Lame Deer Seeker of Visions PDF
Preview Lame Deer Seeker of Visions
“A MASTERPIECE” —ROBERT BURNETT; AUTHOR OF THE TORTURED AMERICANS LAME DEER SEEKER OF VISIONS T H E LIFE O F A SIOUX M EDECIN E M AN JOHN (FIRE) LAME DEER AND RICHARD ERDOES Biography/Native American Studies Tahc^ushte—John (Fire) Lame Deer—is a full-blooded Sioux Indian born at the beginning of the century on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Lame Deer is a medicine man, a vision seeker, a man who upholds the old religion and the ancient ways of his people. He is a man of the earth. He has been many things in his time—a rodeo clown, a soldier, a sign painter, a spud picker, a jail prisoner, a tribal policeman, a sheep herder and a singer. But above all else he is wicasa wakan, a Sioux Medicine Man. “It’s a wonderful book, and it reflects a wonderful thing that’s hap pening. At long last, Indians are being permitted to speak and write about themselves and their peoples, and the rest of us are finding that they have—and always did have—an enormous contribution to make to our literature. Lame Deer is a magnificent American. As an individual and as a representative voice of his people, he is someone whom all readers should get to know—not just those who are inter ested in Indians, but every American. The book is destined to become a classic. It will be read, and reread, and quoted from through the years. Personally, I am enormously enriched by it.” —Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., author of Indian Heritage of America; editor of American Heritage’s Indians “A fasci nati ng story.” —Library Journal Richard Erdoes has written extensively about Native Americans. Born in Europe and influenced by Karl May, his writings include The Sun Dance People and The Pueblo Indians. He is the coauthor of Lakota Woman. A Touchstone Book Published by Simon & Schuster New York LAME DEER Seeker of Visions BY John (Fire) Lame Deer AND Richard Erdoes A TOUCHSTONE BOOK Published by Simon & Schuster New York London Toronto Sydney Copyright • 1972 by John Fire/Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form A Touchstone Book Published by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Simon & Schuster Building, Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc ISBN-13: 978-0-671-21197-4 ISBN-10: 0-671-21197-8 ISBN-13: 978-0-671-21535-4 (Pbk) ISBN-10: 0-671-21535-3 (Pbk) Library of Congress Catalog Number 79-190730 Manufactured in the United States of America 29 30 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO: Frank Fools Crow Pete Catches George Eagle Elk Bill Schweigman Leonard Crow Dog Wallace Black Elk John Strike Raymond Hunts Horse Charles Kills Enemy Godfrey Chips and all the other medicine men of the Sioux Nation Contents 1 Alone on the Hilltop 11 2 That Gun in the New York Museum Belongs to Me 17 3 The Green Frog Skin 42 4 Getting Drunk, Going to Jail 71 5 Sitting on Top of Teddy Roosevelt’s Head 91 6 The Circle and the Square 108 7 Talking to the Owls and Butterflies 119 8 Two in a Blanket 139 9 Medicine, Good and Bad 154 10 Inipi—Grandfather’s Breath 174 n Yurwipi—Little Lights from Nowhere 183 12 Looking at the Sun, They Dance 198 13 Don’t Hurt the Trees 214 14 Roll Up the World 225 15 The Upside-Down, Forward-Backward, Icy-Hot Contrary 236 16 Blood Turned into Stone 247 epilogue: Inyan Wasicun, the White Man with the Rocks 267 GLOSSARY 285 LAME DEER Seeker of Visions
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