About
Key figure in the Native American Renaissance who was best known for his novel, House Made of Dawn, which received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969. His other literary works include The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969) and The Gourd Dancer (1976).
Before Fame
He earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in the early 1960s. He published his first work, The Journey of Tai-me, in 1967.
Trivia
He was one of the subjects of the 1996 Ken Burns documentary, The West.
Family Life
The son of Natachee Scott Momaday (a writer) and Al Momaday (an artist), he held membership in the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma. In 1959, he married Gaye Mangold.
Associated With
He received the Medal of Arts from George W. Bush.
