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Stew Magnuson's The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns is the 2009 Nebraska nonfiction book of the year, according to the Nebraska Center of the Book.

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Graphic designer Lindsay Starr won best cover illustration for her work on the book.

"As a native Nebraskan, I'm really grateful for this honor," said Magnuson, who wrote the book from his grandparent's home near Stapleton.

Shortly after the book was published, it was reviewed in the North Platte Bulletin.

"A page-turning narrative history of 130 years of co-existence and conflicts," writer Linda Read Deeds said. "Tales of uneven justice permeate these pages."

Magnuson will accept the award at the Nebraska Book Festival in Lincoln Nov. 14 and discuss his work.

The award follows an award from ForeWord Magazine, which gave Magnuson a bronze in its regional nonfiction competition of books that were independently published.

The book has also been nominated by the Writers' League of Texas as a nonfiction book of the year and the Center of Great Plains Studies for a Great Plains distinguished book of the year.

The book traces 130 years of shared history between two communities, the Oglala Lakotas of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and the border towns of Sheridan County, Neb.

It recounts the death of Lakota ranch worker, Raymond Yellow Thunder at the hands of four white men in 1972, and the subsequent involvement of the American Indian Movement in the case.

Among the other stories is the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 and the border towns' role in the incident; the life and death of Nebraska AIM Coordinator Bob Yellow Bird Steele and a comprehensive history of the town of Whiteclay, a hamlet on the border that continues to sell millions of cans of beer per year to the residents of the otherwise dry reservation.

The Nebraska Unicameral is holding a series of hearings on Whiteclay this month and next.

"I think this book can provide some historical perspective on the Whiteclay controversy," says Magnuson, who visited the town dozens of times. He conducted more than 70 interviews for the book in addition to archival research.

To raise funds to live in Gordon for four months, he worked in a salmon cannery in Ketchikan, Alaska for a summer.

The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder was published by Texas Tech University Press under its Great Plains series, which is edited by University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor of history and journalism, John R. Wunder.

"I really want to thank Texas Tech University Press and John Wunder for believing in this book when so many other publishers took a pass," Magnuson said.

Magnuson is working on a second nonfiction book, The Last American Highway: A Journey Through Time Down U.S. Route 83. He is the managing editor of National Defense Magazine in Arlington, Va.

The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder is available in bookstores throughout Nebraska, on amazon.com or can be ordered by phone from Texas Tech University Press at 1-800-832-4042.