1968 marks the publication of N. Scott Momaday's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, House Made of Dawn and as such, it is usually considered to mark the beginning of a steady rise in literary production by Native American writers often termed ''The Native American Renaissance.'' Some scholars hesitate to use the phrase because it might imply that Native writers were not producing significant work before that time or that these writers sprang up without longstanding community and tribal roots. Indeed, if this was a rebirth, what was the original birth? However, the term is useful in pointing out that between the publication of House Made of Dawn in 1968 and Ceremony in 1977, there was an unprecedented increase in the printing of work by Native American writers. There is no question but at this time, the landscape of Native American literature changed. Not only was there increased public interest in writing by Native Americans, but also Native writers felt inspired and encouraged. Suddenly it seemed possible that they could be successful with their writing and still remain true to their unique experience.

One can easily identify a few proximate causes. First of all, the counter-cultural perspective of the youth movement encouraged readers to explore the experiences of minority people and of those marginalized by mainstream American society. Many of these readers sought expressions of community, spirit, ecology, and egalitarianism that they could not find in mainstream society. The civil rights movement had turned many people’s attention to questions of social justice and naturally Native American claims, having always formed a pole in the development of American self, came to the fore. The reissue of Black Elk Speaks in 1961 sparked an interest in Native values and philosophy that culminated with the publications of Carlos Castaneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan: a Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968) and its increasingly fantastic sequels.