Joseph M. Marshall III can be intimidating. Like many Lakota men, he’s tall, lean, strong, with probing eyes that don’t miss anything. This Oglala/Sicangu Lakota doesn’t have to shout to get his point across. And he isn’t one to hold back on what he thinks.
He’s also respectful, honest, witty, and often hilarious. And he’s one of the best Native writers at work today, writing fiction and nonfiction about Lakotas. Which is why on June 24 in Rapid City, South Dakota—not too far from where Marshall was born—Western Writers of America is giving him the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to Western literature.
Previous honorees include Pulitzer Prize winners N. Scott Momaday and Louise Erdrich; historians Eve Ball and Robert M. Utley; Cherokee scholar and novelist Robert J. Conley; and bestselling novelists Rudolfo Anaya, Elmore Leonard, and Tony Hillerman. Marshall will also be inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame, housed at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming.
Though our paths had crossed mostly at literary soirées, I first really got to know Marshall when. I learned more about Lakota life from reading that book and handling that Q&A than I had from reading scores of other books.
