About the Author

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An enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas, S. D. Nelson is descended from Norse and American Indian heritage. He is the author and illustrator of numerous award-winning children’s books inspired by his Great Plains heritage, including Black Elk’s Vision, The Star People, and the middle-grade nonfiction book Crazy Horse and Custer: Born Enemies. His books have received the American Indian Library Association Honor Book Award, the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America, and the American Library Association Notable Book Award. Nelson has lectured at the National Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian in Washington, DC, and has presented the keynote address for Read North Dakota. The artist’s paintings are held in many permanent collections including the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in VA, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in MT, the Crazy Horse Monument in SD, and the State Historical Societies of South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota. Combined with the stories he tells Nelson’s art reveals the richness and depth of Lakota life. He creates with acrylic paint which he brushes, sponges, splatters, and sprays. His artwork offers a contemporary interpretation of traditional Lakota imagery. Visit: www.sdnelson.net.

Praise For…

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"Nelson...will leave readers with a rich picture of this noble figure's personal and cultural context. Solidly historical and far more heartfelt than those on the overcrowded shelf of assignment-fodder profiles."
— Kirkus Reviews

STARRED REVIEW
"The book is engagingly told in the first person, with Sitting Bull describing his childhood training to be a warrior and a hunter...The book is visually appealing, combining art inspired by ledger book art style (a note explains that American Indians incarcerated on military bases sometimes were given discarded books in which to draw) with period photographs and quotations, demonstrating the intersection of two cultures in a tangible manner... this portrait of a committed leader provides a unique perspective on the man and his time period."
— School Library Journal

STARRED REVIEW
“Told through a calm but doomed first-person narrative, this enthralling biography recounts the life of the great chief and warrior Sitting Bull and the defeat of his fellow Sioux… Nelson draws upon the Ledger Book Art tradition developed by Plains Indians in the late-nineteenth century to illustrate key moments in Sitting Bull’s life. With an often shocking bluntness, heightened by a papery flatness, these colorful and dynamic drawings depict buffalo hunts, dances, and battles. A tragic true story told in powerfully subdued tones.”

— Booklist