Filled with true stories, legends, and descriptions of traditional Dakota Sioux life, this book is a unique record of a people whose existence was engulfed and forever changed by the westward expansion of the United States. It is also the story of the Deloria family. Vine Deloria's grandfather, Chief Tipi Sapa (Philip Joseph Deloria) provided the detailed portrait of the Yankton band of the Dakota Nation that is the centrepiece of this book. In 1917 this great nineteenth-century leader told the story of the Yankton people to a non-Indian informant. In addition to describing spiritual beliefs, rituals, and traditions of all kinds, he recounted the stories and songs that bound the community together. Vine Deloria has expanded Tipi Sapa's stories and descriptions with material handed down in his family. In his introductory chapter, he revisits ancestral territory, telling the life stories of his grandfather and his great-grandfather Saswe (Francois des Laurier), a medicine man whose vision experience would have profound effects on his descendants. Both men played prominent roles in the religious life of the Yankton and Standing Rock Sioux. The Deloria family stories help us understand the revolutionary changes the Sioux were experiencing during this period, and they offer a sometimes wrenching contrast to Tipi Sapa's descriptions of a distinctive way of life that was already lost to the onrush of history.
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About the Author
Vine Deloria, Jr
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Deloria family biography,
This review is from: Singing For A Spirit (Paperback)
Vine Deloria, Jr., a contemporary Renaissance man who unfortunately left us this past October, 2005, traces his family back to two brothers coming to North America from France. He spends most of the book on his Great Grandfather Saswe (b. 1816), a Sioux holy man and leader, and his Grandfather Tipi Sapa (b. 1853), a Sioux holy man, leader, and Episcopal priest. He also describes his father's work, Vine Deloria, Sr., also an Episcopal priest.
This is an excellent work which reveals the real world of Sioux life -- one which changed radically with the advent of the Europeans. He describes a saga of how his family, with his people, found ways to survive in a new world that was thrust upon them. Those who like this book should definitely read Deloria's "The World We Used to Live In."
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is an important book,
By Chandira (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Singing for a Spirit: A Portrait of the Dakota Spirit (Hardcover)
This is an important book, and a must-read I'd love to see in all American classrooms one day.
Tipi Sapa and Saswe were important figures in the history of the First People, and this book continues some of the important themes and history touched on in Bury My Heart.
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