The author presents a study of the life of the Dakota Sioux, written in 1944, that describes their origins, language families, culture, and unique kinship system that defined them as a people.

"Black Elk Speaks is widely hailed as a religious classic, one of the best spiritual books of the modern era and the bestselling book of all time by an American Indian. This inspirational and unfailingly powerful story reveals the life and visions of the Lakota healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863?1950) and the tragic history of his Sioux people during the epic closing decades of the Old West. In 1930, the aging Black Elk met a kindred spirit, the famed...

Two friends go out hunting for horses--but only one returns--in this story based in the Lakota Indian tradition.

Two young Sioux join in a raiding party to capture horses from some neighboring Crows.

Relates the Blackfoot Indian legend in which Star Boy gains the Sun's forgiveness for his mother's disobedience and is allowed to return to the Sky World.

At her death an elderly Plains Indian woman experiences the afterlife believed in by her people, while the surviving family members prepare her body according to their custom.

The Soul of the Indian is Charles A. Eastman’s exploration and documentation of religion as he experienced it during the late nineteenth century. A Dakota physician and writer who sought to bring understanding between Native and non-Native Americans, Eastman (1858–1939) became one of the best-known Native Americans of his time and a significant intellectual figure whose clarity of vision endures today. In a straightforward manner Eastman emphasizes...