Special Places, Sacred Circles
A Memoir
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
August 2025 · 146 pages · 8 photos
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.
Collecting writings and reminiscences spanning her life, Driving Hawk Sneve brings readers full circle through her journey: from her childhood growing up on the Rosebud Reservation to her time at South Dakota State College; from her experiences in her career as a teacher and an author of children's literature, to her travels around the world with family and friends, and, lastly, to the passing of her husband, Vance, late in life.
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.