| Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve | |
| Birth Name: | Virginia Driving Hawk |
| Birth Date: | 21 February 1933 |
| Birth Place: | South Dakota, United States |
| Genres: | Historical, children's literature |
| Spouse: | Vance M. Sneve |
| Children: | 3 |
| Education: | St. Mary's School for Indian Girls (Springfield, South Dakota) South Dakota State University |
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (born February 21, 1933) is a Native American author, with a focus on children's books about Native Americans.
The daughter of James Driving Hawk, an Episcopalian priest, and Rose Driving Hawk (née Ross), Virginia was raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. She graduated from St. Mary's School for Indian Girls in Springfield, South Dakota and received her bachelor's and master's degrees from South Dakota State University (Brookings) where she met her husband. She has published over twenty books on South Dakota history, aboriginal American history, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction works for children, as well as one about her female ancestors, "Completing the Circle".[1]
Virginia is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota). She studied journalism at the South Dakota State University. She is the mother of three, grandmother of five, and great-grandmother of two.
It is because of her children that she realized the need for children's books about aboriginal Americans in a contemporary context rather than a "savage" myth of the past. Her husband is from a Norwegian family, so she wrote The Trickster and the Troll to bring together the two cultures of her children, for them and for her grandchildren. The story follows the Lakota trickster Iktomi and a Norwegian house troll across the plains as they search for the troll's lost family.
Sneve was an English language teacher and counselor in several public schools, editor at the Brevet Press in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and she has been a member of several organizations. She and her husband also ran an antiques business before retiring. She still writes today; her latest book is "The Christmas Coat: Memories of My Sioux Childhood", published in 2011 and named in the Smithsonian magazine's Best Children's Books of 2011.[2] She still resides in South Dakota with her husband.