The Center for Western Studies at Augustana University (Sioux Falls, SD) has presented Phyllis with the Richard Cropp Amateur Award for a research paper she delivered at the 51st Annual Dakota Conference. Her subject was Sarah Wakefield and the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, the basis of her historical novel Beneath the Same Stars. Phyllis is grateful for the Center’s encouragement to reexamine our histories and their ramifications for the present.