Literary giant and Oklahoma native N. Scott Momaday died Wednesday, Jan. 24 at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, publisher HarperCollins announced.
He was 89.
A member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, Momaday was the first Native American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He earned the prestigious prize in 1969 with his novel “House Made of Dawn,” regarded as a breakthrough work in contemporary Native American literature.
“Throughout his life, N. Scott Momaday stayed closely connected to his Kiowa ancestry and sought to bring a sense of connection and understanding between that world and the world of his white brethren,” said Oklahoma Historical Society Executive Director Trait Thompson in an email to The Oklahoman.
“Using his amazing gift of storytelling, he brought to life the struggles of Native people across the country, made all the more real by his experiences…
