Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions: The Life of a Sioux Medicine Man

This book made the Native American people more real and understandable for me. It made me realize how much experience we need to be able to have knowledge. I hope I am a more understanding and better person for having read this book.

I personally read this book many years ago, and found it to be one of the most interesting accounts of personal history I have ever read. John Fire Lame Deer lead a life as many things, but one thing is for sure he 'lived' his life and lived it like no other. Everytime I see this book on my shelves, I pick it up and read it all over again. From childhood to manhood walk side by side with one of the most interesting people in all of history. *Wink* click my name above.

There is humor. Lame Deer has an excellent sense of just where to find your funny bone! I broke out in laughter more than once. I'm quite sure the other people on the bus think I'm nuts! But, we all have a heyoka inside of us, eh? He even asks us to laugh at ourselves a little. It's historical, and teaches you some things that definitely should have been taught in school. It's cultural, and denotes some interesting differences between Indian and other groups of people. I like the book on the whole, and strongly recommend it as reading for anyone considering hanblechia. My fiancee' is starting his sun dance next year, and I wanted to educate myself further as to what that entails. It's a great read!

People here are prasing this book for the insight it gives into the lives of Native Americans. Not that this book isn't important for its take on Amerindian culture: to say that John Lame Deer doesn't have a grasp on what is important to himself and his people would be improper and negligent.People are missing two of the things that make this book so powerful: its humor and its take on the white world that exists outside of the reservation. Erdoes commentaries on his Indian visitors, Lame Deer's comments on EVERYTHING, and the voice and process of this book are FUNNY. This book is well-constructed and fun to read. On to the second point: Lame Deer is fairly sucessful in making Europeans often look like clowns-- stripping their culture and sophistication, making them more human....This book should have a much wider audience than it has ever had (and that is actually fairly substantial, strangely enough....) Not that this is a book that could change a person's life: it could at least give direction to the perplexed. I highly recommend this book....