A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Stew Magnuson is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and the author of The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, an award-winning nonfiction book published by Texas Tech University Press and recently rereleased as an audiobook by Audible. The Nebraska Center of the Book named The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder the 2009 Nebraska Book of the Year in the nonfiction category. Graphic artist Lindsay Starr was also honored for her work on the cover design. The Nebraska Literary Heritage Association, in partnership with the Nebraska State Historical Society and the Nebraska Library Commission, chose The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns for its list of Nebraska books that "represent the best literature produced from Nebraska during the past 150 years" to mark the state's sesquicentennial in 2017. The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder won ForeWord magazine's bronze medal in the regional nonfiction category. The Center of Great Plains Studies also nominated the work as the 2008 Great Plains Distinguished Book of the Year. It was also nominated as the Writers' League of Texas nonfiction book of the year. Magnuson began work on The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder in 2003 after wrapping up a year of freelance writing in Southern California -- although his interest in the NebraskaPine Ridge border towns dated back to 1999 when he covered unrest in the town of Whiteclay for the Christian Science Monitor. During the intervening years, he kept track of the ongoing problems in Whiteclay, a hamlet that sells millions of cans of beer per year to residents of the Reservation, where alcohol is banned. He always thought there might be a larger story to investigate, but his career had taken him out of the area -- first to Washington, DC, then to Los Angeles. "Freelancing is not free," he explains. "I made a living in LA but had little savings to show for it." He found himself in Papillion, Nebraska, in 2003 between jobs and coasts as he looked for a permanent reporting job. To occupy his time, he attended hearings on Whiteclay at the Nebraska Unicameral and demonstrations protesting the state's border-town law enforcement policies. An offer to cat-sit for friends in Lincoln was a turning point. While there, he followed up on a lead from a UNL law professor, who had offered him Nebraska State Patrol documents and video tapes of the 1999 Whiteclay troubles. At the same time, he spent his days researching the topic at the Nebraska State Historical Society. While poring over microfilm, he first heard about the controversial 1972 death of Raymond Yellow Thunder in Gordon, Nebraska. Believing that there was an important, untold story about the 130-year shared history of the white settlers of Sheridan County, Nebraska, and the Oglala Lakotas of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, he decided to end his job search and throw himself into the project. "It was kind of an 'if not now, when?' situation," he says. "But I didn't have any money." He secured a job in a salmon-canning factory in Ketchikan, Alaska, to raise funds for the research. At one point, he worked seven weeks without a day off -- often at 16-hour stretches. The experience earned him enough money to live for four months in Gordon, where he carried out the bulk of the research. Since then, he has returned to the area a half-dozen times. In total, he conducted more than 70 interviews for the project. Magnuson graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1987 with a degree in English. He attended the university's School of Journalism and worked for several years at the student newspaper, The Daily Nebraskan. In September 2007, Texas Tech University Press accepted The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder as part of its Plains Histories series, edited by John R. Wunder.

The collection files include newspaper clippings, court documents (which include black and white crime scene photos), FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests, letters, highlighted journal articles, written notes in a notebook, and audio interviews specific to The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder. The Collection covers the history of the area known as White Clay, the founding of the border towns of Nebraska close to the Pine Ridge reservation, the history of the Black Hills, the violent deaths in border towns such as Gordon and White Clay, court documents, American Indian Movement activities in the area, as well as police reports tied to Robert and Joann Yellow Hawk, the death of Duane Morgan in White Clay, and lastly settler and Pine Ridge reservation history.