LAME DEER: Seeker of Visions

by John (Chief Lame Deer) & Richard Erdoes Fire ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1972

Chief Lame Deer is a Sioux Medicine Man (wicasa wakan) from the South Dakota Rosebud Reservation who also has been an itinerant cowboy, bootlegger, sheepherder, jailbird, GI, ""hobo"" and ""hippie"" and while he's recounting the circumstantialities of his life to Erdoes (""I stayed in that goddamn third grade for six years. There wasn't any other"") he's engaging and salty. Less winning is his ritualistic indictment of the White Man's Civilization, a condemnation of everything from missile silos to money (""green frog skin"") to powdered milk, dehydrated eggs, deodorants, antibiotics and souvenir post cards of Wounded Knee. Mostly though, Lame Deer is trying to impart the tribal lore, ceremonies, symbols and visions of his people including the magical powers of stones, turtles, bears and various herbs and roots which will cure everything from snakebite to impotence. Unfortunately most of it gets lost in the translation -- or transcription; perhaps the and-then-we-do-this-and-then-we-do-that style is simply incapable of projecting the ineffable mysteries of the Great Spirit? And by the time he gets around to describing the self-mutilation of young braves during the Sun Dance, the barbarity is more vivid than the sacred trappings. A stylized and stereotypical ""noble savage"" portraiture with some Red Power seasoning.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION