Mari Sandoz Society

Mari Sandoz Society The Mari Sandoz Society works to build an appreciation of Mari Sandoz’s body of work and to preserve the legacy of this premier historian and writer.

The Mari Sandoz Heritage Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization responsible for preserving and sharing the legacy of Nebraska author Mari Sandoz, her literary and historical works honoring the land and the people about which she wrote: Native Americans, ranchers, farmers, and the people who settled the High Plains Country.

07/28/2026

POST UPDATE
We have a way to get the maps from Kearney to Fort Robinson, so now we just need anyone coming to/thru Lincoln from Kearney and back, or someone from Lincoln going to Kearney before Monday. Contact me if you can help! Thank you!

Is there anyone out in Facebookland from Lincoln or Omaha who is headed to NW Nebraska (Gordon/Rushville/Chadron area) before next Tuesday, has room and the willingness to haul some of our new Sandoz maps up there? Just a box or two. Vice-versa if there is anyone from out there headed to Lincol/Omaha and back this week. Please let me know. Thank you!

If you're in the area, or planning to attend the Pilster Lecture in September, plan to stick around for this program in ...
07/26/2026

If you're in the area, or planning to attend the Pilster Lecture in September, plan to stick around for this program in Alliance, NE!

The Alliance Public Library is honored to host Peg Gilbert, sponsored by the Humanities Nebraska Speakers Bureau, and her program featuring the life of Mari Sandoz on Friday, September 18, at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Room.

The program will be presented in first person. The speaker will be dressed in period costume for an engaging, interactive audience experience. Peg is from Omaha and shares her program with libraries and museums across the state.

As a member of the Mari Sandoz Society Board and a relative of the family, Peg is enthusiastic about sharing the life of Mari in her presentation, Life and Drive of Mari Sandoz.

Peg shares stories passed down through the family of Mari Sandoz’s experiences living on the family ranch during Mari’s formative years and throughout her life that shaped her into the renowned author of over 20 novels and short stories featuring the West and frontier life, including Ole’ Jules and Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas.

We hope you can attend this informative and what promises to be a memorable evening for all ages.

Period music courtesy of the Carnine family is at 5 p.m., and the 60-minute program will begin at 5:30 p.m.

The Humanities Nebraska Speakers Bureau provides communities across the state with engaging speakers who spark learning and discussion in schools, libraries, senior centers, and other venues, providing more than 250 different humanities programs free of charge.

07/17/2026
Straight from a Sanodoz Society board meeting yesterday, our scholar and board member, Nathan Tye, gave a talk at the Ch...
06/28/2026

Straight from a Sanodoz Society board meeting yesterday, our scholar and board member, Nathan Tye, gave a talk at the Chautauqua in Hastings.

Dr Nathan Tye from the University of Nebraska at Kearney is exploring Nebraska’s literary history at “Weaving a Nation” .

If you are near Ft. Phil Kearney, go hear our board president talk about author and historian, Mari Sandoz, on July 28th...
06/28/2026

If you are near Ft. Phil Kearney, go hear our board president talk about author and historian, Mari Sandoz, on July 28th. Learn more about Mari Sandoz here marisandozsociety.org

Join us July 28 at 6:00 pm for an Author's Talk!

In the winter of 1962, Mari Sandoz received a courtesy copy of Dee Brown’s Fort Phil Kearny: An American Saga, from the Bulletin from Virginia Kirkus' Service—a marketing publication that promoted publishers’ newest books. Having written dozens of successful histories of the West, including Old Jules; Crazy Horse, Strange Man of the Oglalas; and Cheyenne Autumn, Sandoz was a respected author and renowned expert on Plains Indians and Western History. Kirkus, who had corresponded with Sandoz over the years, likely hoped for a positive comment to add to its authority and build public interest. Instead, Sandoz marked up the book commenting on errors she believed Brown had made in his research. Forty years later, during Smith’s own research on Fort Phil Kearny, she stumbled upon Sandoz’s marked-up copy of Brown’s book and was inspired to dig deeper into the story of the fort, the Fetterman Fight, and the women who ultimately shaped the story. In this talk, Smith will compare the two best-selling authors’ approach to telling history and explore how their different upbringings shaped their perspectives.


Author's Bio:
Shannon D. Smith is the former Executive Director of the Wyoming Humanities Council. Prior to that she was an Associate Director and Research Fellow at EDUCAUSE in Boulder, Colorado and taught history and humanities for seven years at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Today, she works on cultural heritage projects in collaboration with Native American tribes and organizations to promote reconciliation and healing between Indigenous Peoples and non-native people. She is a historian and author of several works on women of the American West including Give Me Eighty Men: Women and the Myth of the Fetterman Fight, a 2009 book award winner from the Wyoming State Historical Society. She serves on the Board of Advisors for the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming, and the Board of Trustees for the Nebraska State Historical Society. She is president of the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society, an organization that promotes the legacy of Mari Sandoz and models allyship with Native Americans.

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PO Box 6808
Lincoln, NE
68506

Telephone

+14024993703

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