Momaday's Late Career
Momaday's Later Career
He moved to the University of California at Berkeley to teach as a professor of English and Comparative Literature. He designed a graduate program of Indian Studies and taught a course in American Indian literature and mythology. Momaday left Berkeley in 1973 and became the first professor to teach American Literature at Moscow State University in Russia in 1974. He often guest lectured at other universities including Princeton and Columbia.
For many years, he taught courses on both poetry and oral tradition—often having a Native American storyteller come and speak with students. Momaday ultimately settled in Tucson and taught at the University of Arizona from 1982 to 2005.
In His Father's Footsteps
N. Scott Momaday had an almost twelve-year gap in publishing following the 1976 publication of The Names. During that time Momaday focused on painting throughout the 1970s beginning with his time in Russia. He grew up watching his father paint and eventually started drawing himself before moving to painting and printmaking.
Painting provided a creative outlet for Momaday outside of writing, and the nature of painting allowed him to explore his interests, such as ballgames or music. When he was tired of one, he went to the other. His father often incorporated more color into his paintings than Momaday, whereas Momaday considered black a striking color and reflected on how art may have originated with charcoal.