Joseph M. Marshall III

Award-winning Sicangu Oglala Lakota author and historian, Joseph M. Marshall III, PhD, is one of the most prolific Native writers in the United States. Raised by his maternal grandparents in a traditional Native household on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he has written eighteen historical fiction and nonfiction books and narrated his own audio books. He is best known for award-winners “The Lakota Way,” “The Journey of Crazy Horse,” and “The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn.” His work is informed by his background as a Lakota craftsman, who makes his own Native Lakota bows and arrows; a skilled archer; and specialist in wilderness survival. The accounts of real historical figures along with the events that he experienced on the reservation and heard as a child from his grandparents and their generation of oral storytellers also figure prominently in his books. His Native name, given to him at age five, is Ohitiya Otanin, which means “his courage is known.”

Marshall’s accomplishments include co-founding Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation; teaching; public speaking; mentoring of indigenous youth; and serving on the Board of Directors of Lakota Youth Development, Inc. He has been a teacher at the high school level and a professor at several colleges and universities, where he taught Native culture, Lakota language and history. He often lectures and speaks on Native issues and topics. In 2022 he received Crazy Horse Memorial® Foundation Educator of the Year Award for his lifelong leadership in education and the impact that he continues to make on Indigenous youth and communities.

Marshall has served as a cultural and historical consultant and technical advisor on films, television series and documentaries. He appeared as an actor in the television mini-series Return to Lonesome Dove and Into the West as well in documentaries and film. In 2023, he received the Owen Wister Award by Western Writers of America for lifetime contributions to Western literature. Previous honorees include Pulitzer Prize winners N. Scott Momaday and Louise Erdrich. Marshall was inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame in 2023

Marshall’s latest novels, his first contemporary fiction, will be released by Lucid House Publishing in 2024 as part of his “Smokey River Suspense Series.” The titles are “The Last Prisoner of Little Bighorn,” “The Wolf and the Crow,” and “Sing for the Red Dress” —all to be released in spring 2024. “Blood on the Dress,” the sequel to the latter will be released on October 1, 2024. The main characters primarily live on the fictional Smokey River Reservation based on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, but plotlines extend to traditional Lakota territory on the Northern Plains. His new novels are based on current issues facing Lakota people, including crime and the interface between tribal government, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the FBI, and the ongoing epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women that have largely been ignored by the American public and media. After spending many years in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Marshall has once again returned home.