Speaking upon the earth: the thundering voice of N. Scott Momaday

Abstract

It is probably a matter of fate Kiowawriter N. Scott Momaday was born with a voice that would become the deeply sonorous means of carrying his words to the four directions. Identified from six month of age with a bear boy of Kiowa mythology, it is no wonder that he acquired the fullness and depth of Bear’s honeyed roar, as well as the power of a sudden storm breaking upon the Great Plains. It is widely recognized that Momaday’s voice is distinctly an ancient voice that carries tribal knowledge of thousands of years of spiritual experience upon the continents of North America and Asia. As he acknowledges, his blood memory, coupled with his imagination, readily transport him back through time into the Arctic tundra near the Chukchi Sea. These gifts of heritage prepared Momaday to Become a brilliant creative artist who in 1969 was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel House Made of Dawn.