S. D. Nelson, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, is an award-winning illustrator and writer of children’s books. Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, born and raised on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, is the author of approximately two dozen fiction and nonfiction books for adults and children. The two are visiting the university as part of the South Dakota Humanities Organization’s 2008 Festival of Books which will be held in Sioux Falls September 26-28, 2008.
 
S. D.  Nelson’s newest book– Dance in a Buffalo Skull --  won Most Outstanding Children’s Book—Mom’s Choice Awards, 2008 and was a Gold Medal Winner in the Children’s Book, Ages 5-8, Myths, Legends and Fantasies category – Mom’s Choice Awards 2008. The book is based on a Lakota legend and is one of the books to be featured at this year’s book festival.  S.D. Nelson, is noted not only for his writing and illustration of children’s books, but for artwork which appears on book jackets, greeting cards, CD covers and for his paintings which are held in both private and public collections.  Some of the other books he illustrated include Crazy Horse’s Vision, Jim Thorpe’s Bright Path and Spider Spins a Story, and was author/illustrator of Gift Horse: A Lakota Story and The Star People: A Lakota Story.

Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, the daughter of an Episcopal priest and a Lakota Sioux mother, has written poetry, fiction and nonfiction books. Among her children’s books are: Dancing Teepees: Poems of American Indian Youth, The Cherokees, The Nez Perce, and The Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman. Among the many nonfiction books she has written is They Led a Nation:  Biographical and Pictorial Essays of 20 Dakota Leaders. Sneve received her B.S. and M.Ed. in 1954 and 1969, respectively, from South Dakota State University. She has taught English in public school of South Dakota, and at the Flandreau Indian School in Flandreau. Her career also includes work as an editor at the Brevet Press in Sioux Fall, S.D. Sneve is a member of the board of directors, Native American consortium;  the  Corporation for Public Broadcasting;  a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe; member of board of directors of United Sioux Tribes Cultural Arts; and Historiographer of the Episcopal Church of South Dakota.

For more information visit:
http://www.sdnelson.net/index.htm
http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A118