man Made of Words, which is a collection of essays, stories, and passages that explore themes of land, language, and identity, reflecting on his journey as a Native American writer and what that means for him. Interestingly, the book also is very much a reflection of what his success means as one of the first recognised Native American writers of his time. A Man Made of Words focuses on the relationships humanity has with the world- and much of it is influenced by his Kiowa heritage.
The excerpt centers on a story from Momaday's father, Al, about an arrowmaker and their connection to the natural and spiritual matters. According to Momaday's story, “If an arrow is well made, it will have tooth marks upon it. That is how you know. The Kiowas made fine arrows and straightened them in their teeth. Then they drew them to the bow to see that they were straight” (414). From there, Momaday interjects that the story's point is that the arrowmaker has a link to an ancient chain of language and literature and transcends time and space (414). The imagery of the arrow and the warrior is also very poignant for the story because like an arrow from a bow, it traverses distance, crossing from its point of origin to meet its mark. It is the same concept regarding literature and language as it crosses barriers, both great and small. The arrowmaker in the story can use language to identify friend or foe, which offers a sense of awareness and power that inspired Momaday in his writing and is a part of his journey.
Overall, for Momaday, the fact that language is power is the meaning. “The arrowmaker is pre-eminently the man made of words. He has consummate being in language; it is the world of his origin and of his posterity, and there is no other. But it is a world of definite reality and of infinite possibility” (Momaday 416).
