Critics have come to refer to the period after the publication (and Pulitzer-Prize recogniton) of N. Scott Momaday's 1968 novel, House Made of Dawn, as the "American Indian Renaissance." While it is not entirely fair to suggest that Momaday was the sole fountainhead of a new wave of literary production, the attention garnered by his debut novel (when combined with a new wave of Indian political activism) did significantly broaden the readership for Indian writing. (It also encouraged the creation of Native American studies courses at the university level.) Whatever the causes, since the 1960s there has clearly been an explosion of new writing by Indians in a variety of genres, autobiography included. Equally significant, in the wake of the "renaissance," Indian writers have begun to produce innovative autobiographical work that draws heavily on traditional forms of self-narration and indigenous artistic expression. In literary terms, the recent decades have been exciting ones.
While many of the earlier forms of autobiography (forms discussed on previous pages) continue to be produced, there are two emergent strands of autobiography that deserve to be highlighted. The first one, probably quite familiar to readers who frequent the Native American Studies section of large, commercial booksellers, might be refered to as "shamanic" autobiography. Though first published in the 1930s, Black Elk Speaks did not really strike a chord with readers until the 1960s. Then, both Indian activists and members of the anglo counter-culture began to see something powerful in the text's spiritual vision. Reflecting this interest, since the 1960s there have been a substantial number of (typically collaborative) autobiographies of "medecine men." At their worst, most commercial extreme, these texts pander to the vague platitudes of New Age spiritualism. At their best, though, they can offer insights into the complex relationship between traditional religious thought and contemporary politics. The second major new strand of autobiographical writing would include a wide range of literary autobiographies that combine traditional Indian mythologies, oral conventions, and worldviews with the "western" autobiographical form. Momaday really does stand at the root of this tradition, which includes works by a number of the most well-known contemporary Indian writers, such as Leslie Marmon Silko.
Finally, while not a "new" form, it should also be noted that ethnographic autobiography continues to be produced. However, it often does so with a much greater sense of an equal collaboration, one where the way of telling used by the informant is not sacrificed for the sake of "objective," scientific data collection. The ethnopoetic scholarship of Dennis Tedlock and Dell Hymes (who brought a deeper understanding of linguistics and oral performance to the study of Indian literature and culture) has been instrumental in effecting this transformation. Scholars are beginning to understand that the different ways of telling employed by Indian peoples need to be respected and understood.