Joseph M. Marshall III is a Sicangu Lakota, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. He was raised in a traditional native household by his maternal grandparents, where he learned the ancient tradition of oral storytelling, and his first language is Lakota. Marshall has appeared in several television documentaries, served as a technical adviser for movies, and was a technical adviser and narrator for the miniseries Into the West, in which he played the role of Loved By The Buffalo. He is a practitioner of primitive Lakota archery, having learned from his maternal grandfather the art of handcrafting bows and arrows, and he is a specialist in wilderness survival.

Marshall is the author of more than twenty books. The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History is a biography from the viewpoint of the greatest Lakota warrior, based primarily on oral accounts. His other books include The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn: A Lakota History, The Long Knives Are Crying (a novel), and The Power of Four: Leadership Lessons of CrazyHorse. In 2005 Marshall released Quiet Thunder: The Wisdom of Crazy Horse (a six-part audio teaching series); Walking with Grandfather: The Wisdom of Lakota Elders; and the unabridged audio version of The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living, now in its twentieth printing. Marshall has also developed a seminar based on the leadership lessons of Crazy Horse.

Honors for Marshall's work include the Beyond Margins Award from the PEN American Center, four Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine, the Creative Nonfiction Award from the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association, and the 2009 Best American Indian Fiction Writer Award from True West magazine. He was a 2011 finalist in the Spiritual Category of the MS Society Books for a Better Life Award, New York, for To You We Shall Return: Lessons about Our Planet from the Lakota.