Why did I love this book?
John (Fire) Lame Deer gets right to the heart of modern rez life: the crazy humor, the quest to preserve culture, the bumbling government policies, and the chronic problems that beset Native people. An outspoken Lakota medicine man, Lame Deer’s story is more than just his own—it’s a ‘community autobiography’ that breaks the mold of American memoir. Call it what you will: reverent or profane, amusing or grim, tender or feisty, Lame Deer calls into question many of the upbeat assumptions so common in American life stories. There are more rags than riches in this story, and that suits Lame Deer just fine.
3 authors picked Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Storyteller, rebel, medicine man, Lame Deer was born almost a century ago on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. A full-blooded Sioux, he was many things in the white man's world - rodeo clown, painter, prisoner. But, above all, he was a holy man of the Lakota tribe. The story he tells is one of harsh youth and reckless manhood, shotgun marriage and divorce, history and folklore as rich today as ever - and of his fierce struggle to keep pride alive, though living as a stranger in his own ancestral land.