Special Places, Sacred Circles: A Memoir

In her new memoir, Special Places, Sacred Circles, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve delivers a fascinating look at the people and places that shaped her life.

As a mother, wife, daughter, teacher, leader, and friend, Sneve offers a wealth of insight and wisdom. Through her powerful storytelling, she recalls the people she has met and the family members she loves, bringing readers full circle through her life’s journey: from her childhood on the Rosebud Reservation to her time at South Dakota State College, where she met the love of her life; from her adulthood, teaching students across South Dakota and raising a family, all while building a career as a writer, to her time spent traveling the world and, finally, to the heartbreaking passing of her husband, Vance.

Beyond a recollection of the past, Special Places, Sacred Circles is an intimate, beautiful portrait of the inspiring life of a Lakota writer and teacher.

Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, the daughter of an Episcopal priest and a Lakota Sioux mother, was born and raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. A member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, she has authored several books for young adult readers, both fiction and nonfiction, including Completing the Circle, Standing Bear of the Ponca, The Christmas Coat: Memories of My Sioux Childhood, and Jimmy Yellow Hawk. Sneve received her B.S. and M.Ed. from South Dakota State University and taught English throughout the state and at the Flandreau Indian School. The recipient of the Native American Prose Award and the Spirit of Crazy Horse Award, she is the first South Dakotan to receive the National Humanities Medal.