A Fiction, Nonfiction Book for South Dakota

If you could choose a book for South Dakota, about South Dakota, which book would you choose?

On the website LitHub author Emily Temple picked a nonfiction and a fiction book that's set in or is about each state in the country. Temple says that she tried to choose "...books that do a good job of evoking place where possible, and aimed for a mix of old and new, well-known and obscure." Temples recommendations push beyond the usual Laura Ingalls Wilder tales of the old west,  and looks for more modern stories.

For South Dakota Temple recommended two books set in our state's Native American reservations; Skins, Adrian C. Louis for fiction and Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog.

Skins is a sort of fantasy adventure set on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The story focuses on an Oglala Sioux tribal cop.

Rudy Yellow Shirt hits his head and wakes up changed into a ferocious vigilante and sets out to save, or otherwise avenge, his people. It doesn’t turn out exactly right, as you might imagine. A grim portrait of life on a reservation, infused with dark humor and not a little violence.

Lakota Woman is the memoir or Mary Crow Dog. The author tells about her life on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, being a part of the American Indian Movement and participation in the 1973 Wounded Knee incident.

You can see what books Temple recommends for the rest of the states here.

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