M. Scott Momaday, in his essay “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” describes his Kiowa grandmother, who “bore an image of deicide.”

N. Scott Momaday, whose portrayal of a disaffected World War II veteran’s journey to spiritual renewal in his novel “House Made of Dawn” won a Pulitzer Prize, the first for a Native American author, heralding a more prominent place in contemporary literature for Native writers, died on Wednesday at his home in Sante Fe, N.M.

Mr. Momaday also wrote critically acclaimed poetry, memoirs and essays.

Mr. Momaday began “House Made of Dawn,” a first novel that won the Pulitzer for fiction in 1969, with a one-word sentence: “Dypaloh.”

Momaday died Wednesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, publisher HarperCollins announced.