Ecco
Published July 7, 2026
Reviewed by Rebecca Nesvet
In Winter Counts, David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s award-winning debut novel, the enrolled Sicangu Lakota writer introduced his messy hero Virgil Wounded Horse. A self-appointed enforcer on the Lakota nation’s Rosebud Reservation at the cold, desolate borderzone that divides Nebraska from South Dakota, Virgil is a small-time reservation godfather of sorts. When federal, state, and tribal systems fail the Lakota people, they ask Virgil to help, and, with increasing reluctance, he does.Until he decides not to anymore. Until the drug dealers come for his teenage nephew, Nathan. Then, unhelped by anyone else, Virgil springs to action–and Winter Counts reveals in gritty social realism how (in)justice operates on the rez.
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