A Lakota boy comes of age and finds his courage in Gift Horse, a picture book from award-winning author and illustrator S. D. Nelson.When Flying Cloud’s father gives him a Gift Horse, marking the beginning of his journey to manhood, Flying Cloud names the horse Storm. The two become inseparable: They spend their days riding across the prairie, hunting deer, and roughhousing with the other boys and their horses. But as Flying Cloud becomes a man, his life t...

Award-winning Lakota author-artist S. D. Nelson shows what wisdom can be learned from animals in this universal, strikingly illustrated picture book about connecting with the natural world.Lakota translation by Dakota GoodhouseFrom our animal brothers and sisters, young readers can learn the Lakota Way, an ancient principle that transmits the virtues and values we should all strive to include in our own lives. If we watch and listen to their teachi...

"Readers will appreciate this complex look at Chief Red Cloud, who under duress, unimaginable trauma, and starvation made a difficult choice." — School Library Journal (starred review)Red Cloud (1822–1909) was a great warrior and chief of the Lakota. Told from his perspective, Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrender describes the events that brought him to prominence as a leader of his people and how he came to surrender them to the wasichus...

Buffalo Bird Girl (ca. 1839-1932) was a member of the Hidatsa, a Native American community that lived in permanent villages along the Missouri River on the Great Plains. Like other girls her age, Buffalo Bird Girl learned the ways of her people through watching and listening, and then by doing. She helped plant crops in the spring, tended the fields through the summer, and in autumn joined in the harvest. She learned to prepare animal skins, dry meat, and perform other duties. There was al...

At 12 years old, Conall has already worked in the coal mines of West Virginia for two years. He spends his days deep underground with his faithful mule, Angel, carting loads of coal back and forth between the coal seams and the main shaft, where elevators take the coal up to the surface. One day a tunnel collapses, and his brother is trapped with others on the wrong side! How can Conall and Angel help to save them?Mixing archival images with his original artwork, in this historical...

With photographs and stunning illustrations from acclaimed author/artist S.D. Nelson, this thrilling double biography juxtaposes the lives of two enemies whose conflict changed American history: Crazy Horse and George Armstrong Custer.In 1876, Lakota chief Crazy Horse helped lead his people's resistance against the white man's invasion of the northern Great Plains. One of the leaders of the US military forces was Army Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. The men had l...

A grandmother’s love is forever in Star People, a picture book about remembrance and tradition from S. D. Nelson, award-winning author and member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.“A young Lakota Indian girl narrates the story of how she and her little brother, Young Wolf, survive a prairie fire.” —School Library Journal“A stirring, original story based on Lakota legend . . . The swirling images of the celestial dan...

A biography of Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who was one of the six soldiers to raise the United States flag on Iwo Jima during World War II, an event immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph.Growing up on the Gila River Indian Reservation in Arizona, Ira Hayes was a quiet, shy boy. He never wanted to be the center of attention, and at school, he felt lonely and out of place.By the time Ira was in his late teens, World War II was raging....

Now that Clara is almost in third grade, she’s finally old enough to spend her first summer away from home visiting her grandma, Unci, and her cousin at their home in Standing Rock Reservation. To welcome her visit, Uncle Louie brings an extra-special surprise in his pickup truck: the tipi that’s been passed down through their family for generations. The girls learn how to stack the poles and wrap the canvas covering around them, how to paint spirit pictures on its walls, and how the circl...

Mother Bear watches over her cubs, guiding us to walk with strength and protect those who need protecting.Otter, the playful swimmer, reminds us that games and laughter are good for our hearts.And as Tadpole transforms into Frog, he demonstrates we’ll make changes in our lives, too.From our animal brothers and sisters, young readers can learn the Lakota Way, an ancient principle that trans...

I WAS BORN A LAKOTA AND I HAVE LIVED AS A LAKOTA AND I SHALL DIE A LAKOTA.—RED CLOUDRed Cloud (1822–1909) was a great warrior and chief of the Lakota. Told from his perspective, Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrender describes the events that brought him to prominence as a leader of his people and how he came to surrender them to the white man, ending their way of life on the Great Plains.From the intrusion of white settlers into Lakota territory, to the treaties si...

In 1876, Lakota chief Crazy Horse helped lead his people’s resistance against the white man’s invasion of the northern Great Plains. One of the leaders of the US military forces was Army Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. The men had long been enemies. At the height of the war, when tribalism had reached its peak, they crossed paths for the last time. In this action-packed double biography, S. D. Nelson draws fascinating parallels between Crazy Horse and Custer, two men whose lives were int...