Native American Literary Revival

Native American Literary Revival
Name	Native American Literary Revival
Period	Mid-20th century–present
Region	North America
Notable figures	N. Scott Momaday; Leslie Marmon Silko; James Welch; Linda Hogan; Louise Erdrich; Sherman Alexie; Joy Harjo; Leslie Marmon Silko; Vine Deloria Jr.; Gerald Vizenor; Zitkala-Ša; Black Elk; Simon Ortiz; Paula Gunn Allen; Terese Marie Mailhot; Elizabeth Cook-Lynn; Leslie Marmon Silko; Paula Gunn Allen

Native American Literary Revival is a post–World War II resurgence of literary production by Indigenous writers across Turtle Island that foregrounds Indigenous languages, histories, cosmologies, and sovereignty claims. Rooted in oral traditions and catalyzed by political movements, the Revival produced influential novels, poetry, memoirs, and essays that reshaped American and Canadian letters and informed debates in literature, law, and cultural studies. Its practitioners engaged with settler colonial legacies, federal policies, and local ceremonies while innovating narrative form and revitalizing tribal literatures.

Historical Context

The Revival emerged amid the aftermath of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the activism of the National Congress of American Indians, the publication of landmark works such as Zitkala-Ša’s early essays, and the political shifts surrounding the Red Power movement and the Occupation of Alcatraz (1969–1971). Veterans returning from World War II and the Korean War encountered federal policies like the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 and later resistance exemplified by the American Indian Movement and the Wounded Knee incident (1973). Legal battles in the Supreme Court of the United States over tribal rights, precedents such as Johnson v. M'Intosh (1823) and later decisions shaped discourses that writers referenced alongside tribal constitutional debates like those in the Navajo Nation and the Cherokee Nation. Cultural institutions such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, tribal colleges like Diné College and Sinte Gleska University, and programs at the University of New Mexico and the University of Arizona provided sites for teaching and publication.

Key Authors and Works

Major figures include N. Scott Momaday (whose House Made of Dawn won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), Leslie Marmon Silko (Ceremony), James Welch (Fools Crow), Louise Erdrich (Love Medicine), Sherman Alexie (The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven), Joy Harjo (She Had Some Horses), Linda Hogan (Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World), Vine Deloria Jr. (Custer Died for Your Sins), Gerald Vizenor (Bearheart), and earlier figures such as Zitkala-Ša (Old Indian Legends). Additional notable authors include Simon Ortiz (From Sand Creek), Paula Gunn Allen (The Sacred Hoop), Leslie Marmon Silko (again for her short stories), Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (The Praise Singer), Anton Treuer (Ojibwe scholarship), Terese Marie Mailhot (Heart Berries), Eugene B. Redmond (Black Arts connection), N. Scott Momaday (poetry), Linda Hogan (environmental prose), Brenda J. Child (historical narratives), Stephen Graham Jones (experimental fiction), Rebecca Roanhorse (Trail of Lightning), Layli Long Soldier (Whereas), Mourning Dove (Cogewea), Diane Glancy, William Goyen (regional contexts), Paula Peters, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (activist historiography), Joy Harjo (US Poet Laureate), Leslie Marmon Silko (mythic narrative). Anthologies and journals such as American Indian Quarterly and Before Columbus Foundation collections amplified many voices.

Themes and Motifs

Writers frequently engage Indigenous histories like the Trail of Tears and ceremonies such as the Sun Dance and the Pueblo kachina rites, while interrogating policies from the Dawes Act to the Indian Child Welfare Act. Motifs include land and place linked to sites like the Black Hills and the Mississippi River, cultural survivance as framed by scholars connected to Gerald Vizenor and critiques responding to Manifest Destiny and literary tropes rooted in works about figures such as Sitting Bull and Chief Joseph. Gender, kinship, and identity dialogues invoke personages and registers connected to Two-Spirit traditions, the legacies of Zitkala-Ša, and narratives of boarding schools exemplified by accounts tied to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Environmental and ecological concerns reference landscapes such as the Yellowstone National Park region and legal disputes like those over the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

Cultural and Political Influences

The Revival intersects with political actors and organizations including the American Indian Movement, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian Institution, tribal governments such as the Navajo Nation Council, and legal cases adjudicated in the Supreme Court of the United States and tribal courts. Influences include intellectuals and activists such as Vine Deloria Jr., Wilma Mankiller, Russell Means, Phillip Deloria (historiography), Gerald Vizenor (literary theory), and scholars from institutions like Harvard University, University of Oklahoma, and University of California, Berkeley. Cultural revitalization efforts parallel language work at centers like the Ojibwe Language Program and publications by presses such as University of Arizona Press and SUNY Press.

Literary Forms and Innovations

Writers revitalized oral forms—song, chant, and storytelling—within novels, poetry, and experimental prose, building on oral practitioners like Black Elk and theatrical collaborations in venues such as the American Indian Theater Company. Narrative innovations include polyvocal novels like House Made of Dawn, hybrid memoirs exemplified by Heart Berries, graphic narratives including collaborations with Indigenous artists at institutions like the First Nations University of Canada, and speculative works such as Trail of Lightning that blend myth with postapocalyptic forms. Small presses and journals including Yellow Medicine Review and American Indian Culture and Research Journal nurtured formal experimentation.

Reception, Criticism, and Influence

Critical debates over authenticity and appropriation involved reviewers at publications like The New York Times Book Review, scholars at Modern Language Association conferences, and juries for awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award. Reception ranged from mainstream recognition for figures such as N. Scott Momaday and Joy Harjo to contested readings of authors like Sherman Alexie amid social controversies and legal cases. The Revival influenced academic fields through courses at the University of New Mexico, Columbia University, and University of British Columbia, shaped museum exhibitions at the National Museum of the American Indian, and inspired contemporary writers such as Rebecca Roanhorse, Stephen Graham Jones, Natalie Diaz, and Tommy Orange to engage with earlier legacies.

Category:Indigenous literature