Native Authors Earn Recognition

Excellent News - not only did Sherman Alexie win a National Book Award last night in New York City for his young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,
but also N. Scott Momaday is being honored at the White House today. See the following links to read more about both of these amazing Native authors.

2007 National Book Award Winner, Young People's Literature:
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Little, Brown & Company

Thursday, November 15, 2007
Bush adding to poet's honors
By M.J. Van Deventer
http://newsok.com/article/3169308/?print=1
NewsOK.com - Oklahoma City,OK,USA

Oklahoma Centennial Poet Laureate N. Scott Momaday will receive the National Medal of Arts in a ceremony at the White House today. President Bush announced the 10 recipients for 2007 on Monday.

Momaday is the only Oklahoman and the only author to be honored. The recipients will be honored in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House this morning. President and Mrs. Laura Bush will present the awards.

The National Endowment for the Arts manages the National Medal of Arts nomination process and notified the recipients of their selection to receive the medal, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence.

"We are delighted that N. Scott Momaday has received this distinguished honor for his contributions to American literature. His books, poetry and memoirs, which so lyrically celebrate Native American culture, have made a historic contribution to our national letters,” NEA chairman Dana Gioia said.

Established by Congress in 1984, the National Medal of Arts goes to recipients based on their contribution to the creation, growth and support of the arts in the United States.

"Scott is one of those rare individuals who belong to Oklahoma and to the world,” said Betty Price, former executive director of the Oklahoma Arts Council. She will attend the ceremony.

"His generous spirit touches our lives — both Indian and non-Indian. He is among the few honored ones who have been named an Official Oklahoma Cultural Treasure. His compositions allow us to see the world through his eyes and have enriched our national culture,” Price said.

Momaday is the third Oklahoman to receive the honor. Ballerina Maria Tallchief and sculptor Allan Houser were previous recipients.

Momaday is a Pulitzer Prize- wining writer who celebrates American Indian art and oral tradition in his novels and essays. A member of the Kiowa tribe, he also is a poet, painter, playwright, photographer, storyteller and professor of English.

Gov. Brad Henry named Momaday the Oklahoma Centennial State Poet Laureate on July 12 at an Oklahoma History Centerceremony.

Momaday, whose first name is Navarre, was born in Lawton on Feb. 27, 1934. Momaday learned the Navajo, Apache and Pueblo Indian cultures of the Southwest while growing up because both his mother and father taught on Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.

After receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico, Momaday won a poetry fellowship to the creative writing program at Stanford University.

He earned a doctorate in English literature there in 1963, and took a teaching position at the University of California in Santa Barbara.

Of Momaday's books, "The Way To Rainy Mountain," written in 1969, and "The Names,” written in 1976, emphasize the importance of landscape and heritage. His collections of poetry include most recently, "In The Presence Of The Sun,” published in 1992, and "In The Bear's House,” published in 1999. A new collection of poetry is in progress.

Momaday divides his time between Oklahoma City and Santa Fe, N.M., where he is a senior scholar at the School for Advanced Research.

He is the founder and chairman of The Buffalo Trust, a nonprofit foundation for the preservation and restoration of Native American culture, a founding trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington and a founding member of The Stewardship Council of the Autry Center for the American West in Los Angeles.