http://www.northplattebulletin.com/index.asp?show=news&action=readStory&storyID=17458&pageID=24
by North Platte Bulletin Staff
10/10/2009
Stew Magnuson's The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True
Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns is the 2009
Nebraska nonfiction book of the year, according to the Nebraska
Center of the Book.
Graphic designer Lindsay Starr won best cover illustration for her
work on the book.
"As a native Nebraskan, I'm really grateful for this honor," said
Magnuson, who wrote the book from his grandparent's home near Stapleton.
Shortly after the book was published, it was reviewed in the North
Platte Bulletin.
"A page-turning narrative history of 130 years of co-existence and
conflicts," writer Linda Read Deeds said. "Tales of uneven justice
permeate these pages."
Magnuson will accept the award at the Nebraska Book Festival in
Lincoln Nov. 14 and discuss his work.
The award follows an award from ForeWord Magazine, which gave
Magnuson a bronze in its regional nonfiction competition of books
that were independently published.
The book has also been nominated by the Writers' League of Texas as a
nonfiction book of the year and the Center of Great Plains Studies
for a Great Plains distinguished book of the year.
The book traces 130 years of shared history between two communities,
the Oglala Lakotas of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and
the border towns of Sheridan County, Neb.
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, a hamlet on the border that continues to sell
millions of cans of beer per year to the residents of the otherwise
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. He conducted more than 70 interviews for the book in addition
to archival research.
To raise funds to live in Gordon for four months, he worked in a
salmon cannery in Ketchikan, Alaska for a summer.
The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder was 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.
"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," Magnuson said.
Magnuson is working on a second nonfiction book, The Last American
Highway: A Journey Through Time Down U.S. Route 83. He is the
managing editor of National Defense Magazine in Arlington, Va.
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.
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment