Every year the Nebraska Center for the Book chooses a book written by a Nebraska author for the entire state to focus on throughout the year through a program called One Book One Nebraska. The top pick for 2017 is ‘Black Elk Speaks’ written by John G. Neihardt.

“Neihardt’s book being chosen is cool for Wayne State because he has many connections to the college,” said Dr. Lori Utecht. “He attended school here and was from Bancroft, where there is now a museum dedicated to his work.”

Utecht and Dr. Steven Elliott are on the board of directors at the museum.

Neihardt was researching the ‘Indian Wars,’ or conflicts between American soldiers and Native Americans, when he came across a Lakota holy man named Black Elk.

Neihardt began to interview Black Elk and in the process the holy man told Neihardt many of his life experiences. The writer decided to put his historical book about the wars aside and focused on Black Elk’s story, which eventually became ‘Black Elk Speaks.’

The goal of the One Book One Nebraska is to bring together the diversities of Nebraska through reading. The many people reading and studying the one chosen book ‘Black Elk Speaks’ will connect them through time and space.

Starting in January of 2017 groups and book clubs across Nebraska will be connected through the words of John G. Niehardt and the legendary life of the Lakotah holy man, Black Elk.