Author Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve says Native American women’s influence within the family guided their husbands at the polls, but it took education and overcoming many obstacles to get them to the polls even after Native Americans gained the right to vote.

Motivated by the desire to provide more accurate depictions of Native American experiences in children’s books, Driving Hawk Sneve launched her career as an author by entering a national writing contest. Since that contest, she has authored almost thirty books. Her work increases the visibility of women in Native American stories. Influential within the family and adaptable are two traits she identifies in Native American women.

“Female characters came from the fact that boys were always written about in children's literature when it came to a Native American adventure stories. The women were kind of ignored,” said Author Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve.