In 1969, N. Scott Momaday became the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize in the area of Letters, Drama, and Music for best Fiction.  As Schubnell relates in N. Scott Momaday: The Cultural and Literary Background,  Momaday initially could not believe that he had won a prize for a work that began as a poem (93).  Schubnell cites one juror who explains his reasoning for selecting House Made of Dawn as being the work's 'eloquence and intensity of feeling, its freshness of vision and subject, [and] its immediacy of theme' (93).  For these reasons and many more, House Made of Dawn hailed the arrival on the American literary scene of a "matured, sophisticated literary artist from the original Americans" (Schubnell, 93).
        There are many elements influencing and incorporated into House Made of Dawn that the reader will better appreciate by gaining an understanding of their history or significance in Native tradition. Louis Owens's suggests in his work Mixedblood Messages that "before discussing any aspect of Native American literature, it is important to know what literature we are talking about" (15).  Thus, before one evaluates or analyzes House Made of Dawn any further, one should attain knowledge of the author and culture.  Also, it will be prudent for the reader to have background knowledge of such elements as stories and running.
           Momaday's life greatly affects aspects of House Made of Dawn.  Navarro Scotte Mammedaty, a mixedblood of Kiowa and Cherokee descent, (as well as European ancestry on his mother's side) was born on February 27, 1934.  Numerous scholars and critics note that from the beginning, Momaday was placed between two cultures, and this position would be a powerful influence throughout his life.  In 1946, his family moved to Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, the place that would later become the setting for House Made of Dawn.  Here, Momaday saw swift changes roll through the tribal village, such as: an exploding population, the infiltration of technology and the culture of Anglo-America, as well as alcoholism and crime.  Momaday also witnessed the return of World War IIs soldiers, and the confusion and despair that accompanied them (Schubnell, 19).  This period of Jemez's history would return years later in Momaday's novel, for Abel, the protagonist, is a veteran of WWII, and he, like the soldiers of Momaday's memories, is confused and desperate.  Abel also turns to alcohol for relief.
        Momaday's experiences would also imprint upon his mind "that only a sense of self which embraced both Indian and non-Anglican realities could lead to a worthwhile future" (Schubnell, 20).  Owens suggest that it is this search for self, and a sense of identity, that lead him to write.  Momaday, himself describes identity in terms of imagination:

             We are what we imagine.  Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves.  Our best destiny is to imagine, at least, completely, who and what, and that we are.  The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined (Owens, 93).

In an interview with Schubnell, Momaday says:

      I believe that I fashion my own life out of words and images, and that's how I get by...Writing, giving statement to my spirit and to my mind, that's a way of surviving, of ordering one's life...thats a way of making life acceptable to oneself (44).

An understanding of Momaday's motives for writing, and his view of identity or self-knowledge, can lend  greater insight into the novel, and possibly the actions of the characters in the novel, which  stem from experiences and ideologies of the author.  Indeed, in House Made of Dawn, Momaday offers imagination as a means to gaining identity.
              There are other elements that one must also take into account before commencing to interpret House Made of Dawn.  One must be aware of cultural information that lends to a greater understanding of the novels themes and messages, such as that of oral tradition, storytelling and stories.  The prologue of House Made of Dawn begins with the word 'Dypaloh'.  Dypaloh is an invocation.  It shifts the novel into the oral tradition, which is a particular kind of discourse, one which is "other to the non-Indian reader" (Owens, 93).  Storytelling was the primary means for communicating histories, legends, and other information among many Native American tribes.  Owens says the responsibility of the traditional Native American story is "to tell us who we are and where we come from, to make us whole and heal us, to integrate us fully within the world in which we live and make that world inhabitable, to compel order and reality" (94).  Dypaloh signals a transformative act (93).  By understanding this one word, the reader is able to discover new meaning in the novel, and perceive it apart from the linear method in which we define and understand literature or stories.  In the oral tradition, stories have a centering power essential in helping us define who we are.  In Man Made of Words, Momaday states that the “central function of storytelling is to reflect the forces, within and without us, that govern our lives, both good and bad” (169).  Stories reflect that within us, even showing us that which we would rather not notice.  In House Made of Dawn, Momaday shows how stories help Abel to see and understand things within and without himself that he otherwise would not and does not  notice.
               Running is another important element utilized in House Made of Dawn that has traditional significance.  In the work Indian Running: Native American History and Tradition, Peter Nabokov chronicles the importance of running in Native American cultures, from the late 1600’s to the present.  Traditionally and historically, runners were messengers, skilled at traversing large territories, on missions to spread news and perhaps issue warnings to other communities.  Nabokov says that runners were “communicators of culture; their units were absorbed into social and religious life.  They were highly regarded as safekeepers of accurate information. Their status was high for they helped keep their worlds intact and in touch” (14).  Runners were highly esteemed, essential to the survival of culture and community.   Owens states that for the people of the Jemez
Pueblo, the native community in which the novel, House Made of Dawn is set, “running can have serious ceremonial
applications” and that each season there are running ceremonies.  Running is an inherent part of ceremony and tradition in Native cultures.  It is deeply embedded within the culture, as gives identity and meaning to native peoples.
            These are but a few examples of the background necessary to fully understand House Made of Dawn.  Yet, even from this brief summary, one can see the necessity in knowing more that just the plot of a work.  It seems the more one knows, about Momaday, the Kiowa, the Navajo, and people of Jemez, among other things, the more one grasps the full meaning of House Made of Dawn.  It is a work full of possibility and revelations.
 

Momaday, N. Scott. House Made of Dawn. Harper & Row: New York, 1968.

                                The Man Made of Words. St. Martin's Press: New York, 1997.

Nabokov, Peter. Indian Running: Native American History and Tradition.  Ancient City Press: Santa Fe, New Mexico,
        1981.

Owens, Louis. Mixedblood Messages: Literature, Film, Family, Place. University of Oklahoma
        Press: Norman, 1998

Owens, Louis.  Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel. University of Oklahoma
        Press: Norman, 1992,1994

Schubnell, Mattias.  N. Scott Momaday, the Cultural and Literary Background.  University of Oklahoma Press: Norman,
        1985