  We investigate the electronic band structure of two of the rare-earth
nitrides, DyN and SmN. Resistivity measurements imply that both materials have
a semiconducting ground state, and both show resistivity anomalies coinciding
with the magnetic transition, despite the different magnetic states in DyN and
SmN. X-ray absorption and emission measurements are in excellent agreement with
LSDA+U calculations, although for SmN the calculations predict a zero band gap.
