Phillip Whiteman, Jr., a Nationally-known Cultural Consultant, Presenter, Storyteller, Horse-trainer, Champion Grass Dancer, and Rodeo Saddle Bronc Champion is a Northern Cheyenne from Lame Deer, Montana. His father a Chief of the Northern Cheyenne Council of 44 and his mother the late Florence Whiteman was a Cheyenne Warrior Woman of the Elk Scraper Society. Phillip belongs to the Kit Fox Warrior Society and Omaha Dancing Society. He believes strongly in his spiritual ways and he tries to incorporate it into every aspect of his life.

Phillip's personal and professional objective is to promote cultural integrity throughout Indian country and the world.  Phillip's reputation as a Cultural Consultant and Presenter has grown rapidly. His presentations include traditional story-telling and songs that share a powerful and inspirational message of hope. Recently, Phillip has released his first CD "Spirit Seeker" - Stories and Songs for the Spirit, which has received National attention.

Phillip has been a familiar face in the powwow arena and "winners circle" since he was a small boy. He dances the "Old Style" grass dance. His dancing career has taken him from the powwow arena, to the Broadway stage in New York City, Wild West Shows, President Clinton and Senator Campbell's Inaugurations, and countries throughout Europe.

He is a 2-time Indian World Champion Saddle bronc rider and 22-times Indian National Finals Qualifier. He is a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). Most notable was his selection to represent Pro Rodeo on a European Tour. As a Horseman, Phillip founded the Phillip Whiteman, Jr., "Medicine Wheel Model to Natural Horsemanship", a Native American Approach to working with and training horses. He uses a cultural concept to address the dimensions of the horse and how it can help us in all areas; emotionally, spiritually, physically and mentally.

Phillip has been featured in the Western Horseman Magazine, Pro Rodeo Sports News, Billings Gazette, and many other newspapers. He has been featured on ABC's Primetime Live with Diane Sawyer and interviewed for "On the Road Again" Radio Show and National Native News. He was inducted into the All Indian Hall of Fame in Anadarko, OK and featured in the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Quebec, Canada. Most recently, Phillip was selected as a recipient of the First Peoples Fund, Cultural Capital Fellowship which promotes creative community-centered artists; and nurtures the collective spirit that allows them to sustain their people.


Author Codi Vallery-Mills comes from longtime ranching families in western South Dakota. It’s from those roots she developed her appreciation for the ranching lifestyle and art of storytelling. She is a graduate of South Dakota State University with a degree in agricultural journalism, which she has put to good use for the last 14 years. She serves as editor of The Cattle Business Weekly newspaper and her byline has been found in several other trade publications. Today, she and her husband, Brian and daughter, Kimber are the next generation involved in the Vallery family ranch. This is the second book in the Husker the Mule children’s series she has authored. Find more of Codi’s writings at www.sdprairiewriter.com.
Dorothy Rosby
I’d love to hear from you if you enjoy my blog—not so much if you don’t. I’m kidding! (Sort of.) I’m also an author, speaker and syndicated humor columnist. My work appears in publications in eleven states.
TESTIMONIALS
Kathy Johnson Owner of Black Hills Caverns
What a fun way to remember your family vacation in the Black Hills - reading a wonderful story that reminds you of all the great places you visited. Your whole family will reminisce together as they enjoy the stories by a great South Dakota Storyteller, Joan Pillen. She will have you seeing the beauty in the Black Hills in a way you never expected! This book series is a must have for any SD Visitor.

Kelly Commet Past-President Keystone Chamber of Commerce
An excellent read. The blending of Black Hills landmarks and current events, Indian lore, and ancient mystical techniques in modern applications. A downright fun, engaging and insightful story. Cowboys, talking animals, wise healers working magic with massage, essential oils and gentle words. Delightful!

Deb Black, Founder of Today's Horse Magazine
A true bond between the heart of a human and the heart of a horse reveals things about ourselves we never realized. Joan's vast knowledge of horses gives all types of people a better understanding of these levels of love and respect. If you are a horse person or have only dreamed of being one, you will soon be loping out on the prairie and over the hills after reading these wonderful books. You cannot get any closer to heaven while still on earth. 

Joan Kristin Haugan's award-winning Adventure Seekers Saga is a series of four visionary-fiction novels illustrated with original art. The fast-paced, witty story takes place in a setting you’d like to visit with characters you’d want to meet. Throughout the series, ancient wisdom combats modern-day problems as the characters muse about Tarot cards and moon over Rune stones.

• Prairie Magic, Visionary Fiction finalist in the Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) award presented at the 2015 International New Age Show in Denver, is the first book of the saga and introduces an enlightened family who overcomes devastating loss, lives with courage and trusts in a higher power. 

•Rebel, the second installment and winner of the 2016 COVR award, features a stunning black steed whose very presence inspires courage. Excitement brews as a dream that was once left to die on the highway is resurrected in a most magical manner. Readers young and old will muster the courage to become rebels themselves. 

•A Fork in the Road, book three, was released January 2017. The story describes a painful love triangle and an exciting Mexican rescue mission. Readers will learn more about the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and hang out with the Order of the Rising Phoenix, a biker gang whose compassionate members help each other survive illness and loss. The book delves into the real history behind Deadwood’s gold mining as Adventure Seekers search for lost treasures. Readers will cheer as favorite characters claim victory by conquering fears and disarming enemies. 

•Scorpio, the final installment, will be ready in early 2018. Readers will learn who will marry and who will die as favorite characters lead extraordinary lives. Tears and joys await in this thrilling conclusion to an exciting saga. 

Learn more at www.PrairieMagic.com

JUDI JOBA
JudiJoba grew up in Michigan, graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Animal Science and Education. As part of her graduate degree work she took several photography classes. Over the years she entered photography competitions and judged photography at the amateur level. She also developed a multi slide projector program to music of her trip to Alaska and a western trip before she moved to South Dakota. Landscapes, sunrises and sunsets, and animals are her favorite subjects.  

The photos in her books were all taken in South Dakota, with the majority taken from her neighborhood. The quotes are a collection of years of
favorites she has acquired plus some of her own and that of a friend who had unexpectedly lost her husband. She is grateful to those who strongly
suggested that she should create a book and include quotes.
Lynn Fullmer is a stay at home mom who lives just miles from her hometown in the Black Hills of South Dakota. After having children, she became more serious about her writing. They brought out her desire to reach the imaginations of other children and have inspired many of her stories. 

JC Phelps is a wife and mother of three who writes from the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. 
Somehow, in the middle of the chaos of caring for her daughters, a growing collection of chickens, ducks, and geese, and tending a large garden, she finds the time to write. 

The Alexis Stanton Chronicles have been the most enjoyable works she’s written. Color Me Grey, the first book in the series, introduces the characters she has come to love. Learn more at msgrey.com

Scott Haynes was raised on a farm, and ranch, in Northeastern Montana. Growing up on a ranch on the Milk River gave Haynes plenty of ammo for his cartoons, and there was usually a dog, or two, in the way.
I was born and raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, but I have lived in South Dakota for well over thirty years with the past almost sixteen years in Custer. My background is in Law Enforcement and Medical. While in law enforcement, I was a guest professor at Morgan Community College in Colorado for five years.

I am a writer of fiction and write in several genres, primarily westerns and mysteries as well as a few romance novels, I emphasize ‘romance’. As I often say, “I don’t write sex manuals.”

I am dyslexic. I had a great deal of difficulty in school. As an adult, I’ve been able to learn to compensate, mostly with the help of my wife. Once I learned to cope with it, I got excellent grades in college courses I have taken over the years.

My venture into writing began as the result of a challenge from my wife. I was reading a book that I literally waded through six chapters of before I put it down and said, “I could write a better book then this.” My loving wife told me, “Why don’t you? You can tell a good story.” Open mouth, insert foot. I took up the challenge. I came up with an idea for a book and began writing. It took me a year to finish the book and it was terrible. However, my wife told me it was a good story, I just didn’t tell it like she knew I could. I began the task of rewriting. In fact, I rewrote it many times before I finally had a book that told the story I wanted it to tell. That book is the romantic thriller, The Return Home.

My story Balboa Rendezvous is a result of my experiences in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman in the early sixties. Some, of the things that happened in the book are true which tends to make the story come alive, and no, I will not tell you which ones.

My western stories, both the short stories and the novels, take place in real places, at a real time in history, and with the attitudes of the time, not the attitudes of today. Many of my westerns take place in South Dakota, although some take place in other western states. This requires a lot of research as does any book written with actual backgrounds and/or details of the time.

I have taken a number courses in the art of writing, including fiction writing, grammar, storytelling, critiquing, and sentence building to mention a few. These courses have helped a great deal. I also took a course in the Science of Forensics which added to my knowledge of investigative procedures. My study of American History since I was eleven has helped put real history in my western stories.

I try to write every day, although I have to admit I don’t always get the opportunity. I like to tell stories and that is what I do with my books. I simply tell a story. My books are written to entertain the reader, and in the case of historical fiction hopefully teach a little history, too.

I am self-published, and currently have twenty-seven books in print and online. They are available in the lobby.  
J. E. Terrall
A young commercial wine industry notwithstanding, winemaking traditions run deep in the Mount Rushmore State. Sodbusting pioneers like Anna Pesä and Jon Vojta defied South Dakota's harsh terrain and paved the way for Prairie Berry Winery. University biologists, including Dr. Ronald Peterson, cultivated the unique grapes needed for the climate, like the Valiant, Marquette, Brianna and Frontenac grapes. Despite subzero winters and torrid summers, strawberries, buffaloberries and rhubarb have grown on both sides of the Missouri River. Since the 1996 Farm Winery Bill passed, the state welcomed thirty vintners, including Strawbale Winery, Wilde Prairie Winery and Belle Joli' Winery. Denise DePaolo and Kara Sweet explore the heritage behind winemaking from the harvests of the prairie. 
Kara Sweet: Certified sommelier through the International Wine and Spirits Guild and Certified Specialist of Wine supporting all things wine: drinking, travel, and stories
By the time the Dakota Territory was carved into North and South in 1889, the railroad and the High Plains were intertwined. Agriculture on the plains relied on the railroads, as did mining and timbering in the Black Hills. South Dakota was realized, in large part, thanks to the men, women, investment, and machines of the railroad.

Like all of America, South Dakota is far from through with trains.

In Hill City, which boasts our premier recreational passenger train, the 1880 TRAIN, we celebrate our colorful and varied history on rails with this historic enterprise. Hill City has also become a thriving center of tourism and art, and is located within 15 miles of both the popular tourism destinations of Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Crazy Horse Memorial.

Along with the South Dakota State Railroad Museum, other associated South Dakota and regional museums, authentic railroad depots, and related historic sites will continue to provide South Dakota’s unique story of regional railroading.

Museums like this connect us to everything we know— and to what we have yet to learn— reminding us of times, places and things, and of innovations that have shaped our past and present, and will shape our future.

Please join us for a singular journey on the “high iron.” 

Rick Mills: I am blessed to serve at the South Dakota State Railroad Museum.

​The South Dakota State Railroad Museum brings to life the financial and political intrigue, the machinery, the people, the mythology, and the pure joy of perhaps the most romantic mode of transportation ever built.

South Dakota’s unique landscape spawned one of the most unusual and complex railroad histories in our nation; a history that has helped define us as a people and as a state. The rails have carried our hopes, our dreams, our riches, our bounty, our cultural treasures, and our families from past to present.
Linda M. Hasselstrom is an award-winning poet and writer of the High Plains whose work is rooted in the arid landscape of southwestern South Dakota. She writes, ranches, and conducts writing retreats on the South Dakota ranch homesteaded by her grandfather, a Swedish cobbler, in 1899. 

 Her website, www.windbreakhouse.com, provides details about her writing retreats, online consulting (Writing Conversations by Email), and her published poetry and nonfiction.
MARIPOSA - BOOK ONE - THE QUEST is the beguiling first novel in a sweeping family saga set during thegilded age of the aristocratic cattle barons in Wyoming Territory in the American West. British twins Damien and Brendon Whittaker have loved Harper Begbie, a gifted artist, since they were children growing up in the cattle country of Herefordshire, England. Always lurking around the edges of this pastoral idyll, is Peggy Abbot, an evil neighborhood girl and Harper's nemesis. When their father dies in 1875, the twins make plans to export their prized Herefords to Wyoming Territory where men of vision are finding phenomenal success. By this time, Harper has given her heart to Damien but it is Peggy who tricks him into marrying her. In order to follow Damien to their new life, Harper agrees to marry Brendon despite not loving him. In America, the Whittakers establish their vast cattle ranch the Mariposa on the boundless grasslands of Wyoming Territory and become wealthy beyond their wildest imagination. Yet, their private lives lie in shambles when Peggy's evil brings unspeakable tragedy to the Mariposa. It is Harper's artistic genius that allows her to heal and reclaim Damien's love even as they face an uncertain economic future where only the most stalwart and courageous ranchers will survive. United and deeply in love, Harper and Damien embark on the quest to weather the storm and save their beloved Mariposa. Wyoming Territory
Jeannie Hudson grew up on a ranch in Wyoming where her rapport with animals was nourished in a country environment. After college, she became a full-time author
and sold four suspense novels. Her latest historical suspense novel BEHOLD A LONE HORSEMAN is now on the market.

She has also raised Arabian show horses. This colorful world is the basis for her upcoming suspense novel TEN HOURS 'TIL SPRING, set on a Wyoming Arabian horse ranch.

She now lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her husband and two
rambunctious beagles, Murphy and Bailey. 
Amy Kirk: I am a proud Black Hills native, attempting to raise two little heathens (my term for my redneck kids) and cattle simultaneously alongside my partner in crime whose disposition sometimes resembles that of Woodrow F. Call from Lonesome Dove, and with the help of a supposed cow dog that’s terrible at bluffing cows.

We live near Pringle; famous for things like elk, the Hitchrail, hunting, or the Pringle Poacher Car. Thanks for stopping by for a visit! Company’s rare around here.

So what kind of topics does a ranch wife in rural South Dakota write about? Probably more than you’d care to know if you hang around here too long. I tell on our cows and the disasters they often create; ranch life’s everyday challenges, and occasionally sneak in tales about our town.
I expertly describe what it’s like to be married to a ranch wife—to put words in my husband’s mouth, I’m sure he’d say an adventure would sum it up nicely. I regularly disclose my faults, quirks, and slanted perspective on our ranch life with lawyer-like skill but I also illustrate stories reflecting the personality of my rancher-husband and our cowkids.
​You won’t find photos from places like amusement parks posted here (just ours—we live in one). Things of exotic nature? Bizzare? Unusual? Yes. We rarely vacation because we live in a vacation destination—the Black Hills is a tourist mecca. That, and our cows can’t be trusted to be left home alone if we’re gone too long. But I love our home on the range. It provides seasons of infinite variety, 100% all-natural and organic beauty and my beloved clothesline.
I’m a coffee fiend, like a cold beer, open windows on summer nights, hearing our neighboring bull elk bugle and getting up a little earlier than early. I savor the scents of line-dried laundry, fresh cut aspen, leather, sweaty horses, camp fire smoke, and pine trees. The dress code at my job includes well-worn boots, tough looking jeans, t-shirts, and hooded sweatshirts. I refuse to call them by their sissy name, “hoodies.”

I can no longer claim that I don’t have any awards for my writings. I can only say that I still don’t have a journalism degree. I was awarded first place for Best Local General Interest Column for weekly papers under 1,151 with the Lyman County Herald newspaper in Presho, SD at the South Dakota 2010 Better Newspapers Contest and Best Local Humor Column with the Lyman County Herald also for 2012.

I enjoy combining ranch work with my penchant for writing and sharing it with readers. (A Ranchwife’s Slant has been published in these newspapers). Your comments are welcomed: amy@ranchwifesslant.com or amy@amykirk.com . You can also visit my website to read some of my archived columns.

I also guest speak–cow responsibilities permitting.

I combine my passion for agriculture, the outdoors, and writing in my weekly humor column about ranching with my husband and kids called A Ranchwife’s Slant. In my talk, A Ranchwife’s Slant: Connecting with People Through Agriculture and Humor, I share how my search for entertaining topics to write about for my column I inadvertently learned that finding humor in unpleasant circumstances can be a coping tool for dealing with the daily challenges of ranch life as well as industry-wide challenges in agriculture.
New children’s author Amanda Radke, a fifth-generation South Dakota rancher, shows young readers what life is like on a cattle ranch in Levi’s Lost Calf. And, while Radke’s storyline is pitch perfect and filled with farm-inspired whimsy, the book’s unforgettable illustrations by up-and-coming Western artist Michelle Weber put this book over the top—really, it doesn’t get any better than this. At the end of a hard day on the ranch, the take home message is this: the faith-filled and independent spirit of cowboys—and cowgirls—is alive and well! Young Levi rides out one morning to bring the cattle home from the pasture. After a head count, Levi is surprised that one calf is missing. Little Red, his favorite heifer calf, is nowhere to be found. Determined to prove his independence—and locate Little Red, Levi rides out with his horse, Pepper, and Gus, his trusty dog, in tow. The three sleuths search high and low around the ranch in search for the calf. Little Red stays hidden as readers are introduced to a bevy of barnyard animals throughout the search. A kid-friendly recipe is added to compliment the adventure and bring the cowboy spirit home to the reader.
Sculptor John Lopez is a product of a place. His people’s ranches are scattered along the Grand River in northwestern South Dakota—not far from where Sitting Bull was born and died on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Not far from where thousands of buffalo were killed during the westward expansion of settlers and gold miners. In the bone yards of Tyrannosaurus rex and grizzly bears. Since farmers and ranchers populated this chunk of reservation land, real cowboys have been roping and branding and sheering and haying and harvesting.

John’s own forte lies in gentling colts and perfecting their bloodlines—and he started his celebration of them by sculpting in clay. Capturing every nuance, every muscle, in this land where business is still conducted over a cup of coffee and “neighboring” is a way of life. Somehow that way of life—where times seems to have stood still—has seen the transition from horsepower to vehicles. The rusted carcasses of discarded equipment stand testament to generations of labor. And the man who knows blood lines has picked through them, choosing the elements of the past—the actual implements that plowed the soil or cut the grain or dug the dinosaur—and created the curve of a jaw, the twitch of a tail, the power of a shoulder. Join John on a tour of kitchens and scrap piles, barns and grain elevators, cemeteries and workshops—hosted by the people of the prairie. Meet Uncle Geno and brother-in-law Stuart, and scrap collectors from near and far. Listen carefully. There’s a story in the wind.

Paul Higbee believes the line between fiction and nonfiction is thin. Rather than jumping to conclusions about what they're creating, writers in Paul's workshops hunt for stories by reliving past experiences, jumping into new experiences, and engaging in conversations with people in their communities. Once the right story is found (often inside a bigger one that's not so intriguing), each writer determines whether his or her tale is fiction or nonfiction. Next, the writer decides if the story is best told through narrative, stage or TV scripting, or in some entirely different way.  

Paul is best known as a feature writer and columnist for South Dakota Magazine. He has also written scripts for South Dakota Public Broadcasting, and is the author of five nonfiction books and one fiction book. He was named South Dakota Author of the Year by the state's Council of Teachers of English in 2000. Since 1982, Paul has been an instructor for teachers and high school students at Prairie Winds writing conferences held across South Dakota. He always opens workshops with written exercises that help participants uncover their writing instincts. Paul closes workshops by challenging writers to sacrifice whatever is necessary to complete a once-in-a-lifetime writing project within five years.

As South Dakotans endured the Great Depression and developing Dust Bowl in 1932, they elected a cowboy as their governor. Tom Berry rode in the great, iconic 1902 cattle roundup ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt. He established the successful Double X ranch next to the Badlands. Big voiced and tireless, Berry commanded the attention of all, including President Franklin Roosevelt, who broke protocol and called him “Tom” or “Cowboy” in White House meetings. Berry faced bitter political rivalries and weather that threatened to blow South Dakotans off their land, but he is remembered for his humorous wit throughout. Author Paul S. Higbee traces the history of South Dakota and its iconic governor. 
This is a non-confrontational Native American approach to working with and training horses, but it is much more. It is about working with “yourself” emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The philosophy uses the medicine wheel as a model: the four colors, the four directions, seasons, stages of life and behaviors that come with the stages, and animals, it teaches we are one and part of the circle. Horses too have four sides, the child, adolescent, adult and grandparent side, they mirror us as humans. The mirror/reflection tell us that how we relate to ourselves is how we relate to others, this holds true for horses. If we have a bad attitude and we are confrontational, the horse will mirror that behavior, just like humans.

 This is just some of the philosophy of the Medicine Wheel Model. Research has proven that horses help people; with disabilities, and emotional problems or just young people that are misunderstood.

Dayton Ogden Hyde (born 1925) is an American expository author and proponent of nature conservation. Most of his books take place in rural, agricultural settings where he has spent the majority of his life. His books advocate an environmentally responsible philosophy of land management. For example, he encourages the use of wild coyotes, rather than toxic chemicals, to control mouse populations.

He was born in Marquette, Michigan, in 1925. At age 13, he began working on his uncle's ranch in Oregon, then moving on to the Cate School in Carpinteria, California, graduating with the class of 1943.[1] He fought in the Army[2] in World War II in the European campaign. After attending the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in English, he continued work on his uncle's ranch before marrying and starting his own ranch. The couple raised five children there. In the 1950s, one of his photographs of rodeo cowboys was chosen at the LIFE Magazine Picture of the Week.

In 1990, he moved in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where, in addition to writing, he now operates a 11,000 acre sanctuary for wild horses. Running Wild: The Life of Dayton O. Hyde, a documentary released in 2013, tells the story of his efforts to protect wild horses in the American West.

Reid Lance Rosenthal is fourth generation land and cattle, a rancher, and a multiple #1 bestselling author whose works have been honored with fifteen national awards. His cowboy heart and poets pen capture the spirit of the western landscape and its influence on generations of its settlers. His long-standing devotion to wild, remote places and the peoplepast and presentwho leave their legend and footprint upon America and the American West, are the underpinning of all of his writings
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