Joseph M. Marshall III, who is from the Sicangu Oglala tribe, grew up on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation. He was raised by his maternal grandparents, who told him stories about Lakota traditions and culture. These stories transmit the virtues of Lakota culture, including humility, perseverance, respect, honor, love, sacrifice, truth, compassion, bravery, fortitude, generosity, and wisdom. He dedicates a chapter to each of these virtues, which are at the foundation of Lakota culture. The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons in Living, published in 2001, is categorized as both a work of folklore and as a self-help book.

Each chapter begins with a tale from Lakota lore that is about a character who demonstrates a respective virtue. He then includes stories about figures in Lakota history and in his personal history who have shown that virtue. For example, in the chapter on humility, he tells the story of a woman named No Moccasins who helped her husband escape from enemies but never bragged about it. He also speaks about the humility of the great warrior Crazy Horse. In the chapter on perseverance, he tells the tale of warriors who took on the giant named Iya, and he also speaks about how his grandfather had to walk eight miles to school each day.

His essays emphasize the way in which the telling of these stories has sustained the Lakota through periods of great change, particularly when they were uprooted from their ancestral lands in the late 1800s and later forced to be educated at white-run boarding schools. He triumphs the way the Lakota persevered with a quiet dignity and strength, and he celebrates the role of grandmothers in maintaining and sustaining their families and culture in the face of the white onslaught.

His tales have many purposes. One is to let others benefit from their wisdom. He also hopes to flesh out the historical record and add an alternative point of view to the way whites have often portrayed Native Americans. For example, he writes about the way in which Crazy Horse surrendered to the US Army rather than subject the elderly, women, and children in his group of followers to capture. He writes that Crazy Horse was brave, not a coward, for doing so. His stories emphasize the interconnectedness of all things and the continuity of the Lakota in the face of struggle.