October 12, 2024

During this fall’s South Dakota Festival of Books, the South Dakota Humanities Council and the South Dakota State Poetry Society took a moment to celebrate lasting contributions to South Dakota’s literary, artistic, and cultural landscape. SDHC presented three awards for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities, and SDSPS recognized two Poets of Merit.

2024 Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities Awards

Since 1976, SDHC has recognized outstanding contributions to the study and understanding of the humanities through its DAH awards. Each year, these awards honor the unique spirit of an individual, a librarian, and an organization for their ongoing support and lasting impact on the humanities in South Dakota.

Individual – Sherry DeBoer, Chaska, MN

In more than three decades at SDHC, Sherry DeBoer did nearly every job in the organization, ultimately serving as executive director from 2007 through her retirement in 2018. In that position, she led the council to greater financial stability by increasing its endowments from just under $1 million to more than $2.5 million and raising funds to earn nearly $1 million in challenge grants offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

As the founding director of SDHC’s Center for the Book, DeBoer launched the annual South Dakota Festival of Books, which NEH has described as “the jewel in the state’s crown.” Throughout her tenure, she emphasized the value of civil conversation and the importance of divergent voices, while also developing an encyclopedic knowledge of council history and a vast network of relationships across the state.

Librarian – Mikaela Neubauer, Brookings

Mikaela Neubauer is the Community Services Coordinator at the Brookings Public Library. With SDHC support, she has hosted various humanities-centered events, such as a Community Intergroup Dialogue program and a Native American Heritage Month speaker series. Neubauer is a member of the South Dakota Library Association and is currently pursuing a Master of Library Science degree through Emporia State University.

Organization – Lost & Found, Sioux Falls

South Dakota Lost & Found delivers comprehensive, data-driven, and resilience-focused suicide prevention and postvention programs and services for youth and young adults (ages 10-34) and their support networks.​ Lost & Found envisions a world in which no young adult dies by suicide. They also envision a world where tools and support for developing lifelong wellness are easily accessible. With support from SDHC grants, they have shared hope and healing through their #30Days30Stories projects, reaching thousands of people through in-person events and social media, while also yielding insights on the empowering possibilities of storytelling.

2024 Poet of Merit Awards

Since 2020, SDSPS has recognized South Dakota poets with outstanding literary merit and exceptional ability to communicate with people through poetry. They annually honor both a Living Poet of Merit and a Posthumous Poet of Merit. All awardees have their work archived at South Dakota State University’s Briggs Library to ensure that future generations can enjoy it.

Living Poet of Merit: Lydia Whirlwind Soldier

Lydia Whirlwind Soldier is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota on the Rosebud reservation. A graduate of Sinte Gleska University and Pennsylvania State University, she is a poet, novelist, essayist, and business owner. She has taught elementary school and served as Indian Studies Coordinator for the Todd Country School District. She is also a skilled craftswoman, having won a first-place prize in the Northern Plains Tribal Arts Exhibition for a traditional cradleboard. A founding member of the Oceti Sakowin (formerly Oak Lake) Tribal Writers Society, Whirlwind Soldier has long been an advocate for Native American voices and education.

Posthumous Poet of Merit: Adrian C. Louis (accepted by literary executor David Pichaske)

Adrian C. Louis was born in 1946 and died in 2018. An enrolled member of the Lovelock Paiute tribe, he earned BA and MA degrees in Creative Writing from Brown University. He was a poet, journalist, critic, novelist, and editor for the Lakota Times and Indian Country Today. Louis wrote 19 books of poetry, and his novel, Skins, was made into a 2002 movie starring Graham Greene. His work has won numerous awards, including Pushcart prizes and Bush Foundation fellowships.

Pulitzer Prize winning author N. Scott Momaday called Louis’ poetry collection Blood Thirsty Savages “…an equation of anger and survival, of acceptance and defiance brought into delicate balance. It is work of profound honesty, and it ought to be read by everyone who cares to know the American heart.” In addition to his prolific writing, Louis taught at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge reservation and at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.

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