Billy Mills, Wings of an Eagle

Donna Janell Bowman, Billy Mills, S.D. Nelson, creators of Wings of an Eagle, published by Little, Brown

An unforgettable hour at the South Dakota Book Festival was listening to Billy Mills, Olympic gold champion, speak about the power and importance of working together; strength is in diversity, national and global, “we are all related and together we can soar … ” Billy Mills was the first Native American, Oglala Lakota (Sioux), to capture gold in the Olympic 10,000 meters and he is still the only US American male to have accomplished that goal.

“Follow your dream.
Every dream has a passion,
And every passion has a destiny.”

Billy’s journey to success was never easy. His words remind me: “You have to dig deeper — way below the anger, the hurt, the self-pity. The pursuit of a dream will heal you. Do this and you could have wings of an eagle.”

Read Wings of an Eagle and be inspired by Billy’s determination to overcome many hurdles to heal his spirit and to pursue his dream — Olympic Gold — and his words of wisdom, “we are stronger together when we link arms with all people.”

Wings of an Eagle, picture book biography, was written by Billy Mills and Donna Janell Bowman, with stunning illustrations by S.D. Nelson. Request a copy from your library or your local bookstore.

Here is a video of Billy Mills running the 10000 meters in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

A portion of Billy Mills’ talk at the South Dakota Festival of Books.