Conversations with Remarkable Native Americans

1. N. Scott Momaday, poet, novelist, painter,an d UNESCO Artist for Peace

CHAPTER ONE N. Scott Momaday, poet, novelist, painter, and UNESCO Artist for Peace N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa/Cherokee) likes to describe himself as a storyteller. As Charles L. Woodard has noted in Ancestral Voice, N. Scott Momaday’s voice is “naturally , conversationally, the voice of his writings.”1 Conversations with him have a “literate resonance.” Over the years our conversations have occurred in various places: Jemez, the family house, where his mother Natachee spent the last years of her life and where he felt in tune with the most minute nuances of the environment, but also Santa Fe, sometimes with his wife Barbara, and often in Paris, at UNESCO or in the Latin Quarter. This interview is based upon many precious moments shared with him and his family . Over the years N. Scott Momaday has become, for many of his readers, collectors, and publishers, more than a famous writer. A “wordwalker,” as he likes to say, a “word sender” as Black Elk called John Neihardt. But also a patriarch, a fatherly figure, an emissary of Native wisdom.2 In the spirit of hope . . . We are present in our words We are alive in our words We are immortal in our words —Oklahoma City National Memorial, April 19, 2005 Joëlle Rostkowski: You have expressed your creativity in many different fields, mostly literary but also artistic and diplomatic. You have received the Pulitzer Prize for your novel House Made of Dawn, at a very early stage in your career, attracting attention to the literary creativity of Native Americans, paving the way for several generations of Native American novelists and poets. For many years you have been 1 2 CONVERSATIONS WITH REMARKABLE NATIVE AMERICANS a professor of English and American Literature. Simultaneously you have become a painter whose work has been exhibited both in the United States and abroad (recently in Paris). In 2004 you were named Artist for Peace by UNESCO. Looking back at all those distinctions, how do you define yourself? N. Scott Momaday: First and foremost, as a writer. And as an American Indian. My Indian background has been influential in all my endeavors. My identity—for me being Indian has been good—has been the foundation of my work. Already at a very early age I enjoyed playing with words, with the oral and the written language. My identity as a painter came later. My father was an artist and art was present in my life throughout my childhood. But I was already forty years old—I was then visiting the Soviet Union—when, suddenly, everything my father had taught me came to the surface. I always enjoyed teaching. Teaching and writing strengthen each other. Exchanges with the students have kept my mind alive, and I always found dialogue with them very rewarding. I am associated with a number of educational organizations and I am still an active member on several educational boards, in particular the board of the School of Advanced Research. I am also delighted to have been appointed Artist for Peace by UNESCO. I have worked with Indigenous peoples in Siberia, Alaska, as well as in my own Kiowa community. I worked with my wife Barbara, a lawyer, who was very N. Scott Momaday in Paris (Photo by Nicolas Rostkowski) N. SCOTT MOMADAY 3 supportive of my activities on the international scene, on a UNESCO project dealing with the transmission of knowledge at Rainy Mountain, the recording of oral tradition for the young generation. Being involved with activities concerning Indigenous peoples over the world has allowed me to share my knowledge and to broaden my perspective. JR: Looking back at what you have achieved, do you feel that you have gone beyond your childhood dreams? NSM: I feel I have exceeded my dreams. I wanted—first and foremost—to be a writer. It’s a great satisfaction to have done it and to have achieved some recognition. I was the only child of educator parents. Looking back at my family, I remember my mother writing and my father painting. During my childhood I didn’t keep my dreams secret. I shared them with my mother, who was very close to me and encouraged me. Actually both my parents trusted me and gave me great confidence. This is why nobody could ever make me feel inferior. Beyond family influence, some teachers have been influential in my life, but not...