In recent days, I've seen a lot of promotional material for a new picture book, The Echo People. It caught my eye because the illustrator is Shonto Begay, who is Diné and has done outstanding art for Native writers.
But, who is the author? "SD Youngwolf" is not someone I am familiar with. When that is the case, I see what I can learn about the individual and the Native Nation they claim. Here's my notes:
The author is "SD Youngwolf."
In January of 2019, he won the "New Voices" award that Lee and Low gives out. That's a writing contest that is "open to writers of color and Native/Indigenous writers" who are at least 18 years old. And, "In order to enter the Contest or receive the prize award, you must fully comply with the Official Rules and, by entering, you represent and warrant that you agree to be bound by these Official Rules..."
On their Jan 22, 2019 blog announcement of his award, they say he is "tribally enrolled in the Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee." I assume they got that information from him or a statement he submitted when he entered the contest.
There's a Jan 24, 2019 article at Valley Courier (a newspaper in Alamosa, Colorado) about him winning the award. There it says he is tribally enrolled in the "Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee." I assume the reporter got that information from him or from Lee and Low.
Now (August 29, 2025), on the "About" page at Lee and Low, Youngwolf is identified as "an enrolled citizen of the Tsalagiyi Nvdagi Tribe."
Why am I noting these names of nations Youngwolf claims? Because it matters!
There are three federally-recognized Cherokee Nations: Cherokee Nation, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Youngwolf doesn't say he's a citizen of any of the three.
He once claimed to be a citizen of The Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee, which is apparently located in Texas. But, the state of Texas does not extend state recognition to anyone.
Now he claims to be an enrolled citizen of the "Tsalagiyi Nvdagi Tribe." It is neither a federally recognized or state recognized tribal nation. It strikes me as similar to the groups of people that come together and form what they call a tribe, based on family stories.
Clearly, I have questions about the Native Nation he claims to be part of now. But, asking again -- who is this person, SD Youngwolf?
I did a bit of searching and found SD Youngwolf's name in a 2013 dissertation titled "Mystics, Radicals, Sinners, and Saints: Freedom, Rebirth, and the American West, where he was one of the people interviewed by Brian King, a PhD student at the University of New Mexico. The abstract for jos dissertation says it is an exploration of "the lives of John Muir, the Taos Society of Artists, Mabel Dodge Lujan, Everett Ruess, Edith Warner, and the Taos hippies who journeyed to the American West in search of freedom" (p. x).
In the acknowledgments, Brian King thanks "Suri Dass Youngwolf" who is in Chapter 5, titled "Taos Hippies Model an Alternative: Freedom for All?"
Having read chapter 5, I think it fair to say that in the 1960s SD Youngwolf was a hippy living in a commune in Taos.
In the dissertation, King's footnotes indicate he interviewed SD Youngwolf on November 30, 2012. King asked Youngwolf what he and the hippies who moved to Taos wanted to accomplish. Youngwolf replied "To live a spiritual life," and said "many of these people had grown up in a very materialistic life in which something was missing and that's why there was the hippie revolution." They "were seeking [...] 'the sacred.'" King asked if they succeeded or failed, and Youngwolf replied that he'd succeeded. He also said that happiness is not a goal, that it is the path and "that's kind of the way I feel, sacred is what you live, day to day" (p. 241-242). Youngwolf experimented with drugs, and that led him to practice yoga and meditation. He wanted to use his artwork to convey "Beauty, bliss, Spirit" and "the sacred, the sacred" (p. 250).
Nowhere does the dissertation identify Youngwolf as Cherokee. The interview was in 2012.
For now, I am uneasy with what I have found and doubt that I will review his book. I'm curious about how Lee and Low verifies the identity of a person who submits a manuscript in the New Voices Award when that person says they are Native. I'm going to see if I can find the author of the dissertation. Maybe the interview says something about Youngblood being Cherokee but that didn't make it into the dissertation. I'm also curious how King found Youngblood and decided to interview him.
Pausing for now, but wanted to share these notes. If you know him and can provide any insights, let me know.
Pausing for now, but wanted to share these notes. If you know him and can provide any insights, let me know.
