It’s quite exciting to talk with friends who have devoted tremendous time and energy to writing a book, a true labor of love. It’s even more exciting when the book comes out and starts winning awards. For the last few years, author Stew Magnuson and I have traded e-mails that usually centered on what is happening in Indian Country. This summer, I received a copy of his new book. I’m just starting to read it. And I can’t wait to finish it considering my own reporting that led me Whiteclay, Neb., a notorious beer town bordering South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation.
Well, Magnuson’s thorough reporting on the border towns around Pine Ridge is already drawing accolades. The Nebraska Center of the Book announced Oct. 9 that Stew Magnuson’s “The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns” was the 2009 Nebraska Nonfiction Book of the Year.
In addition, graphic artist Lindsay Starr won honors for her work on the book’s cover.
Here’s information from the press release:
The award follows ForeWord Magazine’s bronze medal in the regional nonfiction category for books independently published, and nominations by the Writers’ League of Texas for its nonfiction book of the year and the Center of Great Plains Studies for its Great Plains Distinguished Book of the Year award.
Says Magnuson: “As a native Nebraskan, I’m really grateful for this honor.”
He will appear at the Nebraska Book Festival in Lincoln on Nov. 14 to accept the award and discuss the work.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is published by Texas Tech University Press under its Great Plains series, which is edited by University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor of history and journalism, John R. Wunder. It traces 130 years of shared history between two communities, the Oglala Lakotas of the Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., and the border towns of Sheridan County, Nebr.
It recounts the death of Lakota ranch worker, Raymond Yellow Thunder at the hands of four white men in 1972, and the subsequent involvement of the American Indian Movement in the case. Among the other stories is the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 and the border towns’ role in the incident, the life and death of Nebraska AIM Coordinator Bob Yellow Bird Steele and a comprehensive history of the town of Whiteclay, Nebr., a hamlet on the border that continues to sell millions of cans of beer per year to the dry reservation.
The Nebraska Unicameral is holding a series of hearings on Whiteclay this month and next.
“I think this book can provide some historical perspective on the Whiteclay controversy,” says Magnuson, who visited the town dozens of times. In total, he conducted more than 70 interviews for the book in addition to archival research. To raise funds to live in Gordon, Nebr. for four months, he worked in a salmon cannery in Ketchikan, Alaska, for a summer.
“I really want to thank Texas Tech University Press and John Wunder for believing in this book when so many other publishers took a pass,” says Magnuson.
He is now managing editor of National Defense Magazine in Arlington, Va. He is currently working on a second nonfiction book, “The Last American Highway: A Journey Through Time Down U.S. Route 83.”
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is available in bookstores throughout Nebraska, on amazon.com or can be ordered by phone from Texas Tech University Press at 1-800-832-4042 1-800-832-4042.
Again, congratulations to Magnuson.
Jodi Rave