By: Demallie, Raymond J.
Petri, Hilda N.
Pub. Date: 10/85
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Binding: Trade Paper, 462 pp.
ISBN:0803265646
Our Price: $16.95

Related Texts: American Indian,  Prophets, Saints, Sages and Teachers

Synopsis
When Neihardt wrote "Black Elk Speaks (1932) and When the Tree Flowered {BRD 1951}, he formed them out of two sets of interviews (1931 and 1944) with Black Elk, the Oglala Sioux medicine man, interviews that are today a primary source on Sioux religion. . . . In writing {the books} he both reworked and omitted portions of what Black Elk told him. . . . Sioux scholar Raymond J. DeMallie {has now} edited the recordings of both interviews in their entirety."(Choice) Bibliography. Index.

Publisher
"This book is a major contribution to Lakota ethnology, history, and theology that further enhances the importance and prestige of Black Elk Speaks. It will be invaluable to scholars in many disciplines and to general readers, especially that host of persons who already admire Black Elk and John G. Neihardt."-Father Peter J. Powell

D.R. Parks - Choice  
DeMallie's book is a model of editorial achievement that will be of interest to a wide audience of general readers and scholars in many disciplines. It contains a sensitive biographical account of Black Elk and of Black Elk's relationship to Neihardt that discusses the relationship between traditional Indian religion and Christianity and also provides an insightful introduction to Sioux religion. The interviews themselves are amply footnoted and followed bya concordance of material in the interviews and specific pages in Neihardt's books. Comprehensive bibliography and exemplary index. Highly recommended for all undergraduate and graduate libraries.

 

The Reader's Catalog
"In The sixth Grandfather, Dr. DeMallie reveals himself to be a uniquely sensitive interpreter of Lakota theology, philosophy, and history -- which are all one in traditionalist Lakota thought. His editing is a masterpiece of scholarly skill and spiritual insight, insight that penetrates the inner beings of both Black Elk and John G. Neihardt, two men of vastly different cultures who became one as seekers of the Sacred. The Sixth Grandfather is, as it were, the completion of the holy task begun in Black Elk Speaks and When the Tree Flowered." -- Father Peter J. Powell