When the Tree Flowered: The Story of Eagle Voice, a Sioux Indian (New Edition)

This book is a fictional book with the author talking to an Indian elder about his life and the way of the Indian. The book, however, seems very authentic in feel and walks the fine line between fiction and non-fiction.I have lived in the Wyoming and Montana area, and this book is very authentic in feel. A great book on Indian culture but also a great book to expand the mind about bravery and obligation to our people. I find this book to be very enlightening and can remind all of us that we are all connected to each other, the animals, plants, and the earth. We should remember that in our daily journey.

This book was recommended by my sister-in-law, who is 1/2 Lakota Sioux. I wanted to understand more about the culture, the language, the inner feelings of the Sioux. This depiction, from a Lakota who went through the changes from freedom to confinement in his formative years, was sobering. I happened to find a 1951 version at a library and am now ordering the updated version to keep. I will be reading it again. I cried when I realized what my ancestors had done.

Neihardt's best prose work, from material gathered at Pine Ridge Reservation in the forties from Eagle Elk and other Sioux Indians. It draws delightful pictures of Sioux life, weaves in charming Indian folk tales and legends, and describes an enlightened society where generosity was the way to status and young men chosen to hunt for the poor were honored. The gently humorous wisdom that pervades the culture comes to life."....for the Great Mysterious One meant all things to be round--the sky and prarie, the sun and moon, the bodies of men and animals, trees and the nests of birds, and the hoop of the people. The days and the seasons come back in a circle, and so do the generations. The young grow old, and from the old young begin and grow. It is the sacred way."