Norman E. Matteoni

Norm Matteoni is a California lawyer who specializes in eminent domain, primarily representing property owners. He has written extensively in law review articles, appellate briefs and a two-volume treatise on the Law of Eminent Domain in California. The latter is admittedly aimed at a limited market.

He is also a long-time student of the American West. As a lawyer whose clients find their land the target of government appropriation, a quote from the Great Lakota Chief Sitting Bull on behalf of his people had particular resonance: "I wish all to know that I do not propose to sell any portion of my country." Those words were one of the influences for his writing of the 2015 historical non-fiction book - PRAIRIE MAN - The Struggle between Sitting Bull and Indian Agent James McLaughlin.

The story is grounded on the Northern Plains, but is about two men of distinct backgrounds and different intentions toward the same land. The Sioux War is over and the Indian Bureau is pursuing its self described humanitarian policy of reculturation of the Native American through reservation life. Native culture and religion must change. The Indian must assimilate. Sitting Bull understands conquest but he is not about to surrender all of the Lakota's natural rights as a people of the prairie.