Native American history shines in this year’s finalists for the 2020 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize. The prize, in its 15th year, celebrates the book published during the previous year that made the biggest contribution to advancing understanding of and appreciation for the people, cultures and natural environment of the Great Plains.

This year’s finalists, selected by a panel of judges, are:

• “Stringing Rosaries: The History, the Unforgivable and the Healing of Northern Plains American Indian Boarding School Survivors” by Denise K. Lajimodiere (North Dakota State University Press). “Stringing Rosaries” presents a brief history of indigenous American boarding school programs, along with interviews with boarding school survivors and the story of the author’s own healing journey with her father. Lajimodiere is an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Belcourt, North Dakota, and an assistant professor in education at North Dakota State University.

• “Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance” by Nick Estes (Verso Books). “Our History is the Future” connects traditions of resistance to the largest indigenous protest movement of the 21st century — the Dakota Access Pipeline encampment. Estes is a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and an assistant professor of American studies at the University of New Mexico.

• “Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power” by Pekka Hämäläinen (Yale University Press). “Lakota America” is a complete account of the Lakota Indians from the early 16th to the early 21st century, including the history of iconic figures Red Cloud, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Hämäläinen is the Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford University.

The winner, to be announced this spring, is invited to the Center for Great Plains Studies to deliver a public lecture. The prize includes a $10,000 cash award.

Only first-edition, full-length, nonfiction books published and copyrighted in 2019 were eligible for the award. Nominations were made by publishers or authors.

Learn more.