a ceremony lasting anywhere from four to eight days in summer time, was one of the most spectacular Plains Indian religious rituals. Originally a Lakota rite, it is today considered a sacred ritual by many tribes. The dance, which is performed at the time of the Summer Solstice, involves young men, or ―warriors,‖ piercing themselves with hooks attached by ropes to a larger tree or pole. The dancers circle the pole, staring into the sun, until the hooks break through their flesh. Ultimately, the Sun Dance is intended to insure the harmonious continuance of the natural world, in which death and life are gracefully entwined (woven).



The setting out, which consists of early Kiowa legends and anthropological studies on the Kiowa people. The going on, the second part, continues with the theme of Kiowa mythology, and discusses the origins of Tai-me and the Sun Dance Ritual. The closing in, the last section, describes the end of the Kiowa golden age and has a lot to do with the death of the Kiowa culture.

The Kiowa lived a typical Plains Indian lifestyle. Mostly nomadic, they survived on buffalo meat and gathered vegetables, living in teepees, and depended on their horses for hunting and military uses.


Wallace Stegner ―I know nothing quite like this book, and nothing of the Indian that is once so authentic and so moving.‖

I get a kick out of hearing people say this, but Momaday has been referred to as the Shakespeare of Native American letters. And I think that phrase captures something of his significance, in the sense of a baseline excellence – as a writer. He‘s a person with a tremendously imagistic mind, but he loves the voice in what he does.


Name: N. Scott Momaday Birth date: Feb. 27, 1934 Place of birth: Lawton, Oklahoma, U.S. Nationality: American Ethnicity: Native American Occupation: author, school administrator
of prose and poetry)

―The Indian world is full of aesthetic values, art. My father was an artist, a painter, and he taught painting to the children at Jemez Pueblo. They exhibited all over the world. They became famous for their art. He once said to me, ‗You know, Scott, I have never known an Indian child who couldn‘t draw.‘ I believe that. I haven‘t either. That seems intrinsic somehow. That‘s real part of the Indian world, this love of symmetry and composition. It‘s a great thing. That has been important to me as well. Indian people have a strong sense of humor. It‘s not easily understood by other people, but it‘s there and I love that. That‘s been a part of my life too.‖



1650 Black Hills 1807 Arkansas, Red River, Texas, New Mexico 1867 a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma 1901 Kiowa land in Oklahoma was opened for white settlement 1968 Kiowa Tribal Council is formed Today there are more than 12.000 Kiowa, many of whom live in Oklahoma and other areas of the Southwestern United States. The tribe is governed by the Kiowa Indian Council


N. Scott Momaday (winner of Pulitzer) met George W. Bush

Momaday links the survival of his people to their ability to remember, preserve and pass on stories. Taking the idea one step further, Momaday models necessary personal involvement in the stories through the use of imagination. That is, to make sense of and find a place in the contemporary world, one must connect on a personal level with the stories of one‘s past. All families have their Rainy Mountain, the end of the journey, their spiritual ―Home.‖

House Made of Dawn 1968 The Way to Rainy Mountains 1969 Angles of Geese and other poems 1974 The Gourd Dancer 1976 The Names: a Memoir 1976 The Ancient Child 1989 In the Presence of the Sun 1992 (a collection



He was born with an Indian origin. He spent his childhood in several Indian reservations and developed intense interest and passion in the Indian culture and tradition. His career centers around the Indian culture and tradition. His works are informed of the Native Indian traditions.
—— Momaday N. Scott


New York Times ―Written with great dignity, the book has something about it of the timeless, of that long view down which the Kiowa look to their myth-shrouded beginnings.‖

Each chapter is also divided into three parts:
◦ the first consists of the mythological stories of the Kiowas, ◦ the second focuses on the actual history of the Kiowa tribe, ◦ and the third part is the author‘s own observation from when he retraced the long journey to Rainy Mountain his ancestors had taken.