Plains Humanities Alliance: Great Books of the Great Plains

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Your search returned 64 entries:

Abourezk, James G.
Advice and Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the U.S. Senate
Published: Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books (1989)
This is a political memoir which is as opinionated, irreverent, unpredictable, and interesting as any book about politics and political life in recent history, and it is also a very informative account of South Dakota's complicated cross-cultural dynamics. One term in the U.S. House of Representatives and another in the Senate (1971-79) proved to enough for this son of Lebanese immigrants who grew up on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in western South Dakota. In the system but not of it, Senator Abourezk generally voted as a liberal Democrat, but in essence he was a party of one.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject:
Subject: Politics, History

Amerson, Robert
From the Hidewood: Memoirs of a Dakota Neighborhood
Published: St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press (1996)
This affectionately written reminiscence of life in rural eastern South Dakota in the 1930s and 1940s, clearly a pivotal time in all of America's history, is a revealing personal and family and community history. In twenty-one stories, each entertainingly told from the perspective of a family member or a neighbor, the author intertwines reflections and descriptions very imaginatively, portraying a way of life which is past but also describing formative experiences which are important to an understanding of South Dakota's present.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: Folklife - Community Life, Rural Life

Black Elk, Nicholas, told to John G. Neihardt.
Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000
Nicholas Black Elk told John G. Neihardt the intensely dramatic story of his life and great vision in a series of interviews at Black Elk's home on the Pine Ridge Reservation near Manderson, South Dakota. From Black Elk's narration, Neihardt shaped this world-renowned and classic book of Lakota culture and spirituality and history. This is perhaps the most influential book ever written about a resident of South Dakota. Many fine works have been written during the past decade correcting some errors in the original version of this book (1961) and questioning how much of it reflects Neihardt's vantage point rather than Nicholas Black Elk's observations. Yet, even after these caveats are heeded, this book remains a classic in Plains Indian biography.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: History, Native American, Religion & Spirituality
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Breneman, Mary Worthy
The Land They Possessed
Published: Bismarck, North Dakota: Germans From Russia Heritage Society (1984)
This little-known but excellent novel about pioneer experience in north-central South Dakota was co-authored by a mother and daughter who combined their names to create the book's pen name. Well-received nationally when it was first published in 1956, it faded into obscurity until it was reprinted in 1984 by the descendants of some of the people portrayed in it. Reminiscent of Willa Cather's novels in its dramatization of a strong and interesting female main character and in its picturesque characterization of the prairie landscape, this book is also a very revealing account of the difficulties encountered by American immigrants as they struggled to adjust to the people and the environment of their new land.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Novel
Subject: Historical Fiction, European American, Native America

Brokaw, Tom
Long Way From Home: Growing Up in the American Heartland
Published: New York: Random House (2002)
The author of this memoir, one of America's most famous journalists, has often spoken and written of his South Dakota origins through the years, and in this very engaging memoir, he adds memorable descriptions and stories to those references, in addition to describing his life and career since those formative growing- up years. In describing what he refers to as his "Tom Sawyer boyhood" along South Dakota's stretch of the Missouri River, the author quite eloquently depicts the landscapes and the people still so important to his idea of himself, and in the process speaks both personally and representatively of the whole experience of rural Midwestern childhood.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Rural Life

Carrels, Peter
Uphill Against Water: The Great Dakota Water War
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1999)
This heavily researched and lively narrative of the history of Missouri River water development plans in general and the battle over the Oahe irrigation project in particular offers an unusually insightful study of inside politics. While the author clearly sides with the forces arrayed against the project, he fully illuminates the motives, methods, successes, and failures of both sides in this long and divisive struggle. This is the extraordinary story of how ordinary citizens worked together to frustrate the intentions of the Bureau of Reclamation and the irrigation and business establishment, achieving a singular victory in the history of development in the West.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics, Nature & Environment
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Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth
Aurelia: A Crow
Creek Trilogy
Published: Niwot, Colorado: University Press of Colorado (1999)
This volume, comprised of three novellas, From the River's Edge, Circle of Dancers, and In the Presence of the River Gods, dramatizes the traumatic effects of forced change for tribal people, in this case, the effects upon those who were living along the Missouri River in South Dakota when the construction of hydroelectric dams flooded their ancestral homelands. As historical fictions, these narratives provide important context for understanding present-day problems, but they are also stories very well-told, and heartening dramatizations of the resiliency and persistence of the human spirit.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: Native American, Nature & Environment

Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth
I Remember the Fallen Trees
Published: Cheney, Washington: Eastern Washington University Press (1998)
The poems and prose poems in this strong collection are memorable expressions of Dakota and Lakota history and culture and philosophy, and they are also telling commentaries on the causes and effects of change. Each selection is a meditation on the nature of things, and the voice of this volume is by turns elegiac and ironic, ancestral and contemporary. The author, a nationally and internationally know essayist and fictionist and poet, has much to say about the two histories of South Dakota, and it is all worthy of careful consideration.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Poetry, Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: History, Native American, Folklife - Oral Traditions/Humor

Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth
The Power of Horses and Other Stories
Published: New York: Little, Brown and Company (1990)
This collection of especially informative short stories relates the experiences of Dakota/Lakota people during the 20th century in South Dakota. These stories illustrate the determined struggle of tribal people to maintain cultural integrity in the face of pressures from the federal and state governments and from missionaries and white settlers to force them to abandon their lands, their spiritual practices, and their way of life. These stories are foundational for understanding the past which is also present.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Short Stories
Subject: Native American, European American, History

Costello, David F.
The Prairie World
Published: Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (1969)
South Dakota ecology specialists recommend this book as the best general description of the prairie system. Its very informative text, which includes photographs by its keenly observant author, introduces the reader to all of the prairie landscape's organisms, and to the fascinating and heartening ecological cycles of birth, growth, death, and renewal on that landscape.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: Nature & Environment, Photography

Deloria, Ella Cara
Waterlily
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press Reprint (1988, 1990)
This especially interesting narrative is also a textbook of traditional plains Indian life. The author, a Yankton Dakota woman, was the protégé of famed anthropologist Franz Boaz, and woven throughout this story are fascinating details about the everyday lives and life ways of her traditional Dakota people - their use of and relationship with plants and animals, their customs and ceremonies, their tribal values, their relationships with other people and with each other. This novel is truly an impressive accomplishment: a beautiful dramatization of natural and human history and culture and a tribute to the knowledge and wisdom of its author and her people.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: Native American, Culture, Nature & Environment, Religion & Spirituality
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Deloria, Vine, Jr.
Singing for a Spirit: A Portrait of the Dakota Sioux
Published: Santa Fe: Clear Light Publishers (1999)
Over two centuries of the important family and tribal history of South Dakota's best-known author are contained in this book, as well as a variety of memorable photographs. In introductory chapters, the author creates necessary context for an earlier book written by an Episcopal churchwoman named Sarah Olden, then includes the text of Olden's book, The People of Tipi Sapa, and then concludes with an afterword. Of particular note in this culturally rich text are the descriptions of the lives and times of the author's male ancestors who were religious leaders, from his medicine man great-grandfather to his Episcopal priest grandfather and father.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, Religion & Spirituality, Photography

Driving Hawk Sneve, Virginia
Completing the Circle
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1995)
Using the central image and metaphor of the quilt, the author of this rich text, South Dakota's National Humanities Medallist, describes and celebrates the strong and creative and purposeful tribal women from whom she has descended, and shares tribal history and legendry and her own meaningful coming-of-age stories in the process. Included in this book, which was the winner of the American Indian Prose Award, are several very expressive poems and a variety of excellent illustrations, including family photographs. This is a strongly-voiced and heartening work, a word-weaving which is an important addition to the whole history of the west.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Poetry, Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: Native American, History, Gender, Folklife - Oral Traditions/Humor, Photography
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Driving Hawk Sneve, Virginia
The Trickster and the Troll
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1997)
This wonderfully creative book juxtaposes stories of the adventures of the Lakota trickster Iktomi with those of the Norwegian Troll. The adventures of these characters from the oral/folk traditions emphasize the dramatic importance of such imaginative, mythological characters. The author succeeds admirably in showing the humanity of both cultures as this narrative unfolds. This is a text which promotes intercultural communication and mutual respect, and it is very valuable reading for both children and adults.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Children's Literature
Subject: Native American, European American, Folklife - Oral Traditions/Humor

Dudley, Joseph Iron Eye
Choteau Creek: A Sioux Reminiscence
Published: Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press (1992,1998)
This wonderful, true, emotional story of a boy raised by his grandparents on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in southeastern South Dakota is a memorable portrait of a family, a people, and a place. Described by renowned South Dakota author Vine Deloria, Jr., as "a warm, human story of people who live close to the earth and each other, learning and living the way we are intended to do," this affectionately written memoir is both person and place-specific and representative of loving grandparents and grandchildren in all times and places.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: Native American
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Edeburn, Carl
Sturgis: The Story of the Rally
Published: Brookings, South Dakota: Dimensions Press (2003)
This lively history of The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, an annual South Dakota event which has become world-famous, is punctuated by profiles of a variety of the very interesting characters who have been and are actors in the drama of America's romance of the road. There are also numerous pictures and other illustrations and many historical and popular culture details throughout this engaging and informative book.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Sports & Leisure

Evans, David Allan
The Bull Rider's Advice: New and Selected Poems
Published: Sioux Falls: The Center for Western Studies (2004)
In this latest collection by South Dakota's poet laureate, energetic new poems are added to selections from four earlier books to present experiences ranging from events of the author's Iowa childhood to those of his travels in Southeast Asia to those of his many years of teaching and living in eastern South Dakota. Included in this volume is an autobiographical essay which poetically describes the author's process of becoming a poet and the evolution of his writing through the years, and "A South Dakota Inventory, 1989," a centennial poem which is an especially memorable multi-sensory naming of South Dakota people, places, and things.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Poetry, Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: Culture

Fite, Gilbert C.
Mount Rushmore
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press (1984)
First published in 1952, this history of the creation of America's "Shrine of Democracy" by the strong-willed and controversial sculptor Gutzon Borglum is a carefully researched and very informative text. Complete with maps, photographs, and a chronology of events, and frank discussions of the various political and other conflicts which were part of the project, this book is clear and concise and very interesting reading.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, European American, Native American, Politics, Art

Garland, Hamlin
A Son of the Middle Border
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1979)
Garland, the son of homesteaders who briefly homesteaded himself, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1922, primarily because of this autobiographical book which covers his years in Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota. At once an intensely personal account of family relationship and conflict and a panorama of American frontier life, this is a more sophisticated and literary work than many books about pioneering, but it is eminently readable.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Rural Life, European American

Gasque, Thomas J., Ed.
Silver Anniversary Anthology
Published: Brookings, South Dakota: South Dakota Humanities Council(1997)
This text, assembled to celebrate the 25-year history of the South Dakota Humanities Council, explores a wide variety of interesting subjects, but its main emphasis is on South Dakota history and cultures. In poetry as well as prose, a number of the contributors thoughtfully examine the state's traditions and values. This collection of very accessible writings by some of the state's leading authors and scholars is an especially good demonstration of the important cross-cultural work done by the South Dakota Humanities Council through the years.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays, Fiction and Literature - Poetry
Subject: History, Native American, European American

Gilfillan, Archer B.
SHEEP: Life on a South Dakota Range
Published: St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society (1993)
Gilfillan, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with honors in 1910, homesteaded in Harding County in the northwest part of the state and then was a sheepherder there for 16 years. His highly polished style could be described as a combination of Thoreau, Twain, Mencken and Aldo Leopold. He is keenly observant of landscapes and animals of the prairie, witty, at times acerbic, and always entertaining. His vocation allows him time for his great passion, reading, and he writes on a variety of subjects. This book is unique in its comfortable mix of excellent observations of the prairie environment, along with philosophical, sociological, and historical commentary.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: History, Rural Life, Nature & Environment

Gonzalez, Mario, and Elizabeth Cook-Lynn.
The Politics of Hallowed Ground: Wounded Knee and the Struggle for Indian Sovereignty
Published: Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press (1999)
This scholarly but very accessible volume focuses upon what is arguably the most painful chapter in South Dakota history, the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, to provide telling and very informative commentary on the history of the struggles for justice for tribal people in the state. Interwoven with the diary entries of Lakota lawyer Mario Gonzalez are commentaries by noted Dakota writer and American Indian studies authority Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, and the result is a important corrective to the one-sided histories which have perpetuated misunderstandings between peoples in the state.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, Politics

Goodman, Ronald
Lakota Star Knowledge: Studies in Lakota Stellar Theology
Published: Rosebud, South Dakota: Sinte Gleska College (1990)
Written in collaboration with Lakota academicians and tribal historians and after years of study and discussion with tribal elders, this monograph is an especially good example of the crucially important role tribal colleges are playing in cultural reclamation and preservation. It is an extensively illustrated compendium of tribal knowledge, a highly useful and usable sourcebook, and a dramatic demonstration of the knowledge and wisdom which is the result of many generations of tribal experience and reflection on this landscape.

Genre: Nonfiction - Reference
Subject: Native American, Culture, Religion & Spirituality

Grafe, Ernest, and Paul Horsted.
Exploring With Custer: The 1874 Black Hills Expedition
Published: Custer, South Dakota: Golden Valley Press (2002)
Wrong-headed and illegal as Custer's famous foray into the sacred hills of the Lakota people was, this is a fascinating examination of that experience and the landscape which Custer and his party traversed, much of which remains unchanged. Comparing the Expedition's excellent glass-plate photographs to what the authors refer to as "re-photography," and using detailed maps alongside the day-by-day journal entries of the Expedition's officers and enlisted men and newspaper correspondents, the authors of this book have provided a concise guide to following the Expedition's route.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, Photography, Nature & Environment, Military

Gries, John Paul
Roadside Geology of South Dakota
Published: Missoula: Mountain Press Publishing Company (1996)
Written for the layperson, this volume describes and explains South Dakota's great geologic diversity. There are helpful photographs, maps, and diagrams throughout, as well as descriptions of tours of the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore National Monument, Badlands National Park, Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, and other points of interest.

Genre: Nonfiction - Reference
Subject: Nature & Environment, Travel

Griffith, T. D.
South Dakota (2nd Edition)
Published: Oakland, California: Compass American Guides (1998)
This book, part of the Compass American Guides series, provides an excellent introduction to South Dakota's people and places and cultures. There are maps and illustrations throughout, including some exceptionally good color photographs, and the text is anecdotal and witty, and rich in some very interesting historical and popular culture details.

Genre: Nonfiction - Reference
Subject: History, Culture, Native American, European American, Photography

Grobsmith, Elizabeth S.
Lakota of the Rosebud: A Contemporary Ethnography
Published: Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. (1981)
This very well-written book, part of a series entitled "Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology," is an especially informative explanation of life on one of South Dakota's largest Indian reservations, and to a considerable extent it is an explanation of contemporary reservation life in general. It is a comparatively brief text, but it is rich in its explanations of fundamental things, and in its challenging of stereotypical assumptions about American Indians past and present. For anyone seeking to understand more about the complexity and diversity of contemporary American Indian reservation communities, this book is highly recommended.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: Native American, Politics

Hasselstrom, Linda
Between Grass and Sky: Where I Live and Work
Published: Reno: University of Nevada Press
This book of essays by South Dakota's best-known and most accomplished nature writer demonstrates her deepening understanding of her ongoing relationship with her native western South Dakota landscape. A vivid portrait of ranch life understood in its larger context of the natural world, this book is also about a variety of related subjects, such as poetry, women ranchers, natural history, and the places people call home. This conversational and evocative text is a pleasing combination of the light-hearted and the serious, and powerfully philosophical.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography, Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: Rural Life, Nature & Environment, Gender

Hasselstrom, Linda
Dakota Bones: Collected Poems of Linda Hasselstrom
Published: Granite Falls, Minnesota: Soon River Poetry Press (1993)
This place-driven collection of two previously published books of poetry plus thirty new poems vividly expresses the poet's ranching experiences, her complicated, sometimes difficult, often heartening personal relationships, and the western South Dakota landscape

Genre: Nonfiction - Poetry
Subject: History, Native American, Nature & Environment, Gender

Manfred, Frederick
Lord Grizzly
Published: New York: NALS, 1994
First published in 1954 and reprinted many times since then, this novel is one of the classic works of historical fiction about the American West. Based on the true story of the legendary mountain man and explorer Hugh Glass, whose epic experience began with a terrible encounter with a grizzly bear near what is now Lemmon, South Dakota, this book is a powerfully accurate depiction of the frontier landscape and an intensely engaging adventure narrative, and it is also visionary in its highly emotional explorations of the truths of the human spirit.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: History

Manfred, Frederick
The Golden Bowl
Published: Brookings, South Dakota: South Dakota Humanities Foundation Golden Anniversary Edition (1992)
The first novel of an author who went on to have a long and distinguished career as the chronicler of the region he referred to affectionately as "Siouxland," this compelling narrative is the story of hardy people whose courage and dreams of a green future enable them to survive Dust Bowl South Dakota of the 1930s. First published in 1944, this is historical fiction at its best, strongly placed, and strongly voiced, a skillful presentation of dramatically interesting local lives within the larger context of dramatic historical events.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: History

Marshall, Joseph M., III.
The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living
Published: New York: Penguin Putnam Inc. (2001)
In this compact little volume, the author, a gifted storyteller from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota, explains and illustrates the twelve core values of his Lakota belief system: bravery, fortitude, generosity, wisdom, respect, honor, perseverance, love, humility, sacrifice, truth, and compassion. An especially good example of writing which is of a culture but for all people, this is an inspirational guidebook for living appropriately.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: Native American, Culture, Religion & Spirituality

McGinnis, Mark W.
Elders of the Faiths: Interviews and Portraits
Published: Sioux Falls: Ex Machina Publishing Company (1996)
This especially creative and informative text combines expressive paintings of fifteen South Dakota elders with transcriptions of interviews of them. The compiler of this volume, a well-known South Dakota artist, has asked his subjects about the influences of their religious traditions in their lives, their values, their joys and sorrows, their hopes for the future, and their messages for young people. The answers, coming from the state's rich variety of religious traditions - Christianity, including the Hutterites and Mennonites, Native Spirituality, Judaism, and Unitarianism - demonstrate beautifully both the shared values and the informative uniqueness of these impressive South Dakota elders.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: Native American, Religion & Spirituality, Art

McGovern, George S.
Grassroots: The Autobiography of George McGovern
Published: New York: Random House (1977)
This thought-provoking and stimulating political memoir by South Dakota's most famous politician was written during Senator McGovern's last term in the U.S. Senate. Carrying the story from his roots in small-town Avon and in Mitchell to his elections to Congress and the U.S. Senate and his presidential campaign in 1972, the former Dakota Wesleyan University history professor provides revealing insights into his beliefs and actions and into the political culture of the state and the nation during his long and distinguished career.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Politics

Meyers, Kent
Light in the Crossing
Published: New York: St. Martin's Press (2000)
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, this collection of stories set in rural and small-town South Dakota demonstrates the narrative gifts of one of South Dakota's best storytellers. In various ways reminiscent of the fictions of Cather and Sherwood Anderson, these twelve stories are imaginatively plotted, lyrically expressed, and thematically thought-provoking.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Short Stories
Subject: Rural Life

Micheaux, Oscar
The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1994)
This novel, first published in 1913, is based on the first 25 years of the author's life, with particular emphasis on the unusual circumstance of his being an African-American homesteader in southwestern South Dakota in the early 20th century. The author, who went on to become a filmmaker and is better known today as the founding father of the African-American movie industry, includes in this interesting and informative narrative very clear and concrete descriptions of the landscapes and the emotional environment of that homesteading experience. His work has become better known in recent years, and there is now an annual summer conference and film festival focused on that work in Gregory, near the site of the author's original homestead.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: History, African American
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Miller, John E.
Looking for History on Highway 14
Published: Pierre, South Dakota: South Dakota State Historical Society Press (1993, 2001)
This historical-journalistic travelogue focuses upon fifteen towns along Federal Highway 14 in South Dakota, plus Mount Rushmore, to meditate upon the meaning of small town life and history. Among the topics which are developed in this highly informative local color book are: the energy of small-town Saturday nights, changing concepts of community, the impact of the railroad, the booster spirit of rural communities, and the origins and effects of the writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the painting of Harvey Dunn.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: History, European American, Rural Life, Travel, Art, Culture

Milton, John R.
South Dakota: A Bicentennial History
Published: New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Written as part of the bicentennial "States and the Nation" series, this excellent book is both factual and philosophical. The author's academic background in literature and American Indian history and culture is evident throughout the text, as are his creative writing credentials, and South Dakota literature and history are creatively juxtaposed here, to excellent effect. Also of note in this very substantive book are its "photographer's essay," and extensive and very revealing concluding commentaries by two well-known South Dakotans, Tom Brokaw and Kathleen Norris.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, European American

Norris, Kathleen
Dakota: A Spiritual Geography
Published: New York: Ticknor and Fields (1993)
Kathleen Norris returned to her family home in Lemmon in the dry ranch country of northwest South Dakota after spending years living a big-city, academic life. With the insight that distance can provide, she reacquaints herself with her small community and discovers the wisdom of the relationships that hold such a community together. With an eye both affectionate and critical, she also discovers the weaknesses within such communities, and the forces from outside that endanger them. Internationally recognized, this book is a poetic evocation of people and place.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: Rural Life, Culture

O'Brien, Dan
Buffalo for the Broken Heart
Published: New York: Random House (2002)
Like many ranchers trying to raise cattle in South Dakota, Dan O'Brien found himself barely breaking even. Partly by accident, partly by plan, he turned to raising bison and discovered that his entire ranching operation, including the land itself, became healthier. O'Brien reveals the harm that comes to a place when humans force it to support species not native to it, and the healing that occurs when native species are re-introduced. In the process, he also suggests how human beings might once again learn to live locally, and how such living can heal both the locality and the human community it supports.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: Nature & Environment, Rural Life

Red Shirt, Delphine
Bead on an Anthill: A Lakota Childhood
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1998)
This book about growing up in Nebraska and on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the 1960s and during the especially difficult 1970s is, despite and also because of the difficulties it describes, a celebration of things: culture, tradition, relationship, and especially the enduring human spirit. It is a careful and conscientious presentation of two dramatically different cultures, and while it is honest it is not judgmental, and its author is obviously very open to possibility. It is also a poetically detailed, engaging text, full of lively, interesting, and memorable stories.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: Native American, European American, Culture
Purchase online from publisher.

Rolvaag, O.E.
Giants in the Earth
Published: New York: Harper Collins (1927, 1991)
This famous novel, first published in Norwegian, eloquently conveys the experiences and worldview of the early Norwegian immigrants. Far ahead of its time in its understanding of the psychology of people living in isolation, it is a fascinating dramatization of living on the land in winter separate from familial, cultural, and spiritual roots, and it is also stark evidence of the Europeans' difficult and sometimes tragic struggle to survive on the northern plains at the turn of the twentieth century.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: History, European American, Rural Life

Rosa, Joseph
Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and His Myth
Published: Lawrence: University Press of Kansas (1996)
The author of this book is the most authoritative of the numerous Wild Bill biographers, and the most informative. Drawing upon many years of extensive research and writing, he offers with this text a highly readable and entertaining account of the famous gunfighter and his turbulent times. Complete with imaginative illustrations, this text vividly depicts the colorful Black Hills environment, solves some old mysteries, adds some new stories, and persuasively distinguishes between the myths and the realities of the old West and some of its most famous figures.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History

Sansom Flood, Renee
Lost Bird of Wounded Knee - Spirit of the Lakota
Published: New York: DA CAPO Press (1995)
This is the remarkable story of the child who miraculously survived the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1890 and then was adopted into white society and lost to herself and to her culture for many years. Praised as "scholarly" by Vine Deloria, Jr., this is at once the intensely dramatic story of one lost child and a microcosm of the story of children everywhere who are the emotional casualties of war or lost between warring cultures. It is also the story of the enduring spirit of tribal people and a vision of possibilities for better relationships between all peoples.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: Native American, Military

Schell, Herbert S.
History of South Dakota (Third Edition, Revised)
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1975)
For many years the definitive history of South Dakota, this conscientiously-written text is still a compendium of helpful information about the state's economic, political, and social development through the years. Supplemented by drawings, photographs, maps, charts, a thorough chapter by chapter "Supplementary Reading" section and an excellent index, and written in a clear and direct prose style, this book is both useful to a general readership and impressively scholarly.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History

Smith, Rex Alan
Moon of Popping Trees
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1981)
The conscientiously detailed accounts of events leading up to the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota and of the events which followed it make this one of the most authoritative texts about that especially painful period in South Dakota's history. Often described as the event which marked the end of the so-called "Indian Wars," the massacre at Wounded Knee has become the emblem of the tragedy of American Indian displacement across this continent, and this author creates a strong context for understanding the extent of the loss and what should be learned from it.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, European American, Military
Purchase online from publisher.

South Dakota Magazine
South Dakota's Best Stories
Published: Yankton, South Dakota: Middle Border Books (2004)
Selected by the editors of South Dakota Magazine from the first 20 years of that very popular publication, the stories in this volume are strongly-voiced expressions of South Dakota's history and cultures and contemporary life. Complete with pictures and several poems, this artfully-formatted book is thematically sequenced for selective or comprehensive reading, and its brief section introductions are extremely well-written and helpful. Humor is the main tone of this text, but also included are thought-provoking stories of adversity, and these stories are especially informative.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Short Stories
Subject: Fiction, Culture, Folklife - Oral Traditions/Humor

St. Pierre, Mark, and Tilda Long Soldier.
Walking in the Sacred Manner: Healers, Dreamers, and Pipe Carriers - Medicine Women of the Plains Indians
Published: New York: Simon and Schuster (1995)
The powerful spiritual traditions of the Lakota, Cheyenne, Crow, Assiniboine and other plains Indians are clearly described and explained in this book, which also dramatizes, in contrast to stereotypical assumptions, the power and importance of traditional tribal women. The authors have added very helpful commentary to the rich storytelling voices of the medicine women and the families of women healers who granted them the interviews which are the foundations of this very readable text, and the result is impressively authentic.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: Native American, Religion & Spirituality, Gender

Standing Bear
My People the Sioux
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1975)
First published in 1928, this is among the earliest books by an Indian about Indians. Standing Bear was born in the 1860s, was in the first class at Carlisle Indian School, was at Pine Ridge during the Ghost Dance Movement, toured Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and was active in the Indian rights movement of the 1920s and 1930s. This is the expressively written story of cultural pride and of survival in two dramatically different worlds.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Native American, European American
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Standing Bear, Luther
Land of the Spotted Eagle
Published: Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press (1978)
One of the most knowledgeable and articulate of the early 20th Century tribal spokespersons, the author of this text made many invaluable contributions to cross-cultural understanding. In this his third book, first published in 1933, he describes the ways and wisdoms of his traditional Lakota culture, and makes telling observations about the consequences of change. While the general tone of the book is nostalgic, the author's explanations of tribal philosophies of child-rearing, social and political systems, the family, and spirituality still seem very relevant to contemporary life.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, Culture, Religion & Spirituality
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Starita, Joe
The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge: A Lakota Odyssey
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (2002)
This book is highly informative history written in novelistic style by an award-winning journalist. It is the story of four generations of Lakota warriors, beginning with one of the most famous plains warriors of all time, and it is also an engaging dramatization of one hundred years of Lakota history. In combining oral history interviews of family members and the results of conscientious research, the author has created a text which is a valuable contribution to an understanding of plains tribal cultures and traditions which have ongoing life in present-day South Dakota.

Genre: Nonfiction - Oral History
Subject: History, Culture, Native American, European American
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Swann, Madonna, as told through Mark St. Pierre.
Madonna Swann: A Lakota Woman's Story
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press (1994)
A striking example of how informative and inspiring an ordinary life can be, this is the story of a woman who overcame life-threatening tuberculosis to marry, have a family, go to college, and become a teacher. A model of the ongoing strength of the tribal oral tradition, this clear-voiced narrative is resonate with the determination and resilience and courage of the Lakota woman whose life on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in northwest South Dakota has touched many other lives in the telling of her story.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Native American, Gender

Tallman, Dan A., David L. Swanson, and Jeffrey S. Palmer.
Birds of South Dakota (Third Edition)
Published: Aberdeen, South Dakota: Midstates/Quality Quick Print (2002)
This rich reference text, a project of the South Dakota Ornithologist's Union, is the result of many years of conscientious observation and information-gathering by bird-lovers throughout the state. It begins with very helpful context-creating sections on South Dakota weather and geography and bird history, followed by panoramic color photographs of bird habitats, followed by comprehensive explanations of each of the state's bird species, including habitat and nesting and migration information. There is also a distribution map for and a color photograph of each bird.

Genre: Nonfiction - Reference
Subject: Nature & Environment, Hobbies

Taylor, Kathleen
Funeral Food
Published: New York: Avon Books (1998)
The prequel for the Delphi Series, a series of mystery novels set in contemporary northeastern South Dakota, this text introduces the series heroine, a waitress in a small town café whose wit and wisdom carries forward the plot in very entertaining and exciting ways. This book and the others in the series are for mystery lovers everywhere, but these books are also richly detailed and evocative of small town life and life on the farm in South Dakota. The dominant tone is humor, but high drama is also part of the mix.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Mystery and Crime
Subject: Rural Life

Wagner, Sally Roesch, Ed.
Daughters of Dakota: Stories of Friendship Between Settlers and the Dakota Indians
Published: Yankton, South Dakota: GFWC of SD/DOD (1990)
This text, one of six in a very good series, contains a number of heartening and sometimes amusing stories, with a particular emphasis on the lives and times of pioneer women. The author, with the assistance of her good friend Vic Runnels, a well-known Lakota artist and cultural resource person, has collected and skillfully arranged strongly-voiced narratives which are vivid and informative dramatizations of the histories and traditions of diverse cultures, in addition to being emblems of possibility for relationships between people in South Dakota.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, European American

Whirlwind Soldier, Lydia
Memory Songs
Published: Sioux Falls: The Center for Western Studies (1999)
The rich oral traditions of the Lakota people are everywhere evident in these musical and beautifully evocative poems about tribal history and culture and persevering through more difficult recent and contemporary experiences. Illustrated by Lakota artist Keli Shangreaux, this book both dramatizes the spiritual journey of a people and, with its important themes of family and earth relationship and the primacy of song, speaks to all readers on the level of shared human experience.

Genre: Nonfiction - Poetry
Subject: Native American, Folklife - Music, History, Culture, Religion & Spirituality

Wilder, Laura Ingalls
The Long Winter
Published: New York: HarperCollins (1989)
One of the famous Laura Ingalls Wilder book series, this is the story of the Ingalls family's experiences in Dakota Territory during the especially difficult winter of 1880-81, when Laura was 13 and 14. Thought by many readers to be the most exciting adventure narrative of the series, this book, first published in 1940, also contains vivid descriptions of the landscapes and weather of what is now eastern South Dakota.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: History, Rural Life

Williams, Ben O., and Chuck Johnson.
Wingshooter's Guide to South Dakota Upland Game Birds and Waterfowl
Published: Gallatin Gateway, Montana: Wilderness Adventures Press (1996)
South Dakota has some of the finest bird and waterfowl hunting in the country, and this is an excellent guidebook for hunters, but it is also a very good reference work for the general reader. South Dakota's many game birds are interestingly described throughout, and there are numerous maps and accommodations listings, as well as a variety of hunter-specific instructions.

Genre: Nonfiction - Reference
Subject: Sports & Leisure

Wilson, Norma C., and Charles L. Woodard, Eds.
One-Room Country School: South Dakota Stories
Published: Brookings, South Dakota: South Dakota Humanities Foundation (1999)
This text, with contributions from people throughout South Dakota, is both the history of one of the state's most revered community traditions and a clear and informative expression of ongoing societal and cultural values in this region. The introduction is a very helpful summary of South Dakota's rural educational history, and the lively and highly entertaining stories on a wide variety of themes throughout the text bring that history dramatically to life. There are accounts here of everything from country school pedagogy to the games and pranks of recess, and everywhere in the text one finds evidence of the importance of memory and the power and importance of stories.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Rural Life

Woodard, Charles L., Ed.
As Far As I Can See
Published: Lincoln: Windflower Press (1989)
An anthology of fiction, essays, and poetry from the Middle Plains states, this is a very popular textbook in secondary and college classes due to its presentation of some of the best works of contemporary plains writers which are not readily available elsewhere. Thematically arranged with helpful introductions to each main section, this book can be read sequentially or selectively, with many memorable selections throughout which invite repeated re-readings. Themes of earth relationship and human community are dominant, but there are many other very discussable topics and issues throughout this very accessible book.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Short Stories, Fiction - Poetry, Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: Nature & Environment, Folklife - Community Life

Woodard, Charles L., Ed.
Country Congregations: South Dakota Stories
Published: Brookings, South Dakota: South Dakota Humanities Foundation (2002)
South Dakota's various religious histories and traditions are dramatized anecdotally throughout this thematically sequenced text, which is at once a highly informative presentation of the state's rural religious values and an exploration of community past and present. Strong tribal voices are included in this collection, with stories and photographs from the well-known Dakota scholar Vine Deloria, Jr., and others, and the strengths of numerous other religious traditions are also evident in the stories Euro-American contributors from throughout the state. Both nostalgic and inspiration are evident in this book, as well as many prayerful hopes for the future.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, European Americans, Religion & Spirituality

Woster, Jim, Terry Woster, and Kevin Woster.
The Woster Brothers' Brand: Episodes Out of a Shared Inheritance
Published: Sioux Falls, South Dakota: Ex Machina Publishing Company (1990)
This lively collection of short essays is co-authored by brothers; one is a well-known South Dakota radio and television personality, and the others are two of the state's best-known and most talented journalists. This book, with an introduction by the authors' sister, is in the American humorist tradition of Mark Twain, anecdotal, witty, and funny, with a strong emphasis on family relationships, in composite an honest and frequently poignant portrait of the history and values of South Dakota's rural culture.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: Rural Life

Young Bear, Severt, and Ronnie Theisz.
Standing in the Light
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1994)
A collaborative effort between Theisz, a professor of English and American Indian Studies, and his long-time friend Young Bear, a Lakota elder, this book records the wisdom and knowledge of the Lakota way of life as told by Young Bear and transcribed by Theisz. This engaging book is at once the story of Young Bear's life, a history of the Lakota people, and an astute cultural commentary on how the Lakota live and relate to each other and to the land.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays, Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History, Native American, Religion & Spirituality, Nature & Environment, Culture
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Zitkala-Sa
Old Indian Legends
Published: Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press (1985)
The author of this text, whose American name was Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, is one of the best known of the early 20th Century American Indian writers. First published in 1902, this is a strong collection of popular tribal stories voiced in the oral tradition way of telling. Of particular note are the five stories focused on the adventures of Iktomi, Spiderman, the Lakota trickster, an extraordinarily entertaining and informative culture character.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Short Stories
Subject: Native American, Folklife - Oral Traditions/Humor