House Made of Dawn Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 1, The Longhair Summary

Chapter 1, The Longhair Summary

July 20

N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, is the story of Abel, an American Indian, who arrives home after the war to find himself trapped between his traditional upbringing and industrial America.

The novel opens as an old man named Francisco drives his team of roan mares along the river in a canyon. He comes to a stop, steps down and examines a trap he had set some time before. A sparrow had been caught in the small snare trap he had fashioned from one of the reeds. Disappointed, he unties it, lets its dead body float downstream, and then resets the trap.

Back on the wagon road to San Ysidro, Francisco thinks back to the time when, as a young man, he had participated in the race for good hunting and harvests. He had beaten Mariano, widely regarded as the best...
(read more)