David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Author of Winter Counts
About the Author
Image credit: Photo by Aslan Chalom. Photo source: https://davidweiden.com/bio/
Works by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Associated Works
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (2023) — Contributor — 1,630 copies, 26 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- alive
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Institute of American Indian Arts (MFA|Creative Writing)
University of Denver Sturm College of Law (law degree)
University of Texas-Austin (PhD) - Occupations
- professor of Native American Studies and Criminal Law at Metropolitan State University,
Denver Indian Family Resource Center, Board of Directors (3 yrs) - Awards and honors
- Edgar Award Nominee, 2021
Anthony Award, 2021
Thriller Award (ITW), 2021
Lefty Award, 2021
Spur Award, 2021 - Relationships
- Wurth, Erika T. (partner)
- Short biography
- David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation, was named by the New York Times as one of “the most critically acclaimed young novelists working now.” His debut novel, WINTER COUNTS, was called a “once-in-a-generation thriller” by the Los Angeles Times, a “worthy addition to the burgeoning canon of indigenous literature” by Library Journal, and one of the “best crime novels of all time” by Time and Parade magazines. Weiden is the first Native American author to win an Anthony Award and the Thriller Award, and the second to be nominated for the Edgar Award. His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and has been selected for Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories.
- Nationality
- Sicangu Lakota
USA - Birthplace
- Denver, Colorado, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Colorado, USA
Members
Reviews
Back in 2021, I highly recommended Weiden's first Virgil Wounded Horse mystery, Winter Counts, and I'm happy to say that his second, Wisdom Corner, is every bit as good.
The author puts readers right in the heart of the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations. He weaves fascinating bits of Native American history into his story, like the Carlyle Indian School football team, and shows us all how Indian boarding schools and the proven inequality of the American criminal justice system have made show more their marks on Native lives. Native American culture and delicious food are also part of this rich tapestry.
But any fictional tapestry is incomplete without an engaging cast of characters, and Wisdom Corner has that, too. Virgil's struggle to have a more acceptable lifestyle is real, and his partner, Marie, does everything she can to help him. Marie's fight for a seat on the tribal council is only one of the ways she shows how much she cares for the people on the reservation. Virgil's nephew, Nathan, is a high schooler trying to have a meaningful life on the reservation-- which is extremely difficult to do for any young person there. I think my favorite new character was Rose Charging Cloud, the chief of police for the Rosebud Sioux tribe. Being Black, Native, and female, she's had a tough road to her job. At first, I didn't like her, but she certainly grew on me.
Once again, as in Winter Counts, the bad guy was very easy for me to spot, but there was some excellent misdirection steering readers toward other suspects. If you enjoy learning about other cultures in a propulsive mystery populated with vivid characters, I highly recommend Wisdom Corner, but I will say that you should really read Winter Counts first. (Why settle for one great read when you can have two?)
(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley) show less
The author puts readers right in the heart of the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations. He weaves fascinating bits of Native American history into his story, like the Carlyle Indian School football team, and shows us all how Indian boarding schools and the proven inequality of the American criminal justice system have made show more their marks on Native lives. Native American culture and delicious food are also part of this rich tapestry.
But any fictional tapestry is incomplete without an engaging cast of characters, and Wisdom Corner has that, too. Virgil's struggle to have a more acceptable lifestyle is real, and his partner, Marie, does everything she can to help him. Marie's fight for a seat on the tribal council is only one of the ways she shows how much she cares for the people on the reservation. Virgil's nephew, Nathan, is a high schooler trying to have a meaningful life on the reservation-- which is extremely difficult to do for any young person there. I think my favorite new character was Rose Charging Cloud, the chief of police for the Rosebud Sioux tribe. Being Black, Native, and female, she's had a tough road to her job. At first, I didn't like her, but she certainly grew on me.
Once again, as in Winter Counts, the bad guy was very easy for me to spot, but there was some excellent misdirection steering readers toward other suspects. If you enjoy learning about other cultures in a propulsive mystery populated with vivid characters, I highly recommend Wisdom Corner, but I will say that you should really read Winter Counts first. (Why settle for one great read when you can have two?)
(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley) show less
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
WINNER OF THE BEST FIRST NOVEL ANTHONY AWARD FOR 2021! Virtual Bouchercon award ceremonies linked to at the above.
WINNER OF THE BEST INDIGENOUS WRITER at the 2021 High Plains Book Awards.
On The Guardian’s Best Thrillers of 2021 list
Review to come on Wednesday.
***
WEDNESDAY
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: This is a Brulé Lakota Winter Count:
This cultural tradition, extremely briefly summarized in a show more Wikipedia article, organizes this novel’s ideas. Virgil Wounded Horse, our aptly and prophetically named vigilante-cum-enforcer hero in this thriller, touches on this fascinating piece of (half) his ancestry’s sense of time and place often enough to make the title of the book emerge organically in the reader’s mind. Virgil muses at one point, “Winter counts were the calendar system used by the Lakota, but they weren't like modern ones. I'd loved the little pictures in the calendars, each image showing the most significant event from the past year.” He muses again, at a later point, “Winter counts. This was the winter of my sorrow, one I had tried to elude but which had come for me with a terrible cruelty.” I think both are ideas of how he, his world, and his sense of self, are in motion at all times. It makes his entire life spent in action make sense…he’s not a Lakota insider, like ex-girlfriend Marie Short Bear, whose ancestry is flawlessly pureblood and perfectly in tune with the power structure within the Rosebud Reservation. He’s not an insider in the white world, either, being a mixed-race outcast from its racist system. It’s been a blessing in that any curse can be turned into an advantage if you’re looking for a way to do it. He’s got a place enforcing justice outside white and Native American legal systems, as required.
What this means is that the character is perfect for a thriller that needs telling to get people to care about the problems heaped on Outsiders, Othered people, by all systems of government. The tribal justice system (arguably distorted by its necessary accommodation to white codes) as much as any other. Virgil is outside, and that is the perfect place to be when the upper echelon needs something done that won’t “look good.” The value of face, of taking things at face value, is something white people with our media obsession have raised to virtual apotheosis; it’s far from untrue of other cultures, however. Marie Little Bear’s tribal leadership position means he can’t directly do the effective thing against the drug cartels hooking Native kids on heroin, with the well-known tragic consequences.
Had the plague not touched Virgil’s nephew, hard, he wouldn’t have agreed to take on the violent and greedy and frankly evil people. But when it’s family, things look different, don’t they. What happens on the reservation has its roots in the not-distant city of Denver. Marie and Virgil set out to confront the ills of their corner of the world by going outside that corner, by bearding the lion in his den, and they are not surprisingly at some disadvantages there. It is as revealing to consider their troubles and issues within the white world of Denver as to examine the world of the reservation in promotion, tolerance, and perpetuation of toxic social maladjustment.
I’m impressed by the way this thriller uses its author’s straddled worlds…he’s Lakota and teaches Native American Studies at the Metropolitan State College of Denver, so clearly he’s quite adept at code-switching…as a full and integrated world for Virgil Wounded Horse. We’re not expected to see Virgil as a man out of place in two worlds, we’re expected to see a man discovering his place in his own world. It is a fine distinction, but an important one. Virgil is an outsider in each of those large, obvious social constructs. He is making his own world, one in which he is the norm, as in the end that is what we all must do to “fit in.” Where the world doesn’t have a place for you, make one.
That is the gift of this read to the reader. Join Virgil Wounded Horse in his thrilling world.
This post is the 1,000th on my blog! I’ve written many thousands of book reviews over the years of many truly enjoyable books. I’m very happy that, after eight and a half years, I’ve reached this milestone blog post with a review of a book I’m happy to recommend that you read as a Booksgiving treat to yourself. show less
WINNER OF THE BEST FIRST NOVEL ANTHONY AWARD FOR 2021! Virtual Bouchercon award ceremonies linked to at the above.
WINNER OF THE BEST INDIGENOUS WRITER at the 2021 High Plains Book Awards.
On The Guardian’s Best Thrillers of 2021 list
Review to come on Wednesday.
***
WEDNESDAY
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: This is a Brulé Lakota Winter Count:
This cultural tradition, extremely briefly summarized in a show more Wikipedia article, organizes this novel’s ideas. Virgil Wounded Horse, our aptly and prophetically named vigilante-cum-enforcer hero in this thriller, touches on this fascinating piece of (half) his ancestry’s sense of time and place often enough to make the title of the book emerge organically in the reader’s mind. Virgil muses at one point, “Winter counts were the calendar system used by the Lakota, but they weren't like modern ones. I'd loved the little pictures in the calendars, each image showing the most significant event from the past year.” He muses again, at a later point, “Winter counts. This was the winter of my sorrow, one I had tried to elude but which had come for me with a terrible cruelty.” I think both are ideas of how he, his world, and his sense of self, are in motion at all times. It makes his entire life spent in action make sense…he’s not a Lakota insider, like ex-girlfriend Marie Short Bear, whose ancestry is flawlessly pureblood and perfectly in tune with the power structure within the Rosebud Reservation. He’s not an insider in the white world, either, being a mixed-race outcast from its racist system. It’s been a blessing in that any curse can be turned into an advantage if you’re looking for a way to do it. He’s got a place enforcing justice outside white and Native American legal systems, as required.
What this means is that the character is perfect for a thriller that needs telling to get people to care about the problems heaped on Outsiders, Othered people, by all systems of government. The tribal justice system (arguably distorted by its necessary accommodation to white codes) as much as any other. Virgil is outside, and that is the perfect place to be when the upper echelon needs something done that won’t “look good.” The value of face, of taking things at face value, is something white people with our media obsession have raised to virtual apotheosis; it’s far from untrue of other cultures, however. Marie Little Bear’s tribal leadership position means he can’t directly do the effective thing against the drug cartels hooking Native kids on heroin, with the well-known tragic consequences.
Had the plague not touched Virgil’s nephew, hard, he wouldn’t have agreed to take on the violent and greedy and frankly evil people. But when it’s family, things look different, don’t they. What happens on the reservation has its roots in the not-distant city of Denver. Marie and Virgil set out to confront the ills of their corner of the world by going outside that corner, by bearding the lion in his den, and they are not surprisingly at some disadvantages there. It is as revealing to consider their troubles and issues within the white world of Denver as to examine the world of the reservation in promotion, tolerance, and perpetuation of toxic social maladjustment.
I’m impressed by the way this thriller uses its author’s straddled worlds…he’s Lakota and teaches Native American Studies at the Metropolitan State College of Denver, so clearly he’s quite adept at code-switching…as a full and integrated world for Virgil Wounded Horse. We’re not expected to see Virgil as a man out of place in two worlds, we’re expected to see a man discovering his place in his own world. It is a fine distinction, but an important one. Virgil is an outsider in each of those large, obvious social constructs. He is making his own world, one in which he is the norm, as in the end that is what we all must do to “fit in.” Where the world doesn’t have a place for you, make one.
That is the gift of this read to the reader. Join Virgil Wounded Horse in his thrilling world.
This post is the 1,000th on my blog! I’ve written many thousands of book reviews over the years of many truly enjoyable books. I’m very happy that, after eight and a half years, I’ve reached this milestone blog post with a review of a book I’m happy to recommend that you read as a Booksgiving treat to yourself. show less
On the Rosebud Reservation, in South Dakota, justice is elusive. Both spousal abuse and child abuse usually go unchecked, along with other offenses that the law can’t be bothered with. This is where Virgil Wounded Horse comes in. He is the local enforcer and will mete out justice as needed, normally for a reasonable fee. He barely makes ends meet but is proud of the service he supplies. When hard drugs start rolling into the reservation and his teenage nephew, who he is raising, becomes show more involved with some unsavory people, it becomes personal for Virgil. This leads him to Denver where the drugs are coming from and now he is dealing with the cartels.
This is a terrific debut. Along with the action and suspense it is also a social commentary on what modern life is like for a Native- trying to keep traditions, in a perilous, unjust world. show less
This is a terrific debut. Along with the action and suspense it is also a social commentary on what modern life is like for a Native- trying to keep traditions, in a perilous, unjust world. show less
There's rather a dearth of books set in South Dakota. In my LibraryThing reading history I only show 2 other books that I have tagged as having South Dakota settings. (Similarly I only show 3 books set in North Dakota and they are all by Louise Erdrich.) I suppose that is partly due to those states being sparsely populated; most writers want to be familiar with their setting to place a book there. Hopefully this author will place some more books in this area.
Virgil Wounded Horse lives on the show more Rosebud Indian Reservation. He does odd jobs and also metes out physical justice to people that the legal system can't or won't prosecute. He is the guardian of his teenage nephew, Nathan, whose mother died a few years previously. He is an alcoholic but has been sober for a few years. When one of the band councillors offers to pay him to show his brand of justice to a local man, Rick Crow, who is bringing heroin onto the reservation, Virgil is willing because he was a victim of bullying from Rick when he was in high school. Then he comes home one day and finds Nathan in a coma from using heroin and his motivation is enhanced. His nephew recovers, thankfully, and is okay to be left with Virgil's aunt while he goes off to Denver to find the dealer. He is accompanied by his former girlfriend, Marie Short Bear, who dated Rick for a while after she and Virgil split up. Marie has some ideas where they could find Rick. When they go to a bar he frequents he is not there but an undercover drug agent hears them asking for Rick and follows them. When he hears about Nathan he suggests that Nathan could help them convict the gang running the drugs by setting up a sting. Virgil won't even consider this but when a pile of opiod pills are found in Nathan's locker at high school and he is looking at 10 years in federal adult prison he reluctantly agrees. Despite the feds' assurances that all will be well there are big problems and soon Virgil is facing the possibility of losing Nathan. With assistance from a local medicine man and members of the community Virgil has a vision that helps him get an idea of where to look for Nathan.
I thought this was a great book, particularly for a debut novel. It seems to me to be a realistic portrayal of life on a reservation. In Canada, we have very similar problems in our indigenous communities and, although I wouldn't want to see violence used as a technique to bring justice, some of the other mechanisms shown in this book could be useful here as well as in the US. show less
Virgil Wounded Horse lives on the show more Rosebud Indian Reservation. He does odd jobs and also metes out physical justice to people that the legal system can't or won't prosecute. He is the guardian of his teenage nephew, Nathan, whose mother died a few years previously. He is an alcoholic but has been sober for a few years. When one of the band councillors offers to pay him to show his brand of justice to a local man, Rick Crow, who is bringing heroin onto the reservation, Virgil is willing because he was a victim of bullying from Rick when he was in high school. Then he comes home one day and finds Nathan in a coma from using heroin and his motivation is enhanced. His nephew recovers, thankfully, and is okay to be left with Virgil's aunt while he goes off to Denver to find the dealer. He is accompanied by his former girlfriend, Marie Short Bear, who dated Rick for a while after she and Virgil split up. Marie has some ideas where they could find Rick. When they go to a bar he frequents he is not there but an undercover drug agent hears them asking for Rick and follows them. When he hears about Nathan he suggests that Nathan could help them convict the gang running the drugs by setting up a sting. Virgil won't even consider this but when a pile of opiod pills are found in Nathan's locker at high school and he is looking at 10 years in federal adult prison he reluctantly agrees. Despite the feds' assurances that all will be well there are big problems and soon Virgil is facing the possibility of losing Nathan. With assistance from a local medicine man and members of the community Virgil has a vision that helps him get an idea of where to look for Nathan.
I thought this was a great book, particularly for a debut novel. It seems to me to be a realistic portrayal of life on a reservation. In Canada, we have very similar problems in our indigenous communities and, although I wouldn't want to see violence used as a technique to bring justice, some of the other mechanisms shown in this book could be useful here as well as in the US. show less
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- Works
- 4
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 1,018
- Popularity
- #25,308
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 67
- ISBNs
- 22
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