Where the Lightning Strikes: The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places

Peter Nabokov's WHERE THE LIGHTNING STRIKES: THE LIVES OF AMERICAN INDIAN SACRED PLACES surveys Native American culture and the myths and legends which have kept their close connections with the environment. Chapters are arranged by the four cardinal directions and use four major court cases in which Indians fought against destruction of key sacred places to bring together both past belief and modern controversies surrounding these places. There's a tendency to view Indians as 'ecological saints': WHERE THE LIGHTNING STRIKES takes a different approach, analyzing Indian environmental habits, spirituality and social issues as entwined facets of the whole.