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N. Scott Momaday

N. Scott Momaday Books

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“I prayed. He was going home, and I wanted to pray. Look out for me, I said; look out each day and listen for me. And we were going together on horses to the hills. We were going to ride out in the first light to the hills. We were going to see how it was, and always was, how the sun came up with a little wind and the light ran out upon the land. We were going to get drunk, I said. We were going to be all alone, and we were going to get drunk and sing. We were going to sing about the way it always was. And it was going to be right and beautiful. It was going to be the last time. And he was going home.”

PromiseTragedyNative American Literature
Book:House Made of Dawn
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“Once in his life, a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk.”

MenGivingMindBelieveLooksMadeHandsEarthI BelieveSoundWonderImagineParticularColorWindOughtCreaturesSeasonsLandscapeDawnRememberedImagine ThatAngleNoonDuskGlareDawn And Dusk
Book:The Way to Rainy Mountain
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“The character of the landscape changes from hour to hour, day to day, season to season. Nothing of the earth can be taken for granted; you feel that Creation is going on in your sight. You see things in the high air that you do not see farther down in the lowlands. In the high country all objects bear upon you, and you touch hard upon the earth. From my home I can see the huge, billowing clouds; they draw close upon me and merge with my life.”

FeelsI CanCountryHardCharacterHomeEarthHoursTakenAirCreationObjectsHugeBearsDrawsSeasonsSightCloudsGrantedLandscapeDay To DayTaken For Granted
Author:N. Scott Momaday
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“Coyotes have the gift of seldom being seen; they keep to the edge of vision and beyond, loping in and out of cover on the plains and highlands. And at night, when the whole world belongs to them, they parley at the river with the dogs, their higher, sharper voices full of authority and rebuke. They are an old council of clowns, and they are listened to.”

WorldWholeNightVoiceVisionDogHigherAuthorityRiversEdgesWhole WorldCouncilClownRebukeCoyotes
Author:N. Scott Momaday
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“To encounter the sacred is to be alive at the deepest center of human existence. Sacred places are the truest definitions of the earth; they stand for the earth immediately and forever; they are its flags and shields. If you would know the earth for what it really is, learn it through its sacred places. At Devil’s Tower or Canyon de Chelly or the Cahokia Mounds, you touch the pulse of the living planet; you feel its breath upon you. You become one with a spirit that pervades geologic time and space.”

IfsKnowsFeelsHumansEarthSpiritSpaceExistenceForeverAlivePlanetsDevilBreathsSacredDefinitionsEncountersFlagsTowersTime And SpacePulseShieldsHuman ExistenceTruestCanyonsSacred PlacesGeologic Time
Author:N. Scott Momaday
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“The turn of the century was the lowest point for the devastation of Indian culture by disease and persecution, and it's a wonder to me that they survived it and have not only maintained their identity, but are actually growing stronger in some ways. The situation is still very bad, especially in certain geographical areas, but there are more Indians going to school, more Indians becoming professional people, more Indians assuming full responsibility in our society. We have a long way to go, but we're making great strides.”

PeopleWayLongStillsSchoolCertainTurnsCultureResponsibilitySituationWonderGrowingCenturyIdentityBecomingDiseaseAreasStrongerAssumingIndianOur SocietySurvivedLowestPersecutionLong WayStrideAmerican IndianDevastationIndian CultureLong Way To GoLowest PointGrowing Stronger
Author:N. Scott Momaday
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“Writing engenders in us certain attitudes toward language. It encourages us to take words for granted. Writing has enabled us to store vast quantities of words indefinitely. This is advantageous on the one hand but dangerous on the other. The result is that we have developed a kind of false security where language is concerned, and our sensitivity to language has deteriorated. And we have become in proportion insensitive to silence.”

WritingKindHandsCertainLanguageResultsSilenceAttitudeSecurityDangerousConcernedStoresGrantedProportionQuantitySensitivityInsensitive
Author:N. Scott Momaday
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“In the beginning was the word, and it was spoken.”

BibleScriptureFullnessNew TestamentMessiahHereticHoly BibleTrinityGod ExistsExistence Of GodBible ReadingWalking With GodStill Life With WoodpeckerFaith In JesusCatechismReading The BibleHoly TrinityBread Of LifeLight Of ChristCreator GodKing James BibleChrist ConsciousnessCreation Of The UniverseGospel Of JohnJesus GodCreation StoriesColossiansChristian TeachingJesus BirthMessenger Of God
Book:The Way to Rainy Mountain
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“I am interested in the way that we look at a given landscape and take possession of it in our blood and brain. None of us lives apart from the land entirely; such an isolation is unimaginable. If we are to realize and maintain our humanity, we must come to a moral comprehension of earth and air as it is perceived in the long turn of seasons and of years.”

IfsWayYearsLooksLongEarthHumanityTurnsGivenRealizingBrainMoralAirBloodLandSeasonsPossessionLandscapeIsolationComprehensionUnimaginable
Author:N. Scott Momaday
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“There is a great good in returning to a landscape that has had extraordinary meaning in one's life. It happens that we return to such places in our minds irresistibly. There are certain villages and towns, mountains and plains that, having seen them walked in them lived in them even for a day, we keep forever in the mind's eye. They become indispensable to our well-being; they define us, and we say, I am who I am because I have been there, or there.”

MindWellsHas BeensHappensEyeRememberCertainMemoriesForeverReturnBecomingMountainTravelTownsExtraordinaryWho I AmWell BeingLandscapeNovelistsVillageIndispensableDefiningIrresistibleEssayistsI Am Who I Am
Author:N. Scott Momaday
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