Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author N. Scott Momaday Dies at 89

N. Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and a significant figure in Native American literature, has passed away at the age of 89.
Momaday's debut novel, 'House Made of Dawn,' published in 1968, is widely recognized as the starting point for contemporary Native American literature.
The novel tells the story of a World War II soldier who returns home and struggles to fit back into his Native community in rural New Mexico, a narrative based on Momaday's own experiences growing up in Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico.
Momaday was the first Native American to win the fiction Pulitzer in 1969, and his work has been influential to a generation of authors, including Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, and Louise Erdrich.
Throughout his career, Momaday taught at top-ranking universities, published more than a dozen books, and became a leading advocate for the beauty and vitality of traditional Native life.